Looking Back I See the Lead of Love

One of my favorite bands is Caedmon’s Call. They have a song called Lead of Love. (Listen to it here. http://grooveshark.com/s/Lead+Of+Love+live+/32KuCp?src=5) The song looks back on the writer’s life to see God leading through circumstances that seemed hazy at the time. Today I had the opportunity to write to a young engineer at George Fox asking about engineering in missions. In writing to him, I was amazed at how God allowed me to reflect on all that He has done in my life to bring me to this point. As my first blog post, I thought I’d share what I wrote with you guys as it is truly a testimony to what God has done and what He will do in our lives.

Dear Friend

I totally know what you’re going through right now. I had the same exact feelings going into my junior year at George Fox. In fact, I even pondered switching to OSU (Fox didn’t have a civil program then) to do civil engineering; but, after a great conversation with one of the professors one day, I ended up staying at George Fox. I didn’t really know what was going to happen. I had been telling myself that I would never work a 9-5 job in an office environment because I didn’t see the value in that for the kingdom of God. I really wanted to find a way to do something meaningful with my engineering and it seemed at the time that civil was the best way to go. It must have been Spring of ’05, when I was at church one morning and became acutely aware of my own lack of trust in the Lord to work all things out for good. I remember driving back to Fox from church (I usually went home to Lake Oswego for church) filled with tears as I felt God calling me to walk in faith like Abraham without having all the plans together. So I stayed in mechanical engineering as I felt that God was telling me to stay the course and that He could use me in whatever discipline I was in.

Now, that doesn’t mean that’s what He’s calling you to. As I don’t know you or your situation, I couldn’t possibly have any wisdom on what he’s calling you to. What I can say is: what you study, your skill set, your degree will never, and should never pin you into a box as to what your future holds. Life, development, change, and adaptation do not stop when you leave school. There is no formula for what life looks like as a mechanical engineer or a civil engineer. An engineer is simply someone who understands how to look at a problem and figures out a way to solve it.

When I left Fox, I didn’t want to work a normal job, so I joined up with Engineering Ministries International in Colorado. I worked in their internship program for 5 months in the Fall of ’07 and it was an awesome experience. I got to go to Haiti and to Ukraine to design a church, and an orphanage. I met real engineers who are giving their whole lives to the mission field. Not only that, I met my future wife there, as she was also an intern doing landscape architecture. All of it was a great experience and I highly encourage you to check it out; however, the internship did come to an end in December ’07 and all of a sudden I found myself having to pay back college loans having no money to do it with. I moved back home with no idea what the future would hold.

Through a long story, a guy offered me a job at his newly started company in Sisters, OR. He asked if I could meet up with him for an interview. Upon meeting him, he basically told me he was already planning on hiring me and asked me to move within a week to start work. Holy Crap! I was totally freaked out. I felt like I’d just signed my life away to something I’d never do, a 9-5 job. Instead of feeling excited, I felt like I’d just tied myself to a ball and chain. I had no relationships in Central Oregon and no real desire to work for THE MAN. But, God had a plan.

Within a week of moving here, He gave me a church, friends, a place to live, and an amazing job full of freedom and responsibility. In 2008, I designed and oversaw construction on 4 landfill gas-to-energy power plants! What a responsibility for a new engineer. Since then, I’ve helped to design many more similar power plants in all areas of the country. I was surprised to find that I actually liked going to work. Not only that, I really gained a sense that God was using this time to teach me valuable skills as well as help me in paying off my loans so that I could be free for his work in the future. Also to my surprise, I found a group of engineers at my church who were interested in volunteering in missions work. Together we began work on a project in Tanzania which amazingly had been started by friends of mine at EMI. Little did I know that this little project that I helped out with on the side of my normal activities would blossom into God’s plan for my future life.

In July of this year, Jenna and I accepted an offer to move to Tanzania to install a hydroelectric plant at a seminary in rural western Tanzania. We will be moving to Tanzania in October with plans to live there for a year till next September. What a testament to how God works in a life. I never could have envisioned this when I was originally pondering how my engineering was going to be useful for God’s kingdom.

Since leaving school in 2007, I can look back and see God working in every faith-filled step that I’ve taken in life. Through my experience at EMI, I gained a great perspective on what it is to use engineering in the mission field; but, most importantly I met my beautiful wife Jenna there. We were married in May of 2010 and I am so extremely blessed to have her as my “helper completer”. Through my experience working at Energyneering Solutions since 2008, I have learned an incredibly valuable skillset in both engineering and project management. I’ve been able to pay off all of my debt as well as my wife’s debt. Additionally, in July of this year, I became a licensed professional engineer. How crazy is that? Now, God is taking us to Africa to use my skill-sets in renewable energy engineering and project management. I have no clue what will happen from here and to be quite honest, I’m quite nervous about it all; however, looking at the path the Lord has taken me on over the past four years, I know that I can be confident that “He who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).

Wow! I really got going there. Thank you for contacting me. I can see the Lord’s leading in it as I really needed this time to reflect as well. Anyways, I hope my story helps you as you weigh your options about the future. Don’t tie yourself into a box with how God can use you. You never know how he might work. Being an engineer isn’t about what you learn in school. It’s about what you learn out of school and how God uses that in your life. Life is always changing. God is always working. He will finish the work he’s begun in you.

Good luck in school this next year,

Jeff Friesen