Why YWAM?

As the time drew near last year for me to make a decision about what I would be doing after highschool, I knew college was what was expected of me, but a memory kept coming to mind of a group of young people that had visited my youth group a year before. I couldn't remember the name of the organization they were with but I knew they were on a 5-month tour of Africa, stopping in over a dozen different countries to learn and reach out. The more I thought about them, the more I realized that that was something I really wanted to do- and college might just be able to wait :)
So I put my favorite search engine (Google- in case you were wondering) to good use and began searching for the name of this organization, and this is how I first became acquainted with Youth With a Mission. Initially, I had no idea of how global they were (in fact, for a short time, I was under the distinct impression that they were based out of Denver and only did tours of Africa), but as I dug around, I discovered their hundreds of locations all around the world and became acquainted with their Discipleship Training School.
In this program, the students spend the first 12 weeks doing classroom-type instruction on who God is, how we determine his will and how we can fulfill the great commission, and the last 8 weeks living out what they've learned on an outreach trip.
I began looking into various locations and ones that immediately stood out to me were: Australia (because of the accents mostly), Chile (awesome surfing), Haiti (the devastation caused by the earthquake really gripped at my heart) and Los Angeles (they offered special Focus Tracks during the classroom phase in areas that really interested me such as Worship, Media and Justice).
After a little bit of thinking, I realized that cool accents and awesome surfing couldn't be the reason for this decision- it had to come down to where God could use me the most and where I felt I could grow the most. I contacted the people in Haiti and shared my desire to help, and they recommended that I check out the school in LA, because they often send teams to Haiti during the outreach phase.
LA had already been on my radar so that pretty much sealed the deal. I filled out an application and was accepted in late September.
And so I will be leaving for Los Angeles on January 6th, with hopes of ending up in Haiti during the second half of the school (though I will not be making this decision until the second week or so of the program and am still quite open to whatever God has for me).
Between now and then, I have a crazy amount of packing that must be done, and a whole lot of painful goodbyes to say. The most difficult will undoubtedly be my family as this is the longest I have ever been away from them and they are such a huge part of my life.

How You Can Pray:
* Pray for me as I "tumble out of the nest" and make my way out into the world on my own for the first time. I will be needing all the wisdom and grace I can get!
* Pray for the relationships that God has in store for me at YWAM. I admit I am a little nervous that I might not connect well with anyone.

Praise Jesus!
* The last of the money I needed to cover the tuition of the school came in last week. Thank you to all of you who have supported me financially- you are a tremendous blessing to me! I am overwhelmed by the way God has provided for me through you.