I am moving to Riverside, California!!

I have some exciting news to share with all of you! I will be moving to Riverside, California around the first of October! I have been asked to extend my Journeyman term and to invest in the lives of students at California Baptist University. My job is called J3 and it is new mobilization position offered to journeyman who have served two years and then are asked to extend one more year stateside. The purpose of the job is to invest in the lives of college students, share my experiences, challenge them, and encourage them towards overseas work! I am pretty much getting paid to build relationships, love, and disciple students and get them excited about South Asia!!! The job is a perfect match for me, but will also be a handful of new challenges that will grow me and stretch me!

I need to share with you how amazing it is that I am working at CBU. It is an answer to prayers that I have been praying since April and in the works since the spring semester of 2006! I feel like I would be stealing glory from the Father if I did not share my testimony of how this job is handpicked for me and all small details that make me thrilled, excited, jazzed, humbled, and honored to be moving to Riverside. So please take time to read the bottom part...it might be long...i already apologize.

In the spring semester of 2006, Kim and Lindsey became my indian roommates because they were completing an internship for there degree program at CBU. The three of us were instant best buds and still maintain a close friendship with these ladies. I remember very clearly and very specifically when they left I knew that I would be working with them or along side of them again. I don't know why or when, but I knew that would be a specific part of my life again.

This past January, with only six months left to serve in India, I spent a lot of time praying about what would be next after India. After many prayers, I felt that the Lord spoke to me saying, "Alicia, you aren't going to know what is next when you get back...I want you to be patient." So that is what I have clung too this past semester and hadn't really made any immediate life changing plans for my return home.
This past April, Kim came back (yay) and brought a team from her church Sandals to come and work with us. The team and the church ministered to me very personally way. Our time together was very impactful to me! I began to really learn more about their church and their ministries and fell in love with it.

I remember about a month after they left, Lindsey and I were in an auto rickshaw on our way to English class. I told her that since the Sandals team left, I just couldn't get the church and the Riverside area off my heart. I said, "I know this sounds stupid and doesn't make any sense, but I feel like I am suppose to look into moving to Riverside/Los Angeles area when I go home. I don't know why...I just feel like I need to see if God opens or closes a door there." So I continued to pray and had other people praying for me to see what the desires were there for. I also decided to visit Riverside on my way home to see what I thought.

So this was my current plan till God dumped it over and gave me a new one.... I decided that I would move to San Antonio with my family till the end of the year and love and invest in them while i had the chance and then would work towards what was next.

While I was in Thailand, I was approached and asked if I was interested in doing a mobilization job. I would travel a lot but under the assumption that I could live at home and travel with San Antonio being my home base. About a month later, I finally got the "real" job description and it was nothing like what i originally thought and I would have to live on campus somewhere and there was no openings in Texas! They had some in Arkansas and Louisiana, Washington, some in California, and then possibly CBU.

My heart was already prepared, excited, and ready to live at home with my family so when I heard this i had pretty decided that I wouldn't take the job unless it was in Texas or at CBU. But I still not that convinced because I didn't want to let my family down by moving away so fast after getting back and my heart was set on being near them again. Then my dad and I talked and he really encouraged me to look into the job even if it wasn't Texas of California because it was such a great opportunity. My parents were both soo supportive and they thought I was being slightly unreasonable for not looking into the job more. So once I felt the peace that my family was ok with me going and their support and affirmation, I got really excited about the job...especially CBU.

The Lord really brought everything to FULL circle with the prayers and desires of my heart. I realized that my "Alicia" desires to move to Riverside were specifically placed there by the Father. They originated from the Father and He was faithful to then GIVE me the desires of my heart! It is soo beautiful to me - the Fathers love for me and his plans to give me a hope and a future.

I feel there are so many more random details I could share to show how God is all up in my grill about this, but this is already too long... Please praise the Father with me as I plan to move to Riverside!! Also please ask for God to begin to prepare me for the next chapter of my life!

Thanks for reading all of this!