Leaving the Dream Center but Keeping the Dream

Next Friday will be my last day as a part of the Marketing Department at the Dream Center. When I leave I will have been here for almost 2.5 years.

It seems unreal that so much time has passed since I first walked off that plane at LAX in October in my thick black pea coat and realized quickly that I had overdressed for the season, as the sun was pouring down from the blue sky.
I remember walking into my room for the first time.

I didn’t have a roommate yet because she didn’t arrive for a couple days and my room was very little. There were two closets, one long antique looking dresser, a little tiny window and a bunk bed. The bathroom was between two rooms and there was a sink in my room. I set out my stuff carefully making sure to leave room for the girl that would come in and I made my bed. I was so nervous and excited and scared and anxious. I couldn’t believe I was 18 years old and I had just flown one way to LA for an entire year. What was God thinking?

The truth is- I didn’t make the best of the beginning of my time at the Dream Center. Instead of coming with a servants heart, I came with a selfish heart. I thought I knew what God wanted me to do here, but the truth is, I wasn’t really asking Him what He wanted. I was telling Him what I wanted. It took me awhile to adapt because I wasn’t serving with the kind of attitude I should have been.

After some time, as I was trying to figure out plans, it was as if God hit me upside the head with a brick and everything I had spent so much time fighting suddenly made complete sense. It was after that, that I began to take on more leadership responsibilities and became a marketing manager helping to over see all of our graphics and web design. It was through that, that we finally developed this blog (an overdue project my boss had wanted for years).

This little blog became my outlet. I wanted people to truly know the struggles and truth and excitement of being a volunteer. That it isn’t easy but it IS worth it. I have had hard times here. Times where I had no one to lean on except God and times where I wanted to go home. But I have also grown more here than any other time in my life. I know, that had I left, I would not be striving to reach the great potential that I know God has put inside of me.

I am leaving next week only because it is time for me to move on.
The Dream Center is an amazing jumping off point for so many people. For some, it is a lifetime commitment. And for others it is just a glimpse of the great and impossible things they will help accomplish for God.

These last couple years have been so “the right thing” for me. They were so “Only God” and so exactly where I needed to be. If God is calling you here, you need to come. It may be hard but it will also be the times you laugh the most, make the greatest friends and learn things you didn’t know you could ever learn.

I look back on my time here and I am grateful for the wonderful experience and opportunities God has given me. I hope that those same things can be there for you to experience when you come, whoever you are. Because I know you’re reading this.

Know that there is a place for you here and great opportunities waiting, that one day you will look back on and think, “Wow, how did I deserve to be so blessed?”
And truly, the only answer is because God loves us and wants the best for us.

I hope your time at the Dream Center can be as impacting on your life as mine has been for me.

Shannon