When I (who am I kidding...when God) first decided that I would be going to Honduras in January, I prayed about the length of time and what my life would look like after my trip. I decided to approach the administration at the school where I teach about a leave of absence. With this leave of absence, I would be able to return to my current job next August. Teaching has a few perk and this type of deal is one of them.
I was assured by many people that if I got my leave of absence request in quickly, it would be approved without any issue. So that is what I did: I filled out the necessary paperwork, attained the appropriate signatures, and turned in my application in a timely manner. Then I waited for three weeks.
At the end of this three weeks of waiting, I thought it might be prudent to send an e-mail to the central office HR department to see where things stood for the leave of absence. Then I waited for three weeks.
At the end of THIS three weeks, I picked up the phone and made a phone call to the HR office. I was informed by the extremely cordial disembodied voice on the phone that it was her understanding that my leave of absence was not approved by the superintendent. After weeks of being told that leaves of absence were always approved and that surely mine would be approved since I would be going to do humanitarian work, I was informed that my reason for going did not merit a leave of absence.
I would love to tell you that I did not become frustrated but instead calmly went to the Lord in prayer--would love to be able to say that. However, my first reaction was a lot of frustration. There were some terse text messages sent that I thought would make me feel better, but per usual, just exacerbated my frustration. There were some unkind (okay... downright hateful) words that escaped my lips about the central office. I was mad. I was upset. I was confused.
Then came my nightly Bible study. I have no idea what I was reading at the time (I think it was II Chronicles), and a sense of peace came over me. With this peace came the message "Watch me work." For almost two months I had been taking the process of getting a leave of absence for granted. I did not pray about it often; I did not surrender it to God. I assumed that what I had done would be enough. God needed to show me that He was still the one crafting this journey--that He would decide how things would be done because His way is perfect.
Long story short, my amazing administration went and fought for my leave of absence and the superintendent approved it. At this point, I am just waiting on the Board of Education to vote on it. I know that regardless of the outcome, God has had this plan for me since the beginning. He has not allowed me to rush through this, making careless mistakes. He has slowed me down, and I have come to more fully appreciate His hand in this process.
There is still a lot to be done before I go, but I am realizing that God's plans are far better than my own.
Pray for the preparations. Pray for those who are thinking about donating (PayPal button to right...wink, wink). Pray for the work that is awaiting me. Pray that we can all slow down and appreciate the providential work of our Master.
J.T.
P.S.-- You need to go check out the work that God is doing through Mountain Top Ministries. Their most recent update had my brain doing backflips with all of the possibilities that I can be involved with in just a few short months. Consider partnering with this ministry.
