Patience My Dear Watson

        Let me tell you a little story. It's a story of God's faithfulness and grace. When you hear/read my story, I pray you see that God is the perfect author of this mess of a story of my life. This is the story of how God turned my world upside down, shook it up, confused me, sent me away, brought me back and showed perfect, faithful grace and love. He's taken me into the oceans, where I had no idea what was next. I couldn't see the horizon, and yet, He brought me out of the oceans just to take me back again. This is the story of how God perfectly chose an imperfect, not at all bold or confident girl and showed her, that through Him, she can spread His love and salvation to those around the world in boldness and confidence. This is the story of my call to missions.

        The funny thing with this story is that it starts at the Passion conference in 2011. I was a senior in highschool and definitely one of the youngest people there. The big thing with Passion is that they work to reach the unreached people in the world. So they were talking about it and Louie Giglio asked everyone, who felt called to go and reach the unreached people, to raise their hands. Not really understanding what the question was, but feeling the peer pressure, I raised my hand. Well, needless to say, look where that got me. In 2012, there was a trip my church was going on to Kenya to work at an orphanage. Me being the person I am, wanted to face my fears of my terror of Africa (I legitimately was terrified to go). I left after that week knowing that I was going back, and I did in 2013 and stayed for two months. Talk about a hard goodbye, that one was very very rough. I think I knew at that point, that I was supposed to go back to Africa at some point in my life. However, I also knew that I needed to finish college, and so I did. Looking back, I believe that that was my mission field for two years and I loved so much of my time there. After graduation (December 2015), I just worked, and that's what I've been doing for 1.5 years, and I believe that that has been my mission field. I have loved almost every moment of this mission field. Then one day I was talking with my aunt about a necklace in the shape of Africa, and I stupidly said, "I'm over Africa". Well, then I saw this trip to Sierra Leone and my life kind of changed from that moment on. In December of 2016, I randomly applied to the trip to Sierra Leone. It was perfect timing for what I thought God wanted me to do, and something about it just felt right. I had complete peace about the application and everything. It just felt right. I went and had an amazing experience, and as you can probably tell, I miss it a lot. While I was there something amazing happened right in the middle of our time there. God gave me complete clarity and peace, (which is something I've not had in 4 years).

        It has been exactly a month since God gave me complete clarity and peace that missions, in Africa, is my calling. I think the majority of people, myself included, knew that I would end up there eventually. It was just really listening to what God wanted me to do instead of what the world and I wanted me to do. I had to stop listening to my heart and desires and listen to God's heart and desires for me. There's a song out called, "The Secret Place" by Phil Wickham (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnf4X86iylY), that's really been speaking to me. It spoke to me before I left, and then it really spoke to me while I was in Sierra Leone. I learned that Africa is my secret place and I'm running as fast and hard as I can to my secret place. Although, God has been teaching me, in this past month, that I need to slow down, focus on Him, and to have patience. As Sherlock Holmes says, "Patience my dear Watson". I'm pretty sure God is saying, "Patience my dear Aleyna, the time is coming. Embrace the time you have here for it will soon be over". Patience is the lesson for the next several months. I am a patient person to an extent, but I am just so ready to go back, it's hard to be patient and content right where I am. However, God has a plan for this season. When I get anxious and just want to get on the next plane back, I remember that God brought me back for a reason. There is a reason for every season. And while this season is especially hard, I rest in the fact that I have peace and clarity in God's calling. A month feels like an eternity, but it is also such a short time. He has a plan for this season, and I have to trust in that. Please pray with me and for me as God prepares my heart to move to Africa. I don't know God's timeline, and I don't know what kind of work I'll be doing, but I know that it is perfect and it will happen just like God wants it to. My story, is a story of trusting that God knows what He's doing. He has a perfect plan and perfect timing for everything that goes on in each of our lives. I have peace and clarity in knowing that He is leading this life I live for Him.