I did not want to move to Texas.
I have nothing against Texas. After all, I was born there and still have family who live there, but I never imagined myself moving back. When I first connected with David and Sweetwater I was living in Southeast Washington, completing a summer internship at the Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL) where I had hoped to take a longer-term position after the summer. I enjoyed being in the Northwest, a short drive from Seattle and Portland, and I was just beginning to develop some good spiritual friendships.
But God’s plans often involve making you do something you never imagined. As Proverbs 16:9 says, “the heart of a man plans his ways, but the Lord establishes his steps”.
Following my first conversation with David, I knew becoming a Sweetwater intern was where the Lord was leading me but I fought hard against the pull.
1) I wouldn’t make any money — a concern felt by me and my family, and
2)…Texas?
After a month of unsuccessfully trying to secure a full-time position at PNNL, I moved back to Oklahoma City to live with my parents and continued praying about the Sweetwater opportunity. In the subsequent two months, God consistently and patiently nudged me toward Sweetwater, despite my continuous struggle against it. Though there were many instances in which I felt the Lord leading me to Texas, I will only mention here the series of events that finally overcame my resistance:
- I was offered a free place to live in Texas with a loving, Christian family who agreed to host both me and my 15-year old cat, Mama. This may not seem like a big deal, but their willingness to allow me to bring Mama was a huge answer to prayer. In times past, when I have moved and searched for housing, it was extremely difficult to find a place that allowed cats. In addition to permitting the cat to live indoors, the family informed me that their own 18-yr old indoor cat had recently passed away and they would love to have another one in the house. Further, since they had owned an old cat of their own, their three dogs were used to being around a geriatric feline so it would not cause trouble for their other animals.
- Several days after learning about this housing opportunity, I read James 4:13-17 in my morning devotional. It reads, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.’ Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.’ As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them” (NIV). Specifically, I was drawn to verse 15, “…you ought to say, ‘if it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that’”. At the time I read this passage I was confident that God wanted to me to go to Sweetwater, but I was still hoping for another job opportunity that would bring more comfort and security and for which I wouldn’t have to raise support. My attitude had not been one of humble submission to the will of God, but a proud defiance to want to do things my own way. In this regard, James 4:15 spoke to me deeply.
- A day or two after reading the passage in James and meditating on verse 15, I had mostly decided I was going to accept the Sweetwater internship, but still sought further confirmation from the Lord that this was truly where He wanted me to go. That afternoon I was cleaning my room in my parent’s house and came across a box of old letters and cards from Christmas and birthdays dating several years back. I began looking through them and whispered a somewhat joking prayer that I would find money in the cards. Five or six had minutes passed when I opened up a Christmas card from one of my grandparents – I don’t remember now how old the card was, but I think it was within the last 2 years – and found an envelope inside containing $100 worth of cash. I held the money in my hands and was overwhelmed with awe, humility and gratitude that the Lord had answered my prayer, even an unserious one. I felt in that moment He was reassuring me that He hears my prayers and that He would provide for me, in ways that I would not expect. The next day, I heard from David that he, too, had recently received an unexpected cash gift of $100. Coincidence? I think not.
- Several days later, again during my devotional time, God brought the story of Gideon to my mind. I reread the story, how God called Gideon to go and fight the Midianites and how Gideon doubted that it was the Lord speaking to him and proceeded with a series of tests using a piece of wool to determine if the message was, indeed, from the Almighty. As I read the story, I sort of scoffed at Gideon that it took him so long to accept that it was the Lord talking to him even after several signs proving it to be true. Then, as soon as that thought entered my mind, I was immediately humbled as I realized I was doing the exact same thing with joining Sweetwater.
I’m grateful for the astounding amount of patience the Lord showed me and His gracious and gentle hand that guided me to finally accept the position as a Sweetwater intern. Thinking back on it now, I’m embarrassed that it took me so long to follow where I knew God was leading me.
During my time at Sweetwater I have learned many things and matured in diverse ways, though I will not share them all here. I do want to highlight two things that I believe have been genuinely life-changing and were brought about as a direct result of my move to Texas and working for Sweetwater.
