You may be wondering what this Belize thing is all about or how it started, or maybe you've just stumbled across my blog randomly and thought who is this guy and why am I so intrigued by his awesome blog and run-on sentences? well, here's my best attempt at satisfying that for you.
Sometime last year, I began meeting with my mentor, Jeff and several of my closest brothers. We would meet every week for accountability and whatever else. One night, while we were praying, Jeff got a vision. The vision was of us starting a church in a coffee shop. We didn't talk about it much; Jeff tends to have a lot of visions. The next week, as we met, Jeff told us he had a location for the vision he saw.. San Pedro, Belize. That stirred my interest. He had never heard of it before, he had basically just started researching possible places to go and San Pedro just kept coming up. So as he looked into it, he found that Belize is the only English speaking country in Central America, which is a plus! Among other things, San Pedro has a huge need for revival. It's a place where people are hungry and searching, yet their resources are limited and they have a huge need for strong leadership. This whole idea captured my heart and the ideas started flowing.
At the time, I was one week away from auditions for UNT. I had spent the past two and a half years studying and training to get into one of the top music schools in the world as a jazz drum set major. It had been a dream of mine since early high school to study music and move to New York to play jazz, as one of my drum instructors had done. I had poured everything I had into that dream and in an instant, it felt so unappealing. For three days, I fasted and asked God for direction. On the final day of my fast, I asked God to speak to me in a dream....so he did. In my dream, I received a phone call from an unknown number. As I answered, it was my drum teacher, Gene, the one who had been helping me prepare for UNT. Without me saying anything, he said, "I've been thinking about what you said, don't go to UNT." Well if that's not a clear answer, then I don't know what is! So I didn't go to auditions. Here's the crazy part.. As I went to my drum lesson on Monday, Gene asked me how the big audition went. "I didn't go." I told him about the dream and how I felt God leading me toward Belize. His response? I've actually been thinking about that and I'm fully supportive of your decision. I had just mentioned the idea to him a week earlier. That was the beginning of my confirmation.
As I began telling people about this idea, which had already began to take shape, I found that responses were totally different than I expected. Never once did I get a negative reaction. I didn't get any criticism, everyone who heard was filled with joy for me, as though God was preparing the path. Friends, parents, grandparents, relatives and all kinds of people were supportive of me and the path I had set out on. I would have at least expected some confrontation, but that never came.
I recall a conversation with you about a summer ago that went a little like this. "Jarod, what is your backup plan if you never become a famous jazz drummer?" You sarcastically replied, "I'll move to an island in some other country, sell hemp bracelets and play my guitar on the beach."
ReplyDeleteAh the ironies of life. I can't help but feel you have placed a huge smile on God's heart.
haha yup :D
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