2019 Arizona Missions - Courtney Quan
1. Why and/or how did God lead you to Arizona as a collegian?
The actual chain of events behind how God led me back to Arizona actually started just as soon as I had left the Reservation last year. There were two particular girls in my small group that year whom God had broken my heart for, but it was also those same two girls that kept taking the initiative and reaching out to me individually when I came back home. Somewhere along the line, despite us being hundreds of miles away and having untimely conversations in the early hours of the morning, I began considering them "friends" instead of just "girls who were in my small group". From something as big as attending a graduation ceremony in Tuba City during the middle of midterms season spring quarter to something as simple as messaging during class because the day wasn't going so well, it was through the two of them that God worked most prominently in leading me back to Arizona as a collegian.
2. How is it different going as a collegian to Arizona?
I initially had a lot of reservations about returning to Arizona. Returning as a collegian had never particularly interested me nor been something that I had planned to do, always assuming that my senior year would be my last. Sometimes I really did feel that going for those two girls and my small group was too simpleminded and too short of a reason, and besides, it's not like any of the girls in my grade were coming with. But one of the better things about going out to Arizona as a collegian is that it more clearly puts into perspective the integrity of your motive for going. Because to go as a collegian usually means that it isn’t because it’s your last chance to go as a senior, isn’t because all your friends are going. As very much was the case for me, the only reason I had to go was to see those two girls and how God had worked in their lives since, and that proved reason enough for me to suddenly change my mind and commit to returning to Arizona just a month before the actual trip.
3. What did God teach/show you this year?
In my eyes, going on missions involves flipping a “switch” for more energy, more enthusiasm, more willingness to put myself out there and be so very uncomfortable and make the most of the limited amount of time we have with the people we are ministering to. But the relationships you form during that time are not temporary in the slightest. They aren’t something that you can build up during the week you’re physically there and then walk away from to never touch again the remaining fifty-one weeks of the year.
4. What did God place on your heart for the Navajo?
As much as we go on mission trips intending to pour out to the community around us, we are just as prone to being poured back into by those very same people. The blessings God showed me that week all served to paint a bigger picture of His face by reminders of His faithfulness, goodness, beauty, and sovereignty through the Navajo, in seeing how the girls I had met last year were now happier and carried themselves with more confidence, in witnessing how transparent and vulnerable my small group was willing to be with me in their journals, in being able to actually pray with those same girls and be reminded that our God transcends cultures and distance and language. And looking back at this trip in its entirety, the biggest thing God has shown me this past week is to not hesitate when you hear the voice of the Lord telling you to go. I’m reminded now of Isaiah 6:8, which says, “Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking: Who should I send? Who will go for us? I said: Here I am. Send me.” And that is my encouragement to you who is reading this now. The conclusion of the matter God has shown me so abundantly as of late is to simply go with no questions asked, for a reason only He knows but for a plan we understand in full is truly for our own good.
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