Hello sweet friends and family!
If you have followed my blog over the past year or so, you may notice that something is a little off here. In case you’re new here or still caught up on the fact that the picture I chose for this blog is one of me in Nepal with a falafel wrap in my pocket, I’ll give you a hint. No longer does the URL at the top of your screen include the domain name theworldrace.org, but instead adventurescga.org.
Just as the rest of the URL following “katymichael” has changed, so has the Lord’s call and direction over this next season of my life. Accompanying that new call and direction will be a new address, a new state of residence (one that the Texan within me is still mourning. Classic, I know), a new community, and new opportunity to abound in faith and obedience as I step into what the Lord has for me.
All that being said, by March 16, 2018 I (and a reasonable amount of my belongings) will be moving into assigned housing in Gainesville, Georgia until July 13, 2018. Adventures in Missions (AIM) has a program for World Race (WR) alumni called Center for Global Action (CGA). AIM is all about the Lord, his Kingdom, and acronyms apparently, hahaha. The best way I can explain CGA is a ” five month discipleship and leadership training academy for WR alumni”; a place we can go post-WR that will help us continue to unpack and process what the Lord has done on the Race while educating, equipping, and empowering us as alumni to continually do ministry that will bring Kingdom whenever and wherever we are. As a part of CGA, I will live with the other women in the program, attend classes daily, and work a part time job. What I love about CGA is their mission to pour into its students education, equipment, and empowerment of gospel truth and knowledge of God in order that its students would turn around and immediately pour out all they have learned into their communities, workplaces, and social circles. Seriously, what a cool and practical way to bring Kingdom, am I right?
“Ok great but like….why? Why now? Why CGA?”
Excellent! Thank you so much for asking! Man, you guys are a great blog audience.
Short answer: because the Lord straight up said to.
Longer short answer: as of January 8, 2018 I was enrolled in classes at the University of Texas at Arlington in order to finish out my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in social work and I had committed to job positions for the spring and summer of this year. I had wise, reasonable plans for that would set me up for wise, reasonable success in the future. That week I was in Georgia for Project Searchlight (PSL, a WR almuni conference for those who just returned from the field). During one of the sessions, the speaker led us into a time of listening prayer in which we were supposed to ask the Lord three simple questions, the third of which being “Jesus, what’s the next step you want me to take?” Boom. There it was. Simply and clearly, before I could even finish the sentence in my head the Lord had answered “CGA”. Definitively. Unwaveringly. The Lord had spoken and began to convict my heart into obedience.
Begin necessary rabbit trail compelled by the Holy Spirit: Recently, a certain talk show host issued a statement (possibly satirically) pertaining to a certain political figure who hears directly from Jesus, comparing his prayer life to mental illness. If you, while reading this blog, are skeptical of my claim to have “heard from the Lord” I want to (1.) applaud a healthy amount of skepticism in you. I believe that solid, analytical thinking can lead us into greater depth of knowledge about anything we seek to understand. If you do fall in that realm of healthy skepticism, I want to (2.) assure you that Jesus Christ is alive (Matthew 28:1-8; John 20:11-23) and even though he has ascended into Heaven and resides at the right hand of the throne of God (Acts 1:6-11), the Lord has imparted to us the Holy Spirit to live and dwell within all believers (Romans 8:9-11; 1 John 4:9-13). The Holy Spirit, who IS God, dwells on earth to live with us in Jesus’ absence (John 14:15-17), to advocate for believers until Jesus’ return (John 16:5-7), and to communicate with us on behalf of God (Romans 8:26-27), instructing, teaching, and guiding us in abundant life (John 14:26; 16:12-15). To communicate and hear from the Lord, God Almighty through the Holy Spirit is no “mental health disorder” at all; it’s faith! It’s a miracle, a privilege, and a good gift from the Lord himself, one that believers should access often with great thanksgiving and enthusiasm. End necessary rabbit trail compelled by the Holy Spirit.
Longer short answer continued: Having heard from the Lord in that session and full of deep conviction to be obedient, I reached out to someone that evening about the program. At this point, I didn’t even know what CGA was! I just knew that the Lord said to do it. How crazy is that? Ha! That was Monday. On Tuesday, I interviewed in person for the program. On Wednesday, I submitted my application online. On Thursday, I received a phone call that I had been accepted to CGA and within the next hour, I had dropped all my classes at school and deferred my scholarships for the semester. As crazy and hectic as those four days seem, and as painful as it is for me to lay down and surrender what I had planned for the next four months, when I committed to CGA a heavy peace fell over my heart and has remained to this day concerning my choice to move to Georgia.
There are still so many unknowns about what CGA will look like, what it involves, and what I’ll do afterwards but those are all things that will be revealed in their own time. Rather than trying to force my preferences into my current and future plans, I have actively chosen and will actively choose to humbly submit myself and my wants before God Almighty and allow him to show up in fruitfulness and blessing.
Ok, last thing! Speaking of fruitfulness and blessing, in partnering with another AIM program, I hav- um, GET TO support raise all of my funds for the next four months. $6,000 of it! Neat! This is where you, my sweet, loving, generous, obedient, wonderful, bill-paying friends get to step in and be a part of the work the Lord is doing once again. I have a financial deadline of $2,000 by my move-in day on March 16th; that’s 24 days from now! $2,000 is a big number in 24 days, but oh how fervently do I believe that my God is so much bigger! If you would like to partner with me financially, first of all: THANK YOU! You are the bomb and I love you. Second of all, you can do so by visiting the home page of this blog, www.katymichael.adventurescga.org and clicking the orange “Donate!” button on the fundraising bar underneath the cover photo. You can set up a one-time or a repeated gift there. If you have financially supported me monthly since my World Race and have not discontinued those payments, they automatically roll into my CGA suport raising account! AND all donations given are tax deductible! (If you’d like more info on AIM’s tax deductible donation policies, you can visit https://www.adventures.org/policies/policies.pdf,). If you would like to give by another form of payment, feel free to reach out to me via the “Contact” link in my blog home page tool bar or email me at [email protected].
Sweet friends, thank you again for your constant, abundant, loving support. It makes being obedient so much easier. I appreciate your generous giving in prayers and support and look forward to sharing more stories of how the Lord is glorifying himself through my CGA journey!
Love,
Katy
