Listening to God’s Calling

If you’ve read my introduction, you may be wondering why I’m living in rural Georgia on the site of the first Catholic settlers in the state. Some of you may know the reason why, but do you know the story of how I got here? What a crazy rollercoaster of a journey it’s been, but trusting God along the way was one of the best things I could’ve done. So, back in April 2024, I felt so stuck in life. I was working at a job that I didn’t love, my prayer life was basically nonexistent, and I felt like a robot living day to day. I craved something more. Around this time, I was rewatching The Chosen for the 3rd time (HIGHLY recommend it if you haven’t seen it yet), and I was deeply inspired by how the apostles left everything, work, family, etc., to follow Jesus. I then asked myself, “Why can’t I do that?” That’s when realistic questions came up about food, money, housing, and oh yeah! Who’s gonna watch your two cats?? Are you crazy, Olivia? You can’t do that! You can’t just leave everything you have for something so unknown! That’s what I told myself. Even though I had doubts, I still felt this tug in my heart to follow the Lord. Knowing I wanted to follow the Lord and be closer to Him, I began looking at jobs centered around the faith, whether it was a church, the diocese, a school, a bookstore, you name it. I was looking everywhere. After some time of looking and looking, I felt hopeless. I felt like I wasn’t going to get the job centered around my faith like I wanted, until one day I looked somewhere that had been in my face for so long, my email! After graduating from UL, I continued to receive the Ragin Cajun Catholic weekly emails. I rarely looked at them since I wasn’t a student anymore, but this one Sunday night, I decided to check it out. Lo and behold, all the way at the bottom of the email was a button that said “I’m Interested in Job Opportunities”. It’s like it was screaming at me. I clicked on it, and most things were more student-oriented or just things I wasn’t really interested in, until I stumbled across something called the Ministry and Service Ambassador Program at a place called Heritage, a Catholic retreat center. At the initial read over, it sounded like the perfect mixture of missionary work but also like having a normal 9-5 job, which sounded great to me. One big obstacle was that it was over 700 miles away. I pondered the MSA program for a couple of days. I would go to my customer service job that I didn’t like and constantly think about serving the Lord as my job instead, and it made me happy. I ended up getting some advice from a friend of mine, and she told me to just go ahead and apply because “the worst they can say is no”. Hearing her say that made me so confident. I’m pretty sure I sent in my application that night. After having done the first step to possibly my future job, I felt a mixture of anxiety, nervousness, excitement, all of the above. I just couldn’t wait to hopefully hear back from Heritage. During this excitement, I unfortunately still had to go to work, and have I mentioned, I didn’t like this job?? Well, to everyone’s surprise, and honestly, my surprise too, I quit my job two days after applying to the MSA program. No notice or anything… The trust I put into God to get me to my next step in life was so strong in this moment. All I knew was that I didn’t belong there anymore. After doing that, even though I had no definite plans for another job yet, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. It was kind of exhilarating, not gonna lie. So there I was, unemployed and hoping and praying to hear back from this random retreat center in the middle of nowhere, Georgia. Yeah, I sound crazy just thinking back on it. To my surprise, I heard back from Heritage in just a few days to schedule my first interview. This made me so excited, and I felt like I was moving in the right direction. After the initial interview, I then met with the rest of the staff. Getting called for a second interview made this feel so real. Throughout all the hype of the last couple weeks of interviews and email conversations with Heritage, I still had to remind myself that this wasn’t a guarantee, and that, oh yeah, I still don’t have a job at the moment… I applied to the MSA program in April, but the actual program didn’t start until September, so I knew I needed a job to cover me for those few months, or even longer if I wasn’t accepted. Luckily, I have some coffee shop experience and found myself back behind the espresso bar with a company I love. The month of May consisted of going to work at the coffee shop, but also checking my email every day to see if I was going to be offered the position as an MSA. A few weeks after my final interview, I received an email, but it wasn't one that I was expecting... I was informed that I was most likely going to be the only female MSA. The original plan was to have two boys and two girls, but apparently, I was the only girl candidate who worked out. This added new fear to the situation. Fear of being lonely in a house by myself, fear of being the only girl on the property at night, fear of trying to make friends with random guys I didn’t know. Although I had this new fear, I still reminded myself to trust God. The enemy was trying to pull me away from this once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I couldn’t give in. I had to trust that I’d be safe and loved in this place of God. Finally, on May 22nd, I received the email officially inviting me to the program. I immediately accepted. I knew it was the right thing to do. It may have been the right thing to do, but boy, were there so many things I still needed to figure out… What about my cats? What about this job I just started? What about my lease that ends in June? Do I get a storage unit, or do I get rid of stuff? Oh, and have I even told my dad about this yet??? I knew my mom knew about it. With her working nearby in Lafayette, I would keep her updated on interviews and whatnot, but we never had an actual conversation about it. I then realized I never really told my dad. I also kind of assumed my mom would’ve told him for me… So the day I accepted, I immediately went to my mom's office and told her. I think she had honestly forgotten about the whole thing and obviously had some questions. She also told me I needed to tell my dad. I made the plans to go to Eunice the next day to tell him. He was also confused and honestly quite scared for me. Neither of them fully understood what it was I was doing, and honestly, can I blame them? I wasn’t doing the best job at explaining it and hadn't really told them much up until this moment. I left them with that information and went back home. The next weekend at mass, I prayed to God to help my parents understand what I was doing and why I was doing it. I also sent them a long explanation of the whole process I had been in up until this point. After praying, then reading my message, and also looking at the website and socials, it’s like a switch flipped in their hearts. They were excited for me. They understood more of what I was doing and trusted that this was where God wanted me. It was a beautiful experience for all of us.

