God's "Plan A"

Written by: Alana Ngo | Intern at the Office

Perhaps there has never been a year with as many plans changed as this past year. The NBA was cancelled for a while, the Olympics were postponed a full year, and everyone experienced some sort of change in routine when lockdowns came into place. However, even in the midst of changing plans, we often forget that they aren’t surprises to God at all.

The KG intern team in summer 2019

After a wonderful first experience as a TCM intern at Kingston-Galloway in 2019, I was looking forward to coming back in 2020. I had my summer all planned out. But of course, due to the pandemic, all of that was cancelled. Fast forward to this year, I was trying to decide how my summer would look again. I considered several options of what I could do, but I realized that I just wanted to be back with the kids again. Around the same time, I was actually already volunteering with KG online with their KIC and Youth Extreme programs. So, I decided to apply once again to be a Summer Intern for Sonshine Day Camp at KG. I sent in my application, did my interview, and thought everything would be fine. I thought, “This must be God’s will for me if I am serving him right?” But when I told my parents it was an in-person day camp, they were surprisingly against me doing it. They were rightfully worried about COVID at the time, and certainly did not want me to be around so many kids and staff each day, so they did not want me to work in this position. However, I had really thought that this was where I should be this summer, so I was very disappointed and taken aback at my parents’ decision. Why couldn’t they support what I thought was God’s will for me?

As I wrestled with their decision that night, I did realize that TCM was still hiring for their Office Intern position, and I could potentially do that instead. The Spirit was definitely the one who put that on my heart, because it wasn’t something I had considered before. The problem was, I really felt like this was just a Plan B for me.

However, I expressed this to one of my mentors the next day, and she encouraged me, using Scripture, to change my whole perspective on the situation. In Acts 16, Paul wanted to preach the Gospel in the province of Asia, but “having been kept by the Holy Spirit,” he ended up leaving for Macedonia after receiving a vision of a Macedonian man begging Paul to come and help them. Paul’s plan A was to go to Asia, and that was definitely out of the intention to continue to spread the Gospel. I can imagine he might have been discouraged that the Holy Spirit was preventing him from doing that. However, he listens to the Spirit and goes to the Macedonian church. Then, later in Acts 19:10, we see that Paul was finally able to go to Asia and that “all the Jews and Greeks...heard the word of the Lord.” In verse 29 of that chapter, we see that his travelling companions, Gaius and Aristarchus, were from Macedonia, and it all comes full circle! Even though going to Macedonia may have seemed like a plan B, Paul realized it was God’s plan A, and in the end, the Macedonian church was part of Paul’s mission in Asia.

After reading through these passages and getting to know more about God’s will, it was amazing for me to see that when things don’t turn out in our way, God truly has a better plan for us. Three weeks into my office internship, I have realized how blessed I am to be in this position. I am able to learn more about the behind-the-scenes work at TCM. I have had the opportunity to visit all the sites, not just KG, which has been really special. Most of all, I know that I am still working for God’s kingdom, and what an honour that is!