Cory's Mission Blog On a mission to Love

A Year in a Nutshell

Well as the year comes to an end and the light of a new one appears just over the horizon it is time to look back at the last year of my life and reminisce on the trials, the gifts, the pains and the glories of the year.

I am nothing short of amazed of this year, perplexed actually. just a year ago I had a full time office job on the 8th floor over looking the beautiful port of Portland Maine. And just a year later I am couch surfing and living out of my car and off of people I know because I took a step forward towards God without thinking about it. now to recap...

January 2011: The End of the Beginning

Like mentioned I was knee deep in a professional data entry/call center job; 40 hours a week (sometimes more) money to pay my bills and loans, something of consistency every week that I could count on being there.  Was the job healthy? probably not. most likely the vision to make the next step in my life was probably a good thing. As much as I enjoyed the position of calling people all over the world of different background and personalities and explaining there package that they have purchased for the upcoming event, other piece of the job puzzle were not fitting very well. Management was very shady, new people were brought on into positions, yes I was a little jealous of, that I could have been capable of doing with the 3 years of knowledge of the business that I had, things were shredded (not so secretively) in the backroom, and upper management personalities were very... what's the word?..  oh yeah.. lacking. Everything about the product and work itself was not so bad.. so needless to say the voice in my head was probably doing me a good thing.  lets step back.

 May 2010: The Voice in my Head

my second missions trip, and my first time in Guatemala.  like every missions trip I have been on something is shown to me and I don't feel like leaving. Well needless to say as we were heading through the airport in Guatemala City, A voice in my head was punching the inside of my skull, massaging my brain with the poking repetition that usually is followed by "are we there yet? are we there yet? are we there yet??" but this voice was saying "stay! stay! stay!"

Well I got on the plane and didn't stay and for weeks afterwards that was still running through my mind. well at the time work was becoming monotonous and a stress in my life I was still dealing with the loss of a very precious piece of my heart, and things just seemed to yell "YOU NEED A CHANGE!"  One day I just said OK! "Fine voice in my head I will stay longer if Pastor David will let me."

I emailed Pastor David and he was very excited that I wanted to stay longer. I proceeded to say OK and made plans to stay for 6 weeks to help CCCG in Guatemala.

Back to 2011...

January 2011: Let the Adventure Begin

So I made plans with work earlier on in 2010; I sat down with my bosses and explained my thoughts and situation. They all went to talk about it and came back a few weeks later and agreed to let me go on the trip and let me keep my Health insurance while I was there. That was honestly more than I was expecting, definitely a gift God gave. we made plans for connect when I return and get me back into the office. so I had health insurance and a job when I return! SWEET! Stroudwater Christian Church and I departed on January 10th

January-February 2011: A whole New World

The plan was to stay for 6 weeks and help David with his ministries in Guatemala which ranged from helping with the feeding programs, to helping with a sports camp, to finish a church and mixing cement, to being support and an extra pair of hands and feet for a Canadian Worship band doing a 40 day concert series throughout Guatemala, to building a new website and updating profiles for the organization and the feeding program.

I always expect God to share some piece of advice on these trips. this 6 week stint He shared a lot on this trip about Obedience; every group I was with would share something about it, and them not knowing it were Breathing Gods words to me. It was a very interesting experience. come the last Sunday,

I had that voice in my head telling me "stay stay stay" I replied "OK obedience has been a large part of this trip, if this is my test I will be obedient as long as Pastor David is OK with it I will stay longer.  So after the service I went up to David and asked if I could stay longer and explained the voice and the story and before i could finish he replied "yes Cory, you can stay as long as you want." I didn't expect a yes, probably because I hear No a lot, but I was stunned with happiness and fear all at once. Happiness that I got to stay and help and fear that I have jumped on faith to this idea and its coming to.  I changed my plane ticket and stayed an extra week and a half.

 

February 2011: The Return of the Prodigal Son pt. 1

Things didn't slow down when I returned home, I was immediately thrown into having to help get things together for the Missions talent show fundraiser, by making sure cameras and media was all set up and ready, that my presentation of the thank you letters that the children in the city wrote to our church for a gracious donation to help more than 80 of them continue to stay in the feeding program.  upon my return as well I had been in contact with my former job and they said to connect and we will get things all squared away when I get back. in doing so it took multiple calls to get a hold of them and I had to go in and retrieve a tax paper something from one of my friends there and found out very shortly after they didn't have the need for me at the time.  So, I came home poor, no job. I had made plans before the trip to move in with a new friend into Westbrook, so I made the transition there as well. And on top of the return I find out my car was broken and needs over $1000 of work done to it.. needless to say the money wasn't there for it all. I applied for unemployment which helped me survive in the economy for a few months.

