I guess I've always known I would do missions. Even before I was saved I planned on doing Doctors Without Borders, or the Peace Corps after medical school. I've just always had a heart for hurting people who can't help themselves because of disease or extreme poverty. Africa was where I really wanted to go. There's just something about that broken continent that breaks my heart. So when I was saved, I finally realized that the way I felt about Africa was God given, but I still planned on waiting until after medical school to really get into missions.

   My senior year, therefore, was all about college. I visited campuses, took way too many standardized tests, and filled out a lot of applications. UVA was my dream school, the one I really wanted to get in to, and the wait until April 1st when I would find out whether I had been accepted, seemed like forever. In the meantime, I was in the waiting mode, but still totally set on nothing but college. Then sometime in early March I was talking to my youth pastor's wife about her experience after high school with YWAM where she traveled to South America and did misison work. Obviously, the mission work was an important part of her trip, but the thing that stood out to me the intimacy she found with God while there. I couldn't stop thinking about it after our conversation. I wanted a time-out like that from my life to spend time with God so badly, but in the face of all that I had already done to prepare for college it felt like I didn't really have that option. However, the more I prayed about it, the more God confirmed over and over again that He wanted that for me too. So naturally, I googled "long term mission trips to Africa" and after looking for about ten minutes, found AIM (who I already knew was legit) and the Novas Project. It was exactly what I was looking for. I was still hesitant to give up my own selfish plans though, especially after I got into UVA in April, but finally in June I applied, and here I am, going to Swaziland!