Face forward - even if not moving forward

Many will not remember this post from a year ago. There are a few Opera friends who have partnered with me in prayer until that day happened. Monday March 24, 2008 I received a phone call in the morning from our Associate Director asking, "When can you come in to start work?"

"About 45 minutes ago," I replied.

He laughed on the other end and said, "Tomorrow morning is fine." Thus a "tree of life" was born. I don't believe it was a coincidence it was the Easter Monday that year.

I'm bringing in a cake to celebrate with my co-workers. They have been a pleasure to work with and made this first year go by so fast.

As a few Opera friends have known, I've been looking for full-time work for 2 years now. Today was the day I began a full-time job with a missions organization that builds fixed-tune radios.

Let's back up a bit...

Eight years ago I went back to college to begin what I believed was God's direction to integrate my hands-on work with a formal education in manufacturing and engineering. It was very hard work; the program at the time was one of the hardest in the province. I believed it also provided the best value for my educational dollar and provide better job opportunities when finished.

In April 2005 I finished full-time studies. I was also 2 courses short of my diploma. Guess how many jobs I could have done that required a diploma? Lots. I tried falling back on what I had done before going back to school: working as a service technician for home health care companies; fixing wheelchairs, walkers and other durable medical equipment. My finances were in bad shape and by September 2005 I declared personal bankruptcy. How much worse could it get?

A company who wanted to strong-arm me into doing additional work for far less than minimum wage and outside of our original work contract let me go in March 2006. Until last week, I've been working temp jobs with a local agency. They have been a blessing in providing work when needed to help pay the bills. If additional things were needed, God somehow provided extra work or food or whatever to keep just ahead of my commitments. It has been a time of proving the line in the Lord's Prayer, “give us this day our daily bread”.

Coming to today...

Believe me, I had given up hope that what God spoke to my heart 8 years ago would ever come to pass – until two weeks ago. My hairdresser had also known I was looking for full-time work and the missions emphasis on my education. She called me at home on a Sunday afternoon to let me know there was an opening for an assembly worker at Galcom International. They had actually put a notice in their church bulletin. I called first thing the next morning to a fellow there I had teamed up with to do a volunteer project earlier and he let me know who to forward a resume to. They liked the resume and an interview was scheduled for the week prior to the Easter Weekend. The interview went well, they checked my references (the people told me the company had called), but it was the waiting throughout the Easter Weekend that was the hardest.

Yesterday morning at 10:30 was the call of acceptance and to come in for this morning. There was about 20 minutes of shock and then a period of crying with thankfulness beside my bed. It was not only over, but it included a missions element as well. Proverbs 13:12 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

Today I learned various aspects of tuning and building the radios pictured above. Now each one of these radios is the vocal agent for a person called of God to transmit the Gospel to a region or peoples that is being neglected by large-scale missions operations. Some of these regions are so remote, they are actually dropped by plane with little hand-made parachutes! So even though I personally don't go, what I build does, and is the representative for a person who brings teaching and music to the person holding these little radios.

So today, I became a missionary.

Contrary to the blasting of extrovert media advertising, the world needs introverts. Thinkers; feelers; planners and perceptive souls who would rather spend time alone to be "energized" and effective.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) repeated a show recently that was aired earlier in the year. It was both enlightening and comforting. I am not a freak, nor am I incompetent because some answers don't jump off the tip of my tongue. The link is here, but is best viewed in Internet Explorer - and high speed cable .

I'm steady and dependable at the work I do. My co-workers know I am part of the team to make us all effective in our daily production. Working alone at my job helps me think ahead to what I can do to smooth out the work of others around me. It's what introverts do - even if others don't appreciate it.