When my social justice professor told my class we would have to attend an out of class presentation by Invisible Children, I must admit I was far less than enthusiastic. Working 20 hours a week and taking 17 credits made the time I had precious; and I was annoyed at the fact that she was making us take time out of our Wednesday evening to attend something I was so sure would simply be another showing of another cause asking for another donation causing another emotional vomit session. Eastern University is a very liberal Christian college known especially for the ginormous amount of social justice it does and supports. Thus, I assumed this would simply be another thing to cause me to feel guilty; and I was not pleased at the prospect of spending my free Wednesday evening doing this. I stepped into the auditorium, found a seat with my friends, and began to begrudgingly view the film that unbeknownst to me, would completely change my life.

When the presentation ended, words cannot describe the anger surging inside me; my palms were bleeding from my fingernails digging into them from the force of how hard I was clenching my fists. I was ready to scream, to write, to punch, to cry, to kill; everything in me was boiling with passion for advocacy. All I could think was, “Who can seriously walk shamelessly out of this auditorium?”

That night I wrote a note on facebook spewing out my emotions from the film, and immediately I began looking for trips and internships with Invisible Children to get to Uganda; then was promptly shut down with an answer consisting of, “no summer trips, and no freshmen.” I thought my doors were closed.

A few weeks later, out of curiosity I decided to see what trips AIM was offering this year. As I was browsing through the site, my eyes fell on Uganda. Immediately I began to pray, and instantly I felt God calling to me to apply. I opened my Bible and God sent me directly to Exodus 3:10 which says, “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." After applying I told my parents, who were absolutely thrilled. My boyfriend at the time grew up as a missionary kid in Jordan, and began telling me how incredibly important and what a blessing short-term missions are. My passion for Uganda has increased over this past semester by leaps and bounds; God just keeps showing me things that get me so excited I can barely contain myself!

Sometimes I get a lot like a 4-year-old injected with caffeine and sugar when I get really excited about things, so God’s really had to help me focus on the basics, such as fundraising and getting all the little details together. Being in college, on my own, having to handle all the small increments of detail for this trip has been a challenge, but I know it’s God giving me a “Moses moment.” Even though I feel inadequate sometimes to do things, God has a way bigger and greater plan for me than I have for myself, and even if I don’t think I can do something (like raise over $4,000 while in college in a matter of four months), God can; and He continues to remind me of this every day. So though I am like Moses, and feel like saying, “I can’t do this God, You should really send someone else;” God is saying, “I am sending you.”