This Wasn’t MY Plan

I was torn.  I was preparing for my senior year in production engineering at UNASP (Adventist University of Sao Paolo) with prospects of getting a great job when I graduated. But for years God had been nagging me to be a pastor.  
 
So after an intense inner battle and a providential encounter with a retired pastor who reminded me of God’s call,  I entered my last year of engineering taking a full load of theology courses as well.  I also signed up for a short-term mission trip to Jordan. I discovered I loved the people of the Middle East.  I felt I could really relate.  Perhaps, I reasoned, I could contribute in some way.

So I wrote friends in the region. Nobody answered. Nothing developed. Finally this past December I contacted MEU (Middle East University) where I thought I could at least take English.  Within days my application was processed; soon after they cleared me to buy my ticket to Lebanon.  When I went to book a flight, I decided to check the credit card I had opened a year earlier at the prospect of getting a well-paying job after graduation.

The cost of my ticket was the exact amount of credit I had accrued over the year.  I heard God saying, “Go, Emanuel. Go!”  So I’m at MEU now.  Not for adventure as some might assume.  Not even to learn English as I’d planned; my test scores were high enough.  MEU’s English Institute director spoke rather matter-of-factly to me,  “You’re here now.  Why don’t you just finish your theology degree?”  Instantly it all made sense.  God sent me here to train in the Middle East so I can serve Him better in the Middle East.  Never before in my life have I been more sure that I am in HIS plan!  
                                              –Emanuel Ocampo, MEU second year theology major