I will be arriving in Kona, Hawaii (the big island) on September 26th after a two hour lay-over in Phoenix. The first three months that I will be at YWAM Kona I will be training and preparing to travel to another country to do outreach and mission work for another three months following that. I am not sure where I will go yet, but I will keep you all posted.
I would love to share with you how I came to make this decision and where I feel like God is leading me. I always felt pushed to go to college by my friends and the world around me. I heard things like, "If you don’t get a good education how will you make a living and support yourself in the future"’ "Don’t you want to make a lot of money?" It wasn’t until I truly thought about going to college and what I want to do with my life that I realized my heart was being pulled, by the world, in that direction. I ended up applying to Messiah College and received over $19,000 in academic scholarships. I tried to make it all fit into my true, God-given, heart’s desire to travel and show the love of God to others. I considered studying to become a counselor to help and encourage others, and they had a semester abroad option, but it didn’t quite feel right.
My mom brought YWAM up to me a while ago and I hadn’t truly given it much thought because all my friends were going to college and I didn’t want to sound like I had no plans for the future. Recently, everything has fallen into place. Going on the mission trip to the Dominican Republic confirmed what I already knew in my heart. Traveling, sharing God’s love, and being surrounded by kids is my calling. I have gotten so many prophetic words surrounding each one of these. Darby Slaton gave me a word about how I will be graduating early (which I could have done but I chose to go for 29 dual enrollment college credits instead). He also said that I will be going on a trip that will change my mind about going to college, and it wasn’t until I was in the Dominican Republic that I remembered this word.
With all that being said, I committed to going to YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and will be with children and women who have been abused. My heart has always been in restoring families and I am so blessed to be given this opportunity. I am excited to see how God uses this in my life and to see the path he has laid out before me unfold one step and journey at a time.
- Brynn DuRand