So Close and Yet So Far...

Wow! What an exciting week. I can't explain the torrent of feelings rushing through me as I finish my last quarter as an undergraduate at the University of California Santa Barbara! And what a great start to my last quarter it was too! Not only are my classes fantastic, but I got my mission placement!! While I was sitting in my last upper division Latin class I will ever have to take again (Woohoo!), the national church in New York had called on my cell phone. I had forgotten to turn it off and so interrupted lecture, (the professor glared at me but all I could think about was what the phone call was about), and so I was forced to let it go to voicemail. AS soon as class was over I rushed to hear the message. Leaving the message was my future boss, Reverend David Copley of the mission office, calling to inform me that they will be placing me in Quito Ecuador to primarily, among other things, teach English as a second language to elementary and high school aged students at the Episcopal Catheral school in Quito! Imagine my surprise and excitement. What a way to start my last quarter back at school! Imagine, me teaching? What an adventure and I look forward to getting started. It's exciting and nerve wracking all at once to be finishing up school and starting a new adventure as an Episcopal missionary in Quito, Ecuador. Granted, its still a little ways off, I can't help but be excited for what the future holds in store for me. However, with this comes the reality of the whole thing. I now face the challenge of my end of the agreement and help the Episcopal Church financially support me while I am abroad. I am now charged with the difficult task of raising $10,000 to help offset the cost of the program. By means of doing this, we (the missionaries), are to look to our local churches and dioceses for help and invite to take part in this global ministry with Anglican dioceses across the globe. It will be a difficult task, but God would not have lead me here if it was not a task that was doable! Wish me luck as I start this endeavor and keep tuned in for more posts to come!