“I prayed that God would give me a sense of confirmation that it was the right decision…”
When I was a teenager, I sensed that after school God was calling me to spend a year working with street children in Latin America after finishing at school. After a long time of searching, I came accross a specific opportunity with an organisation in Bolivia. It sounded ideal but I felt a lot of uncertainty about it, and so I prayed that God would give me a sense of confirmation that it was the right decision.
Within a period of a few weeks a new youth worker started at my church who had worked with the very same tiny charity in Bolivia, I found out that my friend’s cousin was currently working with them too, a Chilean friend randomly brought up the fact that she was offering free Spanish lessons, a family from the same city in Bolivia started coming to my church, along with several other similar extreme coincidences. Then a few months later I met a girl who was also planning on spending a year working with street kids in Bolivia, with the exact same life plan afterwards. She is now my wife!
I was a bit baffled at the time at just how over-the-top God had been in answering my prayer, “I get the message God, you definitely want me in Bolivia!” But there were some real challenges during my time there, and I think if I hadn’t had all that confirmation I would have really worried that I was in the wrong place. Despite the difficulties, it was a very formative time that has shaped my life since, and I’m so glad God led me there!