Living Our Dream

A Year Ago:

Madison: I was working on a speech about the African Wildlife Foundation. Specifically, how and why you should donate to it. I had recently applied to a new job but I was fairly certain I was not going to get it. I was thinking about different colleges.I had printed off the Lutheran Young Adult Corps application - an answer to long prayers - but was trying not to get my hopes up. I couldn't bear the thought of losing this opportunity, so I tried to convince myself it wasn't even a possibility. I was saving my money for a car. I was recovering from anxiety and depression, and starting to feel confident in who I was.

Courtney: I was preparing to lead Freshman retreat, taking the SAT for the last time, and starting to turn in college applications. I was going to youth group every Wednesday and developing a relationship with my now best friend, Audrey. I was months away from graduating, months away from knowing where I would be the following fall. I had opened the application for the Lutheran Young Adult Corps and toyed with the idea of not going to college, but I had no idea where the future would take me and I desperately asked God to show me. At the end of October 2016, I had a conversation with my youth leader about my anxieties for the future, and she left me with this comment forever burned in my brain, “Maybe you will go to college, and maybe you will join this program, but wherever you end up God will use you.”

Six Months Ago:

Madison: I was smiling more than I had in a long time, even in the midst of tragedy, sorrow, and a new bout of anxiety and depression. I did not have a car, but I had a plane ticket to Spain. I was hiking every chance I got and preparing for graduation. I was in D.C. with two of my best friends, crying in a coffee shop because I found out I was moving to New Orleans in four months. My dreams of traveling the world and moving and serving Christ were coming true and I couldn't begin to fathom what that meant.

Courtney: I was preparing for AP Exams, waiting for graduation, and waiting for my acceptance into the Young Adult Corps. I saw the success of my peers and the certainty in their future in college with dorms, roommates, and majors already picked out. I wanted to do the easy thing and continue school like everyone else, but I knew if I got into this program, I would go. Although I didn’t know what to do, where to go, what to study, or which dream to follow, I knew I wanted to serve Jesus. Then, I was accepted and New Orleans loomed on the horizon.

Three Months Ago:

Madison: I was scared. The past year had been such a huge period of growth for me, and I wasn't ready to leave the people I loved so much behind. I was beginning to understand the consequences of moving. My heart was still in Spain. In fact, I kept flashing back to the day in Spain that I realized just how much I would miss my family, my friends, my dogs, my home. I wasn't ready. I thought maybe my dreams were too big and I was too small, but I knew that wasn't true. I just didn't want to realize that.

Courtney: Per the usual, I turned in my paperwork late because I was again struggling with the idea of serving in New Orleans. I had so many questions, doubts, expectations, and fears, but I couldn’t express them in any other way than confusion. What if this wasn’t what I was supposed to do? I was questioning my motives for joining and thought perhaps I was just running away from school, but then a verse came up. Luke 5:10, “And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” So, I remembered, “Wherever you end up, God will use you,” and I tried not to be afraid.

Now:

Madison: I'm still not ready for this, to be honest, but here I am, sitting in a chair in New Orleans. I went on a Ghost Tour last Friday and the guide said, "New Orleans will either reel you in or spit you out." It's safe to say I've been reeled in. I keep telling Courtney I don't want to live here forever, but I never want to leave.

I can't remember the first time I thought about New Orleans as my dream. It might have started with a silly Disney movie I loved, it might have started the day I realized that this was the place gumbo, jambalaya, and red beans and rice came from. I don't know. I do remember waiting for my Spanish class to start in the spring of 2015, looking up colleges in New Orleans. I do remember crying as I looked at the cost of living, of attending those schools, because I felt like I was banking everything on this place and I knew I couldn't afford it. I didn't know how I was going to get to New Orleans, I just knew I had to go. And then my dream grew bigger. I wanted to do social work in New Orleans. I wanted to help people. I wanted to serve my neighbors, to love them as Christ loved me.

About a week ago Courtney and I were talking, as we do, and all of the sudden I realized: I am living my dream. I am in New Orleans. I am a full time volunteer. I am serving my neighbors, and trying to love them as Christ loves me. And it turns out, living my dream is so different than the ideas I had in my head. I had no idea what it would feel like to serve here or live here. I thank God every day that I am here, though. I am experiencing a new and radical kind of love. Everyone here, from my supervisor and her family, the other employees at Camp Restore, to the sites we work with and the people we meet on the street open my eyes to what it really means to love people. I am learning what it means to give more than you get, to work more than you rest, to love more than you breathe, and to see Christ when you look at another person. It's not an easy lesson, but it's worth it, and I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity to learn it.

Courtney: I look around and see that where I am now is what I was waiting for and where I was trying to go for so long. I am literally living my dream. It’s certainly less glamorous than it was in my imagination, which was filled with volunteers learning to believe in themselves through my encouragement and kids knowing Jesus because I told them about His love. That hasn’t happened. But, my dream is about serving Jesus, it’s not about serving myself. My expectations were so far off of reality - I simply trust God in a new way now. I asked Him to show me where to go and what to do. He sent me to a welcoming place, gave me a new family, offered me deeper relationships, opened by heart and eyes, taught me to listen, and allowed me to serve His children. The streets are different, the dialect is different, the people are different, the food is different, the work is different. Every day is new, every plan is changed, every dream I had doesn’t compare to the reality He has sent me in Louisiana.

So, here we are, living out our dream in a completely unexpected but wonderful way.

Until next time, we're just taking it minute by minute...

Prayer Requests:

- Please pray that we continue to work hard and well.