Growing Up in NZ

One of my first interviews when I came to AIM was Caitlin McAlvey, a small town girl who wanted to go to New Zealnd for 9 months.  She has gone through so much in her life and has an incredible testimony of how God finally got a hold of her life.  She was at a river with her best friend and together they bowed before the Lord and committed thier lives to Him.  When I interviewed her she touched my heart in so many ways and I knew at that time God had a special plan for her.   One of the best parts of the FYM program is watching the participants grow in their relationship with God.  Read Caitlin’s account of her first 6 months in New Zealand, hopefully it will touch your heart like it touched mine.

Caitlin Reports: 

Yesterday was a mile-marker for my team.
Yesterday was the 6-month anniversary of the day we all came together at training camp in Gainesville, Georgia, on September 6, 2006.

Yesterday was the 6-month anniversary of the day our lives changed!

That may sound a bit dramatic, but it’s true J. God has done so much in all of our lives these last few months that it’s impossible to write it all down.

For me, I know God has taken me from a small-town girl who didn’t open up to new people and situations to a world-traveled woman who seeks out Christ with every breath she takes.

Sadly, yesterday also brought the realization that we’ve only 2 months left here in Papatoetoe. We’ve 2 months to pour out all we have, to exhaust all we are into our internships and relationships we’ve made, built up and matured in these last 6 months.

In these 6 months, God has totally shaken my world and what I used to know of it. My eyes have been opened to the world and the need in it. My heart has submitted to what God wants me to do and not what I want to do. I have laid down my dislike of school and asked God to lead me wherever He wants which so happens to be to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He has renewed my heart towards children seeing them as the foundation of our future instead of the hindrances of the days to come as I used to see them. God has placed within me a plan and a vision for myself and my church.

In these past 6 months, God has shown me that I am useful, that I have been created for a specific purpose that NO ONE else could have fulfilled but me. God put me in New Zealand to be a help to Dave & Emma in their time of need. God brought me here to love on and to teach the kids I tutor on Tuesdays. God brought me here to help out Manurewa Baptist Church in their time of transition and growth. And there was no one else who he created more specifically for that purpose than I. This is why I was made the way I am.

The FYM ministry not only reaches out to the poorest of poor all over the world but it changes our teenagers lives right here from the United States.  Praise the Lord for the way He continues to work and continues to bless the FYM ministry.