The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. – Genesis 12:1

That’s what Abraham had to work with when God came to him. He took his wife, his nephew, his stuff, and he head out for wherever God told him to go. Did Abraham have any idea what he was getting himself into? Probably not.

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. – Matthew 9:9

Jesus simply said to Matthew, a tax collector, “Follow me.” and Matthew followed. Did he have any idea what he was getting himself into? Doubt it.

I think Erwin McManus said, “An adventure isn’t really an adventure if you’re not at least a little scared going into it.” He’s right. Adventures aren’t “safe”, they’re not the mundane, every day. If you know how something is going to turn out and what’s going to happen, it isn’t an adventure.

I love Alaska, it’s been home for me for the last six years. From the first time I visited that actually turned into moving here, I have loved living here. The experiences, (who’d have thought that sledding could be so exciting?), the church that I call home, Community Covenant, and the community that has developed here have led to an incredible six years of my life that have literally laid down the foundations for who I am as a person. In the last six years, I have felt more joy, pain, heartache, hope, sorrow, and love than I had in the fourteen years before moving here.

But, I’ve never really felt that I’m going to be here forever. I’ve always felt that my time here was temporary and designed to prepare me for what’s next to come for me. That’s always been a feeling that I’ve wrestled with. I can’t count how many times I’ve gone back and forth between absolutely loving everything here and thinking, “I don’t want to live anywhere else” to wondering, “Am I supposed to go somewhere?”, to just flat out thinking, “I want out of here.” I’m not sure which one of those thoughts resonates with me at the moment, but those are three that have bounced around my skull for a while now.

Come on, Dustin! Get to the point!

In a minute.

On Tuesday June 2, 2009, there was a breakthrough. In a prayer session with some of my closest friends, God made it very clear where I am supposed to go, what I am supposed to do, and when I’m supposed to do it. After the shock and the “oh crap, this is really happening” that takes control of us when something equally exciting and terrifying is presented, we as a group discerned that this is the right thing for me to do. This is the right thing for me to do. For many of you, this probably isn’t a big shock of where it is I’m going, but more so that it’s actually happening.

Starting in January of 2010, I will be attending Hillsong International Leadership College located in Sydney, Australia. I will be there participating in the worship music stream and getting training in Old and New Testament studies, theology, leadership, songwriting, worship leadership, musicianship, as well as helping with the conference that Hillsong puts on during the year. The tentative plan is to do two years down there, but in all honesty and actuality I’m not sure. I might go for three years. I might come back. I might not. So much of this is up in the air and only God know what’s to come.

Right now, I feel like I’m standing at the starting point to this big, vast, expansive mystery that will bless and challenge me to the core. I really have no idea how this is all going to work out, but I’m following what God has called me to do. And I would rather follow God into the unknown than stay than stay at a place that seems safe and comfortable.

This is hands down the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in my life. It dwarfs anything else that I’ve ever done or had to do. Half of me is excited. The other half is scared beyond words. But all of me is going forward with this. Thank you to everyone in my life for the support, love, and encouragement that you’ve shown me. I love you all. I love Alaska, but God has a new adventure for me to participate in, and I’d be a fool if I said no.

If you’ve made it this far in the post, congratulations and thanks for sticking it out as I babbled on for the past eight hundred words or so. I’m going to keep blogging in Australia. This combined with my twitter and facebook are pretty much going to be my connection back. So stick around.

Things are about to get really interesting around here.

d

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 11:00 pm and is filed under A Day in the Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.