Not alone

So I was thinking today about how many of my close friends are actively pursuing an alternative life path. They are from a broad range of backgrounds, with various college degrees and all different kinds of gifts and passions. My friend Alyssa is in Grenada now, working with the Peace Corp to help with the blind students there. Karissa is in Costa Rica working with students with special education needs and looking into other options for future ministry. My friends Miriam and Kristine are preparing to serve with Campus Crusade's Bridges ministry in Houston TX. Anjuli is heading to California to work at an alternative Christian school for children and is considering going on a mission trip to Dubai this summer.
There are other young people I know, people from church back home, from my family, from my peers in college not to mention all the people I have met this year in Dallas who are preparing to serve with Pioneer Bible Translators, Wycliffe international and SIL international. They are not choosing the "American Dream" wit nice jobs and benefits and a stable secure salaries. Many are giving up the comforts of good health, air conditioning, and stable governments to serve in other countries.
Why are we all making this choice? Some people went to Bible college others went to state schools. Some were raised in the church and have been on more mission trips than they can remember, others didn't really get on board until after college. All different kinds of interests and motivations and pasions, but all making similar choices.
Yet there is something that is guiding each and every one of us who has made the decision to do something different with this season of our life: faith. Faith that God has a plan bigger than we can imagine, faith that it is for our good as well as for the good of all men. Faith that we are going to be ok, even in Africa, or the middle east or Papua New Guinea or Houston TX. Faith that a life lived pursuing the will of God, no matter how insufficient our abilities and how insurmountable the obstacals, is the only life we want to live.
I find it encouraging and exciting to know that I am not the only one who found themself unexpectedly flung into a life they did not expect. God is calling people from all different backgrounds and walks of life to serve him in unexpected ways. How awesome is our God.