Teatime Reflections, part 1

Image via giantbomb.com

Memories of New Zealand stream through my mind as I sit down tonight over a nice hot cup of milk and tea, alongside some nice, crisp cookies—or shall I say, “Biscuits?” This evening is much different than those we Teen Maniac missionaries had on that beautiful island nation. I’m finding myself, yet again, holding the status of a missionary, only now I have a completely new context in which to embody that role.

Oh, how beautiful the path God has brought me on over the last two and a half years. I recall a journal entry I wrote on that first day following my high school graduation ceremony. While on the plane traveling to the missions field, I wrote something along these lines:

Wow! It’s really beginning. No more normality for me. My life in ministry has begun and I’m so excited to have every moment be completely unto God.

Each step I’ve taken since that day has been a step into destiny. After spending a month in New Zealand, I packed my bags and hit the road from my suburban home in Severn, MD to a middle of nowhere town called Garden Valley, TX. Why Garden Valley? Within its bounds lay a campus packed with fiery young adults passionately pursuing a call to reach their generation with the Gospel message of Jesus Christ. This was my heartbeat. In joining the 800 plus interns and staff members that made up Teen Mania Ministries, I not only had the opportunity to be a part of an effort that daily impacts a generation in desperate need of a savior, but also one that manages to nearly double the size of Garden Valley, TX. Did I mention it was a small town?

During my internship I grew leaps and bounds in my relationship with God and developed a greater missional mindset. When my time in Texas was nearly complete, I found myself on a visit to the International House of Prayer-Kansas City Missions Base. Here I was awakened to a new paradigm of ministry – one where everything flowed out of the place of prayer, rather just adding prayer onto all of the other programs already taking place. I was ruined for anything other way of doing things, and as I completed my internship and traveled home, I took hold of the call to intercession.

Many sleepless nights and long days locked up in my room were to follow as God began to birth something inside of me that I could hardly imagine.