Where Are You?

Last night, a reminder popped up on my phone:

12:25 am, January 22nd – Where are you?

It only took me a second to remember. I set that reminder exactly one year ago to the minute. Let me paint you a picture:

The early afternoon air was slightly chilled as I strolled down the grassy paths of the Baylor University campus. I had been invited to a special event for accepted students in January, and the program had just finished. I was now free to wander.

I liked this campus. I could see myself going to college there. The problem was, I felt the same way when I was visiting all the other colleges to which I’d applied. How could I know this was the one? How would I know which college I should go to if God wasn’t saying anything?

I had prayed and prayed and prayed, but didn’t feel like I’d had any word from God on the subject. I felt no strong leaning towards any of them.

I had, however, begun an application for a Gap Year program called World Race. It seemed like the chance to do everything I’d ever wanted: travel the world, sharing the love of Jesus. And yet, the application sat unfinished in an open tab on my computer, where it had been for almost a month. I didn’t know if I would finish it. I didn’t know whether I should attend college the next year or go down a path different from that of all my classmates.

But I did know that I would have to make a decision eventually. By January of the next year, I could be strolling down this path again, just as I did everyday to walk to class. Or I could be driving along the road to a different campus, perhaps closer to home than Texas.

I looked down at my watch and checked the time.

4:25 pm on January 21st, 2023

I set a reminder for 4:25 pm on January 21st, 2024. I wrote only three words: Where are you?

I’ve got some exciting news for that uncertain girl from one year ago. I read those words at a time I highly doubt she could have predicted: 12:25 am on January 22nd…because I wrote them in Waco, Texas and read them in Jeffrey’s Bay, South Africa.

I’m not walking down the path to class at Baylor. I’m not at a college closer to home. I’m actually the farthest from home I’ve ever been, on a completely different continent (see, Mom, you always said you’d send me to Africa – look, I made it!), and I’m journeying down a path more amazing than anything I could have imagined.

I now wake up in the morning and go to serve in a youth program with an African church. I sleep in a triple bunk bed, in a room with three triple bunk beds, along with seven other girls. I walk down the streets to the glistening blue Indian Ocean,  seeing enormous waves crashing endlessly along the sandy shore. I worship at night with my squad of forty-five young adults, all lifting up their voices to praise their Savior. I have visited ancient temples in Cambodia and ridden elephants in Thailand and given my heart to the little children of each country we visit.

“Where are you?”

I’m in South Africa, serving the Lord.