Journey to Ellerslie

It started in summer of 2009 when I was reading one of Eric and Leslie's book called, When God Writes Your Love Story. It changed my whole perspective on relationships and showed me how to see Christ as my heavenly husband, and I, as His bride. I noticed that there were more books written by Eric and Leslie Ludy so I got online and ordered up a storm of more of their books. It wasn't till then (fall 2009) that I noticed an add on their order page about Ellerslie. Every other day I'd check to see the progress of the books' shipment and each time I'd get on the site, it brought more desire and interest to keep checking this school out. Back in late September early October I printed out copies of the Ellerslie's statement of beliefs to show my Dad seeing what he thought about it. So far his thoughts were good until he saw that part of the finale of the school had to go to Haiti (not a bad thing), it wasn't in my dad's interest for me to be going there. I sort of left that out of the question and moved on with some of the college classes I was already involved in and such. Months pass by and I was just "going through the motions". In mid January I see on the news that a severe earthquake had just hit Haiti. Immediately Ellerslie popped up in my thoughts. I asked God, "God is this a sign? I know you wouldn't let an earthquake happen just for a sign for me, but a part of the many reasons why this earthquake happened should I consider going to Ellerslie?" I sort of left it at that and wasn't really praying about it much. February came along and mid February, was a weekend Christian event called Acquire the Fire. It was till then I decided God wanted me to attend to this school. I felt so excited and enthused because I had really wanted to go as well God wanted me to. I called my parents and told them "God wants me to go to this Ellerslie School!" My parents are very supportive for this sort of thing. They know when God commands, we must obey. And I wanted to obey Him on this one. So we talked about it a bit more and prayed about it, a month past by and I got on to the Ellerslie website, started filling out an application, answering questions thoroughly. I submitted it, and within a few days I received an e-mail from one of the Ellerslie's staff informing me that within a couple of days someone will be interviewing me. I was super nervous but confident at the same time. The 2 days past up and on March 15th I received the phone call and was trying not to sound too nerve wracking. But I only did what I could and felt ok with that. At the end of the phone call the staff had told me she was real confident in my acceptance to Ellerslie. I was stoked and the next day I received a congratulation e-mail confirming my acceptance to Ellerslie. Never had I felt soo proud of myself and praised worthy of God for this sort of acceptance. I worked hard on it and felt for once I did something accomplishing. Little did I know that Satan was going to try to stop me with all that he could from attending at Ellerslie; because the day after I got accepted my Dad was informed that he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Never in any of my family member's lives would we have thought something like this could ever happen. I know it can be one of those "blessing in disguise," but what terror and heart break it is to find out that sort of news. And as if it didn't get any better 3 days later I receive a phone call from my best friend's mom (very much considered as my little sister) that she had committed suicide. It’s one thing when your "little sister" dies in a car wreck, but it's a totally different package when it's someone you love who takes their own life. I can't tell you how numb I felt, how much pain, grief, and sorrow that was within me. I was a zombie for weeks. My parents wouldn’t even let me drive for 2 1/2 weeks! It was traumatizing! This definitely made up mind to not go forth to Ellerslie anymore. I was very much in a careless state of mind and if you looked into my eyes during that time, you would of saw a blankness, deadness upon my soul. I was definitely going downhill for awhile and didn't care what was going to happen to me. I was still registered to go and it was now my parents who were in control of it and was commuting with the staffs at Ellerslie (and who of course were paying financially for me to go). I thank God that they helped me stuck with it or I definitely wouldn't be here. There were a couple of times where I was saying "No, I changed my mind I don't want to go now," then I would be encouraged to go forth. One night I was determined not to go because of my boyfriend. Thank God I saw lessons that were learned from others in my life not to either stay behind for a boyfriend or go somewhere for a boyfriend. But I still had that careless heart to want to choose other things over God and after a long night of decision making and talking it through with my sister and parents I decided, "Ok, I'll go. I'm going. Dad, book my airplane tickets." Before I knew it I was on the plane flying out of good ole' Texas. I thank God and praise Him to be here, for Him to change my life each and every day that I've been here. It's His timing, plan, and command that I must trust and obey.