The last few days I have been reflecting on this past year of my life.
A year ago, I was making plans to leave the residential counseling centre in which I had received intense trauma counseling and classes for a year. It was not easy to leave. My anxiety was super high as I learned to trust God to provide for me. And He totally did!! The year that I spent focusing on my healing was a tremendous blessing. And it changed the course of my life. God set me free. And released me to live in the fullness of the abundant life He gave to me.
Now a year later, I look back and see so many changes that have happened in my life since. Good changes.
Things I used to only dream of and pray for have begun to become reality.
After I left, I quickly realized that the church I used to go to was no longer able to give me that relationship with God I had grown into, I felt so lost. I did not know where to attend. I knew I needed a community of people around me that could support my continued recovery. So I tried different churches. But I could not find what I was looking for. Then my therapist recommended CFC in Steinbach to me. She personally knows Pastor Dan and Lenise and said only good things about them. And I became acquainted with Lenise during treatment.
And from the very first Sunday I visited, I felt so welcomed and accepted, it was unreal.
Never have I had a church experience like this.
I was also able to begin college. And the best thing: I did not need to take a student loan. A sponsorship program I had become acquainted with some years ago was willing to completely cover all my tuition fees.
I am so grateful!
Then before I even felt ready for another move I found a place and a way for me to be able to rent a place right in Steinbach within walking distance of my newfound church, college, and also my new job at Happy Feet Early Learning Centre.
Yet at the beginning of this year, I started to become deeply dissatisfied with the quality of childcare I was able to provide at my new job. So, last month I sent an email to a centre in St. Anne asking if they had a position available for an ECE-in-training. After learning about this centre in college at the beginning of the year, I had stated that I would love to work there. But I really did not dream about it or think that I would take it any further then. Yet somehow my life has liked to prove to me otherwise lately. Without so much as a formal interview, Children of the Universe Learning Centre offered me a position. And I accepted.
Now, I said “my life has like to prove to me otherwise lately,” but it is God!
I really believe He has been the One orchestrating all these events for me.
He sees my desires and dreams before I even mention them. And I am moved to tears and beyond grateful for how I see His hand at work throughout my life this past year. If He has been so good to me in this year, then how much better will life with Him become yet?! I can only imagine the places we will go together.
And before you think that my life has been all sunshine and roses this last year, I will be the first to tell you otherwise. As I have shared before, this winter I have gone through an agonizingly dark time again. A time when it seemed that all hope was beyond me. The enemy is always trying his best to stop me.
But God brought me through even that.
And I was able to confidently and publicly recommit my life to God through baptism in January. The church service that morning itself is something I can hardly describe. I felt so beyond peaceful and calm.
Dear friend, I want you to know that I have been through hell in my life.
But, even more importantly, I want you to know that there is hope because we have a God who meets us in that hell.
Right there, He wraps us up in His love. And He brings us into the abundant life He has promised to those who believe in Him.
The promise is for you too.
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