the official uncertain announcement

Hello everyone,

I made a decision last year to come to Corban College. Although a large part of me felt like going somewhere a bit further from home, I felt like God was leading me to Corban’s campus. Whenever people would ask me about where I was going for college, I always replied with a certain amount of uncertainty – “I’ll be at Corban next year, but that’s about as far as I know.”
Well, still with a great deal of uncertainty I am announcing to you my tentative plans for next year, and they are a bit less comfortable than staying in my hometown. I feel like God is calling me to do soccer ministry in Austria next year. Through the Cascade Surge and Vanguard Ministries, I have the opportunity to play semi-pro soccer in Vienna and do missions work for 10 months, beginning this August. I will be playing with the Cascade Surge this summer, and after their season ends I will be flying to Austria to begin training with a club over there. I don’t know which club yet, but I will be trying out for several teams in late June. I’m not exactly sure what I would be doing in Vienna, much less if I will make a team, but I have been in contact with the two players that are over there now. They have been ministering to Turkish Muslims, running a Bible Study with university students, and sharing the gospel with their teammates. I would imagine that I would be doing something similar.
You will notice that there’s a lot of I’m not exactly sure’s, I don’t know’s, and generally uncertain statements in my writing. Well, that’s because that’s where I’m at. For whatever reason, I feel like God wants me over there in Vienna next year. This really doesn’t make sense when I consider my health as of late. Since the end of soccer in the fall, I have been dealing with a sprained knee, torn ab, tendonitis in my hip, and now possibly a hernia. I sound like an old man, and I know that if I play for a year in Austria, I’ll probably be in a wheelchair for the rest of my life. But, like I said, I feel like God’s leading me to Austria.
I’m reading a book called The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning, and he speaks of a faith beyond certainty:
“God calls us to break camp, abandon the comfort and security of the status quo, and embark in perilous freedom on the journey to a new Canaan [just like God called Abraham to do]…I wanted God to sketch out definite lines so that I might now explicitly where I was going. Of course, authentic faith eludes such certainty. It means we cannot cling to anything. We always must leave something behind and not look back.”
So, I feel like this is the direction Jesus is going, and I want to follow him into the questions.
There are two things I need from you as my friends. One, I feel, is much more important than the other - will you please pray for me? Although nothing really seems to make sense at this point, I know that if God wants me in Austria next year, he can get me there. Pray that, if it is his will, I would be able to learn German, get healthy, raise money, and make a team. Pray that if this is what he wants things would just fall into place as he desires. The second and less important but still necessary thing that I’m going to need is money. As far as I know I would be paid on a weekly basis depending on the result of the game. That means no cash if I don’t play or my team doesn’t win or tie. So, please pray about supporting me along with your other prayers.
Thank you so much for the support that you have already given to me. To him be all the glory.

collin