istanbul, round 2

It seems that my life with the Lord is to be full of unexpected adventures, and I'd have it no other way.

A little over a month ago if you asked me what I was doing with my summer I'd have said I was planning to do an internship with Samaritan's Purse. I applied early, have relevant experience and studies, had great interviews, positive and encouraging feedback, yet the final date for when I would find out kept getting pushed back, and at the beginning of April I got word that I didn't receive the internship.

You might think I was hurt, frustrated, and upset, but honestly all along I'd been praying for the Lord's best for me, whether or not that involved the internship. So, when I found out I didn't get it, I trusted in faith that it was because the Lord had something better in store for me. I didn't expect to be an au pair (cross-cultural nanny) again this summer, because it was late notice and families who would actually pay me enough to make it work were almost non-existent. But in a matter of a couple of weeks, I had a Turkish family contact me wanting to know if I'd be their au pair for the month of June in Istanbul. They have a precious little 3-year-old boy. They offered to pay me a comparatively very high weekly salary and for all my flight expenses. I still had a lot of doubts about it until we skyped, and when we did I just really really liked them! Soon after I committed to the month of June with them and began asking the Lord about the rest of summer.

When I mentioned my situation to my friend she said, "I'm moving into my off-campus house in July - I'm sure you could just move in with me!" So my plan is in late July to move in with her in Upland and find a job that I can continue to work throughout next school year.

The beauty of this whole thing: I get to go abroad, back to Istanbul. I love the family and think we will mesh super well. I still get to go on vacation with my whole family in July. I get to live in Upland for part of the summer with my best friends, living an hour from my sisters, and go to my beloved Kingdom Life Church and fellowship with my dear friends there. I'll make money working a "real job" for part of the summer.

I am in awe of how this has all come together! Seriously. How do I ever doubt God's goodness to me? He gave me all my desires meshed into the perfect scenario I never could have come up with myself. I am convinced that this is how life lived in submission to God, trusting him for his best, is supposed to look.

I tell all of this certainly not to boast, but for two purposes. One, to give testimony to the faithfulness of God and his desire to bless us far beyond what we even imagine. And second, because I'd love for you people to follow my journey back to Istanbul. A lot of things will be different this time around, but many things will also be the same - the realities of going alone to a foreign place, doing life with a non-Christian family, learning from people in a culture that God has made so beautifully different than mine, continually being able to shine the light of Christ where he is otherwise unknown... It is definitely not going to be easy, but it's going to be amazing.

If you know as I do that God moves and works in response to our prayers, please pray for me through this. In reality, this is a public blog and I will not be completely free to express all my thoughts and struggles. If you will pray for me, and I am asking the Lord that he would compel some of you to do so, please email me at cassandra_beck@outlook.com so that I can send you my personal requests and go more in detail about my experiences.

I'm so eager to have this new experience and to be able to share all my stories and pictures with you all!