follow the Leader

So, I have begun a new season in my life.
I'm finishing my last two classes at ILCC, I have a new full-time job, today I'm getting an apartment on my own, and I'm learning to be more independent. I'm moving on from camp. After 5 summers I realized that my time is done there. I would love to go back and help out or bring kids, but I was able to see that God doesn't need me to continue my ministry there, at least for now. It was a really really tough summer, and I praise God that I made it and was able to glorify Him during those months!!
As I head into this new seson I pray for His guidance and I pray for myself to remember to trust Him. He is not only traveling right beside me, but he is standing ahead of me with and outstretched arm. What an image! I'll have many struggles coming into this new adventure. I'm going to struggle financially, I'm going to struggle with time, I'm going to struggle with lonliness, I'm going to struggle with patience, and I'm going to struggle with my mom not being fully healed from cancer. Praise the Lord that He is and will be carrying me, and even when it doesn't seem like it He has provided me with a great support. It won't always be the same people who can support me, and it may not seem like they care, but deep down inside they do.
I'm ready for whatever is going to come my way with this job. I know these kids need Jesus so much, and they need me to show them who He is and how much He loves them!! I'm really excited and super nervous to see what the Holy Spirit does to move through me!
I've got a lot going on, but I know that I can do it.

I'm going to leave you with a passage that sticks out to me right now.
Ecclesiastes 3:

1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

9 What do people really get for all their hard work? 10 I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. 11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. 12 So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. 13 And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

14 And I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him. 15 What is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.