So now we’re all on board and begin planning the trip to Georgia that will be here by the end of August. My cats were able to stay with my amazing friend, I was able to extend my lease for one more month and live with my friend for the last month, everything with cleaning out and moving out of my apartment and getting a storage unit worked out great, the job I had just started was so understanding about what I was doing and even offered me a position for when I would come back. Everything fell into place.

August 29th came along, and the long drive to Sharon, Georgia began. Arriving at Heritage the next day was like a dream come true. I had seen pictures and videos for months now, but nothing compared to seeing it in person for the first time. I could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit everywhere I went, and was constantly reminded that I was exactly where I was meant to be. I was so excited to start this next journey of my life.

As I write this, I’ve now been at Heritage for almost a year. This last year has been anything but ordinary. Everything from bug infestations and flat tires to getting to experience snow (TWICE!) and just being in the presence of our Lord every day has been so exciting. Heritage truly is such a special place and will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart.

Although I’ve made it to Heritage, the decision-making and trusting God haven’t stopped. When I first applied, the original plan was to stay for 9 months, but about 6 months in, we were all offered to stay for the full year. That was surprisingly an easy decision since I had no other obligations this summer. However, I was the only one to take the offer, so getting through what I thought would be the last 3 months alone didn’t sound very fun. Luckily, so far I’ve had a lot of support from the staff, and I’ve also used the quiet time to reflect on my life. A month or so after that 3-month offer, I was then offered to stay for another year as MSA Lead! As exciting as this sounded, I went back and forth with my decision so many times. Did I want to be away from my family and friends longer? Did I want to do this work another year, especially with different people? And the lifelong question: what will I do with my cats? After asking myself all these questions and having an emotional trip back home to Eunice, I thought I had made my decision to leave. After some prayer, I decided that I couldn’t let my emotions dictate my future, and decided to stay for the next year. And guess what! Everything has been working out. I've found a wonderful, loving home for my cats this next year. I trusted in the Lord that if He wanted me to stay here longer, He would provide.

Making decisions, especially life-altering ones, can be so difficult at times. Always remember to trust in God. He knows you better than you know yourself, and He loves you better than you love yourself. Also, remember that decision-making never really ends. I decided to come to Heritage, but I never imagined having to decide to stay another year. God throws some crazy curveballs in our faces sometimes, but He knows you, and you know you. Follow your heart, do good, and God will be happy.

If you made it through this post, I really appreciate it. Sharing my journey with others is new to me, but something I love doing. I plan on sharing more about my time and Heritage, and may introduce more people who play into my journey since I mostly just hinted at them in this post. Keep coming back for more <3 God bless.