God leads, always...

I will never truly get used to the way God works. His ways are so intricate and it's incredible how such small things that seem so insignificant come together and result in something greater. Small decisions that seem throw away and spur of the moment come back around months later and you realise that they had a huge influence on where you now stand.

And if that wasn't amazing enough, God also divinely places you exactly where you need to be at exactly the right moment. Chance encounters are never accidental with God, he plans them all, but from where we're standing it just looks like a lucky coincidence.

We cannot see what lies ahead in our lives. Yet God knows the life of every single person on earth. Every single twist and turn, every single good or bad decision.

When I came back to England to find a summer job before I head back to college in August, I was convinced that no one would hire me for such a short period of time. And I was a little downcast, because I don't consider myself to be exactly swimming in hire-able skills. And I don't really ave any proper references as I've never had a proper job before. Needless to say I wasn't truly desperate to pop over to the local manor hotel and enquire about any vacancies. I did put it off for at least two days.
But when I did finally go down, with a hastily put together CV of sorts, I walked into the lobby at the same moment as the head of hospitality staff walked out of his office. And oddly enough, although I believed that the only vacancy was in housekeeping, he practically hired me on the spot on the basis of my availability and the fact that I have had a little training in hospitality over in California! He had me come in the very next evening for a trial shift, and even drove me home afterwards as we didn't get out of work until 1:20AM!!

This seemingly small and chance event has increased my trust in God just that little bit more, and I cannot tell you how silly I felt after fretting about finding a summer job for the last two months or so.

God is so good, and he knows what he's doing. I wish I trusted him more! But he is so graceful and he continues to love me even when my trust is weak.

Learning to trust

Sometimes God takes you completely out of your comfort zone in order to force you to trust in him. Sometimes the only way to make you entirely dependent on him is to change your situation so drastically that you have no other option but to give it all to God.
Sometimes your circumstances are so incredible that in order to truly believe where you are, you have to trust in him.
Sometimes in order to not be completely overwhelmed by terror and fear at your position you have to entrust every single aspect of your life to God.
Sometimes God tests you in many different areas all at once and all you can do is cry to God for help.
Sometimes you can find utter peace when you look back at what has come about, and trust that he has everything that is to come in his hand.

This week I bought a flight to LAX

Yes, I did, there's no going back, and although I know it was a wee bit premature to book a one way flight to Los Angeles when I haven't obtained my visa yet, I still think it was wise. Well, my parents thought it was a good move to make, and I always listen to them, no really, *wink, wink*

You would not believe how cheap my flight was, especially for the middle of August. I felt that it would have been stupid not to book the flight. The way I see it is that God has already fixed everything up this far, in that I was offered a scholarship, then everything else just slotted into place, I needed something, I somehow obtained it, etc, etc.

I also bought my international student card at the same time! It arrived in the post this morning! I was so excited, I've never had a student card before, and I can't wait to start using it. Whoooo!!

And in other news, I've started reading a brilliant devotional book on the Psalms. It's really encouraging. I had no idea how relevant they were for us today, this morning I read about Psalm 3, and the chapter heading was 'advice for insomniacs'. But I won't go into that in this post, I'll post about it later.

xxxxx

My Mummy and Daddy are coming too!

So, you all know about God providing me with the means to attend Bible college  in California this August. But yesterday, my Dad was accepted to attend Seminary in California too!! My family are going to be living about two hours away from my college!

Having thought I was going to be thrown right into the deep end, not seeing my Mummy for two whole years, I now only have to spend, at the most, 6 months in a different country on my own.
My Dad's school year will start in January, while mine starts in August. So if they can go out to California before next year if they can raise the funds etc.

I think this is so graceful of God; I mean, I don't seem to do very well without my Mummy. It's not that I can't function without her, she has trained me well, cooking, cleaning, washing, etc...... I just don't like to.
So instead I only have to survive for a while before I see my family again. And I really don't like Skype!

God provides; I'm going to Bible college!!!

Two months ago I was fretting and worried about what I was going to do with my life. I had no plans, and no ideas really. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And when it came to careers I changed my mind weekly....... I was to be very honest, in bit of a tizzy.

I knew I didn't want to go to university, there was nothing I really wanted to study. And the idea of debt terrified me. I'm of the mindset that if you can't afford it, don't buy it. And I really did not want to spend three years of my life studying a subject that did not truly interest me, to gain a degree so I could get a job that I was neither passionate about nor interested in.

To be frank, I did look at a Bible college website to see how much it cost, and left the site convinced that that was not an option either.

Then through a strange series of events I have been given a scholarship to Bible college, not in England, but in California!!!!!

The whole point of this post, is not for me to brag, which would be pretty ugly and sinful of me. But more to encourage anyone who is in a tough episode of life at the moment. For anyone who is confused or lost. I was, I still am really, I have so much to sort out, but now I know where I'm going. I feel slightly more secure and stable. God has provided something incredible, something that I believed was impossible. God can do anything, and he can do things in the most unexpected of ways. So keep trusting; I know it's hard. But you'll pull through. And if I hadn't had such a bad and miserable 18 months this wouldn't have happened. And I wouldn't be half as grateful as I am now.

Love, love

CC <3