You're Moving Where?!?!?!

Ever wanted to change the world? Yeah, neither did I!

So what compels a 25 year old guy with a great job, making great money, living in a great city with even greater friends and family close by, to drop it all and move to a small island in the South Pacific where he will live in an apartment with people he's never met and may not like, eat food he may not be able to stomach, re-live the early 90's with dial-up internet, have no cable TV, few modern amenities, and oh yeah, teach a bunch of teenagers some of whom may want nothing to do with him or a single thing he's going to teach!?

I've thought about this for quite some time actually. At times i've thought I had the answers only to realize that maybe I was wrong, and then began the process of thinking and praying all over again. Now almost 4 months later my heart delights in finally having found that answer. The answer is simply....

.. I Don't Know!

Ok, so not as profound as you were probably hoping, but hear me out....

For some reason my heart is in love with this place called the Federated States of Micronesia (the FSM). My friend Shawn can tell you that i've amassed so much knowledge about the FSM and it's inhabitatants that it's sometimes been scary. At first my desire to learn more about this tropical paradise was rooted in wanting to understand the experience he was having more intimately. However, as I studied and learned the details of this modern day garden of eden, I began to find myself wanting to experience it first hand. It was at that time that I learned of a Harvard affiliated organization whose sole purpose is to send educated men and women to developing nations to teach. Imagine my surprise upon finding out that not only did they have a dire need for teachers in the FSM, but that they specifically needed someone who could teach science. Having a Masters degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology with a Specialization in Biotechnology from Georgetown, and having worked as a Cancer Research Fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, I immediately identified with the need that existed there. Fast forward almost 4 months later and I am accepted to this amazing program allowing me to teach in this great nation.

Will the road to the FSM be easy? Of course not. Will my time there be all cake and ice cream? I'd love to say yes but my PCV friends have more than confirmed that the answer will be no! Yet, me...Upper West Side Armani wearing me...is elated to kiss all of my comforts goodbye and move forward on this road to Pohnpei.

I'm not doing this to change the world. I'm not doing this because it will be easy. I'm not doing this because I don't think that there will be times that I miss "home" (wherever that is), my friends, my family, and the life I will have lead before I left. I realize that my life there will be different, and hope that afterwards it will never be the same.

We're all on a journey. We all move through life with purpose. Although our moving sometimes seems aimless, the purpose is not ours, but God's. It's hard to discern what we should and should not do as we travel along. Sometimes life becomes rough at best and human nature compels us to act somehow. So often I do act, all the while convincing myself that it's OK because God will not allow my "acting" to take me in a direction that He does not desire for me go in. Maybe that's true. Maybe it's not true. However, what I have found is that sometimes were it not for all of my "acting", "running", "over thinking", I would have experinced the tremendous peace (even joy) in the silence of life that only God can bring. So I move forward on this road to Pohnpei realizing that these are doors that only God could open and circumstances that only He could orchestrate. Yes it's scary and at times the present "comforts of home" are so much more enticing. However, I go forth knowing that He is with me.

As He continually inspires, perfects, and renews us, let us look to him for the Peace that surpasses all understanding, for the Joy that exceeds all sorrow, and for the Love that carries us through every trial.

Although our vision may be limited, His is limitless...