1) Prayer walks
As someone who was raised in a Christian household, went to church almost every week, and graduated from a Christian college, I did not expect to learn about and grow so much in the realm of prayer. I knew it was important, but I had never experienced firsthand what I would call a “lifestyle of prayer”. That changed when I came to Sweetwater.
In our daily schedule, the first hour is dedicated to prayer, often taking the form of individual prayer walks. I was apprehensive at first about going on these walks because I wondered, “what do I have to talk to God about for an hour?” By day 2, I found myself thinking an hour was not long enough! Being required to spend the first part of my day talking to God opened my eyes to how often He does answer our prayers, whether big or small. I started looking forward to the walks and oftentimes did not want to come back to the office. Though there were still days that I would have to drag myself out the door, I never returned wishing I hadn’t gone. Through my prayer walks my relationship with the Lord deepened; I didn’t realize how much I had been missing in my relationship with Him until I actually talked with Him every day. My Creator took me to depths of intimacy that I had never experienced. If I joined Sweetwater only to have tasted and rested in this intimate relationship, it would have been worth it.
2) “Work with what you got” mentality
Perhaps one of the greatest lessons I learned from David through my internship is a different, but biblical, way of viewing problems: start with what’s right, not with what’s wrong. In Mark 6, Jesus feeds a crowd of five thousand men, plus women and children, from just five loaves of bread and two fish (also found in Matthew 14, Luke 9, and John 6). After a long day of teaching Jesus tells his disciples to feed the massive group of people who have followed them, an instruction his disciples struggle to follow because of unbelief. In response Jesus asks them, “how many loaves do you have? Go and see” (Mark 6: 38). The disciples brought back five loaves of bread and two fish that Jesus then blessed and distributed among the people so that “they all ate and were satisfied” (Mark 6:42). In this story, Jesus models a way of approaching problems that focuses on what you have versus what you lack. This method of using what we have is fundamental in Sweetwater’s approach to assessing problems of water degradation and developing solutions. What may look small and insignificant in our hands can be multiplied in the hands of God, the Creator of all things. When we work with what God has already provided, we become living examples, guiding people to see that the praise for developing a solution belongs to God alone.
Although my internship didn’t end how I had hoped or planned due to COVID shutdowns, which prevented David and I from traveling to Cambodia to implement our moringa research and halted a few planned STEM activities with local Texas groups, I am glad the Lord brought me to Sweetwater. Romans 8:28 tells us, “…for those who love God all things work together for good” (ESV). I experienced this truth in the last months of my internship while waiting out the state lockdowns with my parents in Oklahoma City. No, I wasn’t able to travel to Cambodia or do some other fun planned activities in Texas, but by taking away these opportunities my time was freed up to focus on the principal task of my internship: researching optimal ways to use moringa to clarify water and producing a research manuscript for publication.
All-in-all, my time as a Sweetwater intern was a success and has shaped me and prepared me for my future endeavors in a variety of ways. I am thankful beyond words for my friends and family who supported me financially, spiritually, and emotionally during this time and made it possible for me to be a part of Sweetwater’s ministry and research.
Thank you, also, to those in Texas who invested in my life and gave me your precious support:
Thank you, David, Krista, Finn, Will, Bryce, and Malachi for allowing me to step into your life and for sharing your love of Christ and your love for one another.
Thank you, Kathy and Troy Brown for your generosity, kindness, and warm conversation. Your hearts and desires to seek the Lord in all things were a great encouragement to me.
Thank you, Billy, Martha, Dawna, and James Ross Aranda for giving me a space to call home and welcoming me into your family.
Thank you, Sweetwater team, Rob Oskins, Jacob Zamira, Edward Osei, Hal and Debbie Pendergrass, Andrea Hunt, and Stephen Schuknecht for your help and uplifting words.
Thank you, Kelsay Singleton, Cassee Click, and the rest of the Lingleville ladies bible study group for your wisdom and diligence in studying the Word of God and for building one another up in love.
May God bless you all as you have blessed me.
For some Sweetwater memories and ‘not-so-candid’ snapshots, please enjoy this short video.