Short Notice

My favorite time for God to tell me about His plans for me is well in advance of when they will happen, like when I attended Summit in April of 2009. Six months prior, the leaders for our regional team showed a Summit promotional video at West Coast Honor Camp. I’ll never forget how clear God’s voice was, telling me that 2009 was my year to go. Summit 2009 was where I met my husband for the first time.


I knew six months before Summit that I was supposed to go.
That's where I met my husband.

But from my experience, it seems that God’s favorite time to show us His plans is after they’re already in motion. Two years after my call to Summit, I attended the same camp for my first time as a counselor (apparently God likes talking to me in the pines surrounded by teenagers). I was paired with another first-time counselor, and we were going to lead a full cabin of 10 junior high girls.

My family went up a day early to help with setup. When we got there, the camp director told me that my co-counselor couldn’t make it because of health issues. God, now you want me to lead these 10 junior high girls by myself? You want me to review their daily lessons, chase them down to do their daily verses, make sure they get to the right activity at the right time, and lead them in nightly devotionals? By myself? You realize this is my first time leading teenagers, right? And You do know I forgot my counselor handbook at home, right?

As the campers arrived the next day, the director came by and said, “You have an empty bunk. Here’s another junior high camper.”

Most incredible Camp week ever. And that week was when God called me to teach junior high as a regular ministry.

God called Peter to be a disciple in a similar way. Peter and the other fisherman had been fishing all night and caught nothing. They had just docked the boats and were washing their nets when Jesus told Peter to go out and try one more time (Luke 5:1-11). You want me to do what? But, Lord, You realize we’ve been out all night and didn’t catch a thing, right?

They never caught more fish in their life than that last trip into the lake. We’re told they needed to call the other fishermen to help bring the nets, which were breaking, back into the boat, which started sinking. That was the day Jesus called Peter to be a fisher of men.

Some of the hardest times to receive God’s notice are when it comes after you already started working toward a long-term vision. Especially when it’s a call to give up that vision for an unknown future.

About 13 years ago, my parents bought some property in Spring Creek, Nev., just down from our church of 6 years. On that property, they built their dream home — the home they planned to retire in. Mom and Dad created the blueprint from scratch, figuring out the details for a long-term residency. The house was one story so they could, in their eventual old age, not have to deal with stairs. The house also had extra-wide doorframes and hallways to fit wheelchairs for anyone who became wheelchair-bound by age or other reasons.

There was even a panoramic window in the front room and a sliding door at the back, each with a clear view of the surrounding mountains and our future landscaping. We took great care in planning the landscape; even I helped. Then we borrowed a trench-digger to dig the trenches to lay the irrigation for sod. Mom spent countless hours on hands and knees using a hard plastic cup to remove the remaining loose dirt from the trenches to make them deep enough.

We spent three years in the house, tailoring it to fit our vision of the future. But through it all, God warned us of change, though we didn’t see it or understand it. Twice Mom spent a day or two digging out the trenches in the front yard, only to have high winds—unusual for Spring Creek — fill them back up. When we finally went to get the sod, the transporting truck broke down. 

We later dug trenches in the backyard, and they filled with torrential rain — also unusual for Spring Creek.

The trees didn’t fare much better. We planted one tree in the front yard our first year there. It remained healthy for two years before dying without explanation. In the back yard, another tree, also planted our first year there, remained healthy for two years before dying without explanation. When we replaced it, the replacement grew for a couple weeks before snapping off at the base during another wind storm.

Soon after the tree snapped, God called us to Carson City, Nev.

Now we better understand how Abraham must have felt when God called him. “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you” (Gen. 12:1, NASB). Abraham was told to leave his home and family, and he wasn’t even given a destination — just “the land which I will show you.”

Rebekah was much the same way. In Genesis 24:15-61, we find she was called to go and marry a man she had never met and knew little about.

From 2 new counselors and 10 campers to
1 new counselor and 11 campers over night.

God gives us a promise in Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope” (NASB). It’s frustrating when God doesn’t consult us before pushing us. But He knows what He’s doing. In each situation, something better came from going than from staying. Because Rebekah listened, she became a founder of Israel. Because Abraham listened, he became the father of Israel. Because Peter listened, he became one of the twelve. Because my family listened, I learned about and began attending West Coast Honor Camp.

I wonder what plans He’ll show me next in the trees surrounded by teenagers this year.

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