Not Quite Australia | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Not Quite Australia | Previous Challenge Entry
By Jana Kelley
01/17/09
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The letter arrived in the mail. A plain white business sized envelope, but I knew what it was. My adventure was about to begin! Willing myself to be calm, I reached into the brass colored lock box at my university’s post office to retrieve the ticket to my summer adventure. A hundred other brass post boxes lined the wall. Students came and went, post box keys jangling as they unlocked and re-locked their mailboxes. Perhaps ten or so students stood at the end of the hall, talking and laughing. All of this was background noise to me, barely a distraction as I fingered the rectangular reply to my application.

I was not nervous. Conversely, I was confident. I’d applied for a summer job in Australia. My background in living overseas, I felt, was proof that I could handle a three month assignment across the ocean. What an amazing summer I would have! I’d be leaving this little East Texas town in the dust as my jet-liner zoomed past the clouds and over the oceans.

I opened the envelope and removed the letter. I scanned over the acceptance notification. I was indeed accepted for a summer job… in inner city Houston! What? I could hardly believe what I read. Why wasn't I accepted for Australia? How could they have reasoned that a student applying for a job in Australia would be equally willing to work in the inner city just down the road? The words became a blur on the page. All I could think of was that one square on the application. Inconsequential at the time, I had placed a check on it. Yes, I would be willing to take whatever job they assigned me too, even if it was not my first choice. I whispered a prayer for strength. My amazing summer adventure was morphing into the longest (and probably hottest) three months of my life. I stuffed the paper back into its envelope and slipped it into my book bag. I was not one to turn down a challenge and I had to admit, life in the inner city would be a challenge. But I couldn’t deny the disappointment I felt in my heart. Houston was not quite Australia.

My summer did not involve snapping pictures of kangaroos or learning to speak Aussie while living Down Under. Rather, it involved stopping a knife fight, unloading an 18 wheeler full of potatoes, and falling to sleep each night with police sirens in the background. I never had a chance to fall in love with Australia, but I developed a deep love for the poor who lived among the sky scrapers of corporate Houston. I loved them. I loved their food, I loved the way they spoke and I loved to share Christ with them. No, I didn’t jet away to the other side of the globe to follow God’s call; I drove my Nissan down Highway 59 for a few hours. But I learned a very important lesson that I have held close ever since. During those weeks living in the inner city, just 4 hours from my university, I learned that God could give me love for any one He chose to send me to or any place He asked me to live. Even if it’s not quite Australia.

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