April 2011: An Unexpected Journey

During April my church had a trip to WV for a missions trip to help some families in the Appalachian region. being a helper and traveler at heart, if  remember correctly, I splurged some of my money on the trip, because I felt led to be apart of it. it was a great trip to get to know some family members I didn't know very well and a way to get to know some of the kids in our church at a much more personal Christ relationship. One thing with Missions trips is you come back knowing everyone more as a brother and sister then a friend.

May 2011: A New Job in the Horizon

Come the end of May I still could not find a job, and was doing odds and ends to give me something to do while I waited on job offers, and was collecting unemployment to pay my rent and gas.  I was handed a job opportunity from my pastor for a position as a youth activities director for Alton bay in NH and at the same time found a job working at a summer camp till the end of August doing video and photography.  needless to say I was offered both jobs on the same day go figure. I spent 3 months not finding anything and then two fall in my lap on the same day.

Well i prayed about it and didn't have any of my spidey-senses about either of the jobs. i took it as Both jobs will do good for me, and will get me to Gods goal using different paths to get me to the same end point.  So I chose the video and photography position.

June -August 2011: Welcome to Camp "Kickme"

The summer was fast paced, fun, adventurous, exciting, new, and also overwhelming, hard to make it though and utterly frigged up.

Needless to say I learned a lot about my self. I learned I am better leader and know my creativity better then anyone else. That I don't work well with lazy wastes of space, and that I am still wearing my heart on my sleeve. Even though the summer was hard and not as fun as I expected I still gained a lot about myself and my relationship with Christ.  Truthfully I fell a little because not being around a Christian family makes it hard for the fire to continue burning. I also did get to go white water rafting 3 times!.

 September 2011: Return of the Prodigal Son pt. 2

The month began like a deja vu. No money, no job, no idea of the future ahead of me. on top of it, I was out of a place of my own to live. On a good note my car was still working. Camp got done a week early because a last week of camp ended up not happening. So in awesomeness the the camp was they docked our (or at least my pay) a substantial amount from my final check and on top of it I had a $500 hospital bill from the beginning of the summer I would have to pay because of a trip to the emergency room I didn't need to make and was forced to.  So the in my mind the $600 I had in a check in my hand was already going towards this stupid bill that I came back to.

Graciously the Lord put some projects in front of me that have helped pay for my gas and food for the past 4 months. one of my projects I had to jump on (because I knew I was coming back to Guatemala no matter the cost) was my Missions calendar. I wasn't sure how it was going to sell but I made a packed that all the money made from it would go towards the calendar and trip. Amazingly I have sold just 90 out of 100 in the past 3 months.

I had some senior portraits, some sports recruitment videos and a VHS to DVD job that really supported the weight of the fall.

I felt like I went and spent everything that was given to me and came back to open arms and sufficient work to get me through.

December 2011: Feeling the Weight in Seeing the Light.

I never thought I would have made it 4 months couch surfing at peoples homes. My friends and family have all been amazing in supporting me and giving me a place to stay. of course coming with this is the feeling of being a burden to people, always being in there way and in their lives when they probably want space. It is a hard feeling to deal with especially since the conversations recently have been harboring towards those thought.  My portion of the Guatemala 2012 trip has been paid off successfully with the sales of my calendars and sponsor letters I had sent out in September, and I have been able to be busy and have money to suffice.

2012: A New Year

I have come to understand we can not know our future, but we have a for in being persistent and obedient to what we want it to become. God has the final plan on things but we have to make the choice to pursue it. There is only one way to Heaven, through the cross, but to get to that foot of it God will allow options to bring you there. I never wanted to  live like I am but if it was what needs me to do to bring me to Him then it must be done. I always wondered if I would be like everyone else If i changed my prayer when i was in 8th grade from "please just let me get through life with what I need" to "please let me be rich and have all the awesome things I want in this world" if things would be different... But I can't complain for I have been given great provisions; a place to sleep and roof over my head every night, work to keep me busy, and family. nothing else is great but Christ.

 

Thank you everyone for supporting missions, and people like me. And even more thank you for supporting Children like this young lady and her cat Poncha. With you support from people with a chance young one like her may not make it into school, may go days without a good meal, and possibly miss out on what God has in store for there beautiful talents.

If you are interested in supporting CCCG's feeding program please feel free to contact me OR contact Pastor David and his team in Guatemala directly by emailing them at david1@cccguatemala.com

Many of these children don't have a fighting chance to get a good meal before school; which results in lack of retaining information in school becoming less educated and less likely to succeed.

I hope everyone has a wonderful new Year and we will be back January 10th late from the Guatemala 2012 trip.

Dios te Bendiga (God Bless You)