God’s Plan Is Always the Best

Looking back, I did not make many plans for my life, but I wanted to be a counselor. My mother wanted me to be a nurse and enrolled me in a high school where I could graduate as a practical nurse. Starting clinicals, I acknowledged that nursing was my mother’s dream, not mine. While studying psychology in college, God placed me in a job that started my career in information technology. God also gave me a desire to serve Him full-time.

Shortly after the tragedy of 9/11 in the United States of America, I sought to be a missionary but ended up joining the Peace Corps.

Through that organization I helped provide aid in West Africa while representing the United States. I taught computers at a college and worked for the church while there. On my return home after two years, I wanted to start a nonprofit to train women on welfare how to use computers and qualify for better jobs. Without the financial support to get this going, I had to find work, and God blessed me financially once again.

Still, I had the desire to work more directly for Him and thought of working as a literature evangelist, though I was unsure I could support myself in that work. I wondered how God would get me from where I was with a good government job to working full-time for Him. Then the time came when my mother could no longer live by herself.

I dropped everything and moved a thousand miles to live with her. After five years her dementia meant she could not be left alone; however, I needed to work to survive. My sister suggested we move in with her and her husband as their children no longer lived at home. That way I would not have to work and could stay home with my mother.

I marvel at God’s design in giving me the flexibility to work for Him. I serve my church as a Bible worker and lead my church’s web team and family life ministry. I assist a local Christian college with their online Missionary Training School, and recently I started a weekly Bible study in our apartment building. I see this as God’s plan from the beginning. I also believe this is just the beginning. He is preparing me for a greater work, leading others to Him. God has a work for each of us to do. As we follow Him, He will lead us to it.

Mirlene André