Shaped for This

Confession - when I first felt that God was calling me to move to Vancouver, I was sure I was mistaken. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the whole scenario. Why in the world would He take a fluently bilingual Christian out of Quebec - the least evangelized area in all of North America - and move her across the country to British Columbia which has some of the best Christian schools and some of the largest churches in the country? It didn't make any sense to me. Even once I moved here and settled into my Vancouver life, I still couldn't figure it out and I even felt a little bit guilty about having moved out of Quebec. As crazy as it sounds, I felt like I had somehow betrayed the church there and had moved to an "easier" place to serve and minister. I felt a lot of shame about leaving a place so desperate for missionaries.

But last night, I was reading a blog post by a friend of mine who lives in Montreal. She was born and raised in Ontario, and moved to Quebec after college to pursue campus ministry. Her blog post was about how much she has fallen in love with Quebec - the people, the culture, the work, the ministry - and how she now can't imagine living and serving anywhere else. As I read her post, I realized that God has uniquely crafted each one of us for a specific task, a specific outreach, a specific ministry ... a specific place. Emily was made for Montreal. I was made for Vancouver. We are both right where we are meant to be.

Long before I was ever born, God knew that He was going to move me to Vancouver. The experiences I encountered, the people I met, the work I did, the stuff I studied - all of it was carefully molded and blended together by Him to prepare me for the task of serving Him here on the west coast. Years before I made the decision to board an airplane with a one-way ticket to YVR Airport, God was working in my heart, carefully shaping it so that I would fall head over heels in love with the people and culture of Vancouver. The Bible says: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD." (Jeremiah 29:11) ... Isn't that an incredible thought?