Once upon a time, a couple weeks ago,

I applied to this job at the Community College of Aurora (CCA) to help disabled students get accommodations for their classrooms and learning and stuff.

I gave them a call last week.

The same day, I got a text from this guy who runs an organization called Justice For All (JFA). It’s this group of quirky people who teach Christians how to turn the abortion debate into a constructive dialogue — that is, where they actually have to listen to other people with different views as if they actually have something valuable to say.
I’ve volunteered with them throughout college.

We Christians are not naturally good at that listening thing, so I figured, if JFA could really train Christians on how to listen, they could really change the world.

(See 1 Corinthians 5:12 for why I’m being harsh on y’all Bible-believin’ Christians.)

I’ve also heard that JFA has saved lives with their techniques, and helped many post-abortive mothers find real healing and reconciliation with God and themselves. Instead of just the Band-Aid of “be strong” and “don’t feel guilty” and “get over it.”

So anyway, this guy Jon calls me up and tells me there’s this abortion clinic that just opened in Wichita. They were sending people over as we spoke to go try to meet these women wherever they were at, and offer some real hope, before they just tried to end it all.

(As if abortion could just make everything better, which it doesn’t. And don’t tell a post-abortive woman that it does, because then she won’t feel like she’s allowed to feel real emotions).

Anyway, Jon asked me how he could pray for me, and I told him. He prayed for me first (which totally wasn’t fair). Then I prayed against the clinic. And then he told me how I would go about working for them.

So I told him I would pray about it. (I really like praying when you can actually get me to do it.)

I was a little worried about the internship because I thought I wouldn’t be making enough to survive and start paying off my loans. And the salary I would get at CCA was $30,000. But Jon told me how much most interns earn monthly by raising support. I calculated the average annual income for interns at JFA.

Thirty thousand dollars.

Throughout college I’ve been praying about my future. I’m going to be graduating at 20 years old. Which means I’m graduating 2 years earlier than most people.

So when I’ve prayed, I’ve asked God to help me really just use these next 2 years for something big.

How long does this internship last? Two years.

I’ve already been a senior twice in my life… guess that just leaves grad school and my 65th birthday to do it again.

I have a huge heart for my church, so the idea was that working at CCA would allow me to stay in Aurora and be a part of Fellowship Community Church. But I also have a heart for the issue of unplanned pregnancy. I wrote my thesis on it.

Unplanned pregnancy involves really serious issues that, too often, we just sluff off.

or at least that we get afraid of because we don’t want to jump into this pool full of piranhas called politics.

But someone still dies. And someone else still dies inside. And besides, I thought we were given more courage to fight with than that (2 Timothy 1:7).

And as much as I love my parents… it’s been hard moving back under someone else’s roof after living under my own for 2.5 years. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve lost a lot of my autonomy, and I have an allowance again, and I ask my parents for permission again, and I don’t get to do my own laundry anymore.

But guess what. I just got this email a couple days ago.

I didn’t get the job at CCA.

It was the best rejection letter I had ever received.

Because it meant to me that:

1. I could stay here in Aurora for the summer
2. I can continue pursuing this internship in faith, believing that God will help me raise support
3. I get to grab coffee with 75 of my closest friends and make them think about
   • what they believe about abortion,
   • why,
   • whether that really makes sense, and
   • how can I help them to feel empowered to do something about it.
4. I get to go on an adventure with Jesus to Wichita and change the world
5. I get to hang out with people who will challenge me and do things that are really difficult but totally worth it.

So that’s where I’m at. If God works everything out, I’m headed to Wichita. I’ll probably be there for about a year. Then Jon said I might be able to help start a branch of JFA right here in Colorado.

So again, if everything goes as planned, I’ll eventually be back. But everything is subject to change.

Ideally, I’m praying that I will be out of a job in 2 years because we will have thought up together a better option for women and their children than just abortion.

So by saying “I’m pursuing this in faith,” I mean that, “I’ll hold onto this opportunity, but I’ll hold it with an open hand.”

I’m excited. I’ll miss people. But it’s not my life to live. My life was purchased by Jesus, and I am not my own.

My life belongs to God, and I’ll go wherever He sends me, whether that’s another state, another country, or right here.

And besides, if all else fails, I’ll get gazillions of years to hang out with y’all in Heaven, (unless you don’t know Jesus, in which case you should meet him so you can come). Then you can meet my grandparents and Fyodor Dostoyevsky and a bunch of babies, and even people I am going to meet in Wichita.

So to answer the question:

After graduation, I’ll stick around for 4-6 months in Aurora. I’ll raise support, stay involved in my young adult group, try to put some leaders in place there, and go on some vacations. And then I’ll head to Kansas for an indeterminate amount of time.

Questions?