So this weekend I went on a college visit to Northwestern College, which is in Saint Paul about 20 minutes away from my house. It was a great experience. I learned a lot. First of all, when I started looking at colleges I never thought that I would like Northwestern, my thoughts were: " It's too close to home" and I had this notion that I needed to be different because it seemed like everyone was going there, or something. I didn't really give it a fair chance. Everyone I would talk to would always say, oh I heard that it's soo strict or something along those lines. In my head it just was never an option. I applied to all these schools farther away, and that wern't really for me-they just seemed right at the time.It started to make me really frustrated, because I didn't know what I wanted. So, starting a couple months ago I started meeting with one of my dad's friends that is a Life Coach- we would just get together and talk about  my passions and what I really wanted to do with my life. She helped me realize my strengths and made me realize all I had to offer. I think I never use to give myself much credit, it's kind of like I had this thought in my head that I wasn't good enough at certain things, or experienced to do what I wanted. Like I needed to wait longer to do what I wanted. But she made me realize that once I graduate, everything is my option( obviously with God's direction), but that if I wanted anything bad enough it was ALL possible.

For the longest time I wanted to be a music major- I wanted to do something in vocal performance, but during this whole process i realized that wasn't where God wanted me. I still want to do music, but I am going to do it more for enjoyment, rather than a career. I have come to find instead that God has given me a heart for ministry, and sharing his word. During my meeting with my life coach she had me write out what she called a - CALLING CARD- it was a way of writing what you saw as your purpose in life, you combine what values and things that you are most passionate about and seem most important in your life. I broke my calling down into five- what may seem simple phrases, but really show what I believe my purpose is:

1.
Building relationships

2.
Bringing Joy

3.
Seeing the big picture

4.
Breaking Molds

5.
Performing events

To kind of put them all together: I believe that by building relationships with people and showing Gods love, I can bring joy to other people. If I live like God wants me to and share him with others I can help break the molds and problems people face everyday. I want people to see the big picture, everyday we get so caught up in- THE NOW- and what is effecting us, we worry and dwell on the littlest things that are grains of sand in Gods eyes. We need to realize that God made us for a bigger purpose, and we aren't just here to have a good time and pass away. He wants us to live like it's our last day, and spread his word to everyone. Lastly , performing events because music is my passion and I believe God gave me this passion for a purpose, whether it will impact others, or not- I believe it is a big part of my life for some reason or another.

Since this realization that I want to pursue ministry, God has layed Northwestern on my heart. I did a search on college board. com to search Christian colleges with a minisrty major. After narrowing down by cost, denomination and a few other things that I really am looking for in a college only 6 names came onto the screen. It was weird because usually these searches give you hundreds of schools to look through. I was suprised when there were only 6, but even more to my suprise - guess what was #1 on the list: NORTHWESTERN.  It was an eye opener to me, once I researched it more- I realized that out of all 6 of the choices it had the BEST ministry program, with the most variety of choices to specialize in. On top of that it has am amzing choir program. Like I said this weekend I went on an over- night visit there, and realized that I would also fit into the community there. It was very comforting to see, that my thoughts and choices never compare to what God has in store for me. I am working on my application to attend there in 2008, and I believe that it is a definite possibility of where God may want me to go when I get home from Africa.- but of course I never know what God has in mind~