365 days

You know how there are sometimes those special little moments where you think, “God did that just for me?” Well, October 2nd will always be a day like that for me. This will be my fifth year with the Salt Company: three years as a student leader, and now, heading into my second year on staff with the Salt Company at Colorado State University. Something the Salt Company talks about a lot is Luke 10:2. This verse says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” Every day at 10:02am, nearly everyone connected to the Salt Network has an alarm set as a reminder to pray this verse for more spiritual laborers. If He promises that the spiritual harvest is plentiful, we just need to be faithful to pray for more people who are willing to go out and share the good news! A year ago, in God’s beautiful timing, I got to move to Fort Collins on October 2nd, or in other words, on 10/02. I got to be an answer to my own 10:02 prayer on 10/02, as I moved to work in full-time vocational ministry with the Salt Company at CSU.

Nearly two years ago, as a senior in college, I felt a strong call to give the first fruits of my post-grad life to the Lord in vocational ministry as a freewill offering of my time and talent. I began my personal relationship with the Lord in college, and I

wanted to help give others what I had been given in college. So I spent the first six months post-grad overseas in missions, asking the Lord what type of ministry He wanted me to commit to (stateside or overseas ministry). It was then that I felt like He released me to move to Colorado to pursue college ministry with the same Network that had played such a role in my own spiritual growth.

The Lord affirmed my call to Colorado by providing for all of my financial

needs in only 25 days. Most two-year residencies require three-six months of support raising, but in just over three weeks, I had over 100% of my financial needs met. It was in this season that Psalm 84:11 became real for me, “No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

As many of you know, one of my biggest struggles up until this point was my insecurity and ashamed discontentment with my singleness. Yet in this season, the Lord showed me in a beautiful way that when I am vulnerable and dependent (like when I accept a job that requires me to raise my own salary), He provides. I finally understood that until then, it must not have been good for me to be in a relationship. It wasn’t that God was withholding something good from me, it was that it was not good for me, in that season, to be in a relationship.

Within two months of moving, though, it evidently became good to be in a relationship, because the Lord then provided a man who has now been pursuing me for the last 10 months. Matt has been one of the biggest unexpected blessings of moving to Colorado, and I am so grateful that the Lord waited to introduce me to him until I was confident in my relationship with Jesus first and foremost. All those years that I was frustrated and cynical about my singleness, I now see that the Lord was using to work in my heart to show me that He alone is enough; no man will ever satisfy my heart the way that He does. I now know this not just intellectually, but experientially too, as He met me in such deep and intimate ways in my singleness. This has freed me to now enjoy a healthy relationship with proper expectations!

The Lord also provided a deep community through my church home this year. Luke 18:28-30 says, “And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

I have prayed this verse many times this past year, as I have felt the sting of loneliness and loss, thinking of all the dear relationships that I had to leave behind to move to Fort Collins. My family and close friends are now 13+ hours away from me, and there is real grief and loss in that distance. Even now, a year later, I feel that pain maybe even more sharply than when I initially left. But in that, the Lord has been faithful. He has provided a spiritual family here, with spiritual mothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, and cousins. My small group has become my family, and many of my students have become like younger brothers and sisters to me (you know who you are!)

A year ago, God called me to Colorado to meet Him in a deeper way. He has been by my side every step of the way, not only financially providing for me, but also providing for my relational, social, and emotional needs as well. My King has been so faithful to provide more than I could ever ask for here, and I am so grateful.

So today, on October 2nd, 2023, I am celebrating a year of the goodness of the Lord in Colorado–His faithfulness is real, and His provision abounds.