Ten years ago today I started my job as a church secretary at South Side Baptist Church. Many of you may already know the story of how that came about but I think it bears repeating. It was definitely a God thing!
David and I had thought that we would settle in the Brownwood/Early area after graduating from Howard Payne University. I had a good job but leads for him were very slim in that area at the time. So we half-heartedly threw a resume toward Abilene and David was soon called for an interview. At the interview he was offered a job. David told the company that he would get back with them and let them know if he was going to accept. We went to Redbud Park and sat on a bench by the prairie dog village and prayed earnestly to know God's will in this matter. After all, it didn't exactly line up with what we had planned. And once again we're glad that He had His plans for us. We both felt that a move to Abilene was what God wanted for us and so David accepted the job here, went to training, picked out an apartment and up we moved to the big city of Abilene.
While David had secured gainful employment, it was certainly going to take two paychecks to make ends meet and so I began my job search on Monday morning, June 30, 1997 by stopping by South Side Baptist Church to pray with my former pastor from my hometown. I stepped into his office and we caught up on each other's lives a bit then prayed about my job search. He asked what sort of job I was looking for and I told him I wasn't really too picky. I had a BBA from HPU and I had worked as a receptionist in Brownwood, so I was game for anything from clerical to marketing. He then told me that the Personnel Committee at the church had just okayed it for the Music Minister to have a secretary. I could meet with him that afternoon if I was interested in the job. I couldn't believe it. I met with the Music Minister after lunch and he said that as far as he was concerned I had the job but I might want to attend a service there first. Admittedly the songs were a bit more contemporary than I was used to but David and I loved it immediately. We joined SSBC that first Sunday we visited, July 6, 1997. And ten years ago today I began my job as a church secretary for South Side Baptist Church which I held until the day before Nathan was born.
I like to tell people that David looked for a job for three months and I looked for a job for three hours! Here's a photo one of my best friends and fellow church secretary Renee took of me on my last day of work. Renee is just one of the many many blessings I received while sitting at this desk for seven years.
As a side note - today is my dad's and my brother-in-law's birthday. So here's a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them if they're checking in.And one more thing. Happy Original Birthday to Hannah Kathryn who was born to our friends Matt and Rachel this past Thursday. Rachel is another one of our South Side blessings. She was our adopted college student when she was at Hardin Simmons. We went through some pretty big life changes at about the same time - they were wed three days after Nathan was born. Though we missed the big days in each others lives for obvious reasons, we got together about a month later and shared our photos from the big events. And now they've had another big event, and I do mean big - Hannah was 9 lbs. 9 oz.! Congrats to the newly expanded family.
Here's a picture taken of David, a very pregnant me, and an engaged Rachel and Matt back in the summer of 04.
I guess the old sayings's true - the only constant is change. That's okay though, I wouldn't want things to get boring.
No comments:
Post a Comment