Fall Update & How I Found BGU

Well it is officially fall here in the great midwest and it is absolutely beautiful (and cold), the trees are changing (and its cold), the apple orchards are open (it's still cold), and the leaves are falling (did I mention that it's cold?). Here at BGU, we are currently in the middle of preview weekend and after telling this story about 10 different times to different preview students I decided I might as well write it down.
In the summer between my Junior and Senior year of high school, I ended up going to Nicaragua, even though when I first got there I didn't want to be there or have much part in what we were doing there, God slowly changed my heart over the ten days that we were there and gave me a love for what we were doing there. I had never felt anything like what I felt throughout those ten days, it was a sense of accomplishment, not just because we were doing work and that it was for a good cause but because it genuinely caused me joy to be working with and ministering to the kids on the street. I connected with them and felt for them in ways that I had never felt for anything before. God gave me His heart, and His passion for those kids, it's something that I will never forget.
While we were preparing to leave the night before our flight back into America, the nationals prayed over us and we had a time of intercession for the nation of Nicaragua. It was such a Spirit-filled experience and I knew that this [missions] is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, then God gave me this word, more like a prophecy that said, "For you planned on learning the words of man, but I will teach you to preach the words of God." and at first I didn't understand it and thought that I was just hearing things that I wanted to hear, but a little while after one of the nationals came and prayed over me and confirmed the calling and I lost it, I was lost to God and there was no one who could pull me out of that.
These past two years I have been finishing up my Associate's Degree at the State College of Florida, just trying to jump through hoops and do things to appease certain people, but I knew that my calling was in missions and that I was not meant to stay in Sarasota. So I started looking for a school with a missions program, turns out there aren't too many of those programs in the U.S. The entire end of my fall semester during my Sophomore year I spent looking for and researching schools that were in Florida, then I found BGU.
Finding Bethany Global University was definitely a journey in and of itself, I first found out about it through some really close family friends that had been missionaries and had gone to Bethany, but when I heard that it was out of state I just assumed that it was super expensive and I didn't want to go into debt while I was in college. So I just ignored it and went on with my life, but for the entire rest of the semester it was always in the back of my head nagging me and I didn't know why.
I tried looking at a bunch of other schools that were in Florida but were super expensive and didn't have a missions program. So, one day while I was at work, I was doing some paperwork on the computer and BGU just popped into my mind and I just heard God say, "Hey you should look this up." and I fought Him for a good hour or so on whether to look up this school. I was being stubborn and disobedient, but eventually I just told God, "Ok! I'll look at it! But I'm not going to like it!" and I was certain that this school would be just like all the other schools that I had looked at. But God does things for a reason and He knew what he was doing with me, I was on the website for less than 5 minutes and I was already applying. I didn't even know that the school was in Minnesota until I got halfway through applying (that required a lot of faith to continue through the application process), but I kept looking to God and kept getting affirmations from Him that this was where I'm supposed to be.
Now I've been here for almost two months and I am absolutely loving it! Granted there are things that aren't perfect (there always is!) but I have grown so stinking much since being here and have learned so much about myself and my relationship with God that I don't even care how cold it is in the morning (it was 33 degrees when I woke up today).
Today we received some prospective students that are touring the school and as they were asking us all questions all I could say was, "Trust God and you will be ok." These past two months have required so much faith, but it's been so worth it and so beneficial, and I have a strong support system around me of people that truly care about and want to see me succeed and grow in my relationship with God.
Well, that's the end of this update, trust me there is much more to come and I'm so ready to tell ya'll about it!