I'm so excited to share this Journey with you. A question you might be asking is "how did I get to a point in which an 8 month mission trip looks attractive?" It's a good question, as I haven't been skilled in sharing or following up in my walk of ministry with friends or family. Wanting to be a missionary started when I was young, I thought it was so amazing to travel for a job; and honestly, this was probably the most appealing aspect to me at that age. I've since learned that it's a lot more complicated and difficult than that. In leaving your life behind, your family and friends as well as everything you've ever known, to pursue rearranging your person to best connect with people of another culture, in the goal to share Christ with them.

My first mission trip was to Nicaragua for a month in 2025. As part of an Internship (with Youth Farm Bible Camp, Rosthern SK), I went and participated in the aid of an organization called "La Finca De Esperanza" (The Farm of hope) stationed by a village in Leon. The goal of this operation is to bring hope to the people of Nicaragua, in the belief that loss of hope is the #1 reason for poverty in this area. Our main focus was on the children, it helped that we had much more opportunity to work with them, as they would come after school to participate in typing, reading, homework and music lessons. We also would use this opportunity to share God's love and the telling of different bible stories. After working with them we would play soccer most commonly, but simply play with each other. Next, we try to reach the teens by spending time connecting with them in the mornings, as well as a bible study/worship night on Tuesdays (open to parents) and an adventure day on Saturdays.

After this month long mission, I felt things were not finished with Nicaragua. And blessedly I was able to go back for three and a half more months the next year to teach sewing classes. By the end of my time being there i was able to share my testimony (something i had sneaked out of doing the year before because I didn't want to speak in front of everyone). I believe this all happened according to God's will, because if I had spoken the year prior I wouldn't have shared my full testimony as I wasn't ready to face specific things that had happened in my life. I felt at peace leaving Nicaragua after this, even as I would love to go back.

Since being in the internship, I felt I would stay serving with the Youth Farm Bible Camp forever. But as it happened, a few months after I got back from Nicaragua it became apparent to me that I had to leave for about a year. It was really hard for me as they have become a huge part of my spiritual journey, but I couldn't stay because I wasn't at peace. I started looking into bible colleges thinking maybe that is what God has for me; it didn't feel right. My spiritual director showed me a program of traveling for 11 months, and I thought it was cool but not something I felt called to. But I stumbled onto this Journey School program, I was interested. I waited a few weeks and looked at other programs, programs that cost half as much. I was tempted to choose one of those instead because of funds and they aligned more with what I'm comfortable with in staying stationary in one single culture. I prayed and felt God telling me to trust him. So I applied to this program and here I am. In Japan.