I’m finding this to be a fun thing to do. I just need to make more time in my week to do more.
When we were at my in-laws’ place a couple of weeks ago, there was a story on the local news about “bloggers”. My father-in-law asked me, “What exactly is a ‘blogger’? I can’t figure out what that means.” I had fun telling him that I am a blogger now. This is a man who does as little as possible on the computer. He appreciates all the things my mother-in-law does on the computer, but keeps away from it as much as possible. I think he understood more about it after I explained it.
Anyway, last time, I talked about being raised as a PK. My father pastored a smaller church. Now, he attends a church near to his home. I also talked about meeting my husband. I’ll continue my story here. Brian graduated a year before I did and moved back to Illinois, found a job , an apartment for us and a home church. We wrote letters, called each other and flew to visit with each other a couple of times. Once Brian and I married, we moved to Illinois. He had found a wonderful church family there. I worked in the preschool for two of the three years we lived there.
When he told me the type of church he had found, I was a little concerned. But as I have learned throughout our marriage, my husband follows the Lord’s direction. After we had been there about a year, the pastor asked me to teach in the preschool. We lived just down the road from the church. Brian and I were poor newly weds and owned exactly one vehicle. I usually walked back and forth to work. In fact, on Wednesday’s I just took supper with me (Brian worked late cleaning a courthouse) and helped out with the Children’s Choir.
When you truly enjoy your job, you know you have been called to do it. I absolutely looked forward to seeing my students each day. This is why I look forward to starting a preschool in our new church. Getting it off the ground has proven to be a challenge. Administration and licensing isn’t as much my thing. I want to be with the children. The school day is the easy part, getting there is hard. Brian graduated with a degree in broadcasting. The field can be a difficult one to get into. There are a lot of people out there looking for jobs. Also, the job, especially Christian broadcasting, doesn’t pay enough to raise a family. It is difficult to move up within a particular station. We have watched my brother-in-law move around (within one state) more than we would care to move. It is also an ever changing environment. Stations tend to be bought and sold more than other companies are. With each management change comes questions about how long you will be in your position or what your hours may be. We decided to look into other career options.
An opportunity at a certain retailer in Northwest Arkansas (who will remain nameless) came up. Brian started in a warehouse and moved into the IT department later on. I don’t think he had thought much about a career in computers while he was in college. It turns out that he rather enjoys it now. Combined with the whole broadcasting uncertainty was the fact that the area we were living in was in an economical drought.
Brian had held down more jobs than we could count. He had a part-time job in a local television station, a part-time job cleaning the local courthouse and picked up odd jobs wherever he could. In the middle of all this, Brian had a burst appendix. We saw miracles in his health (should have died) and financial provision from the Lord. Our time in Illinois was most decidedly a time of faith for us. Not that we don’t live by faith now. Every day is a day of faith around here. But that time was one of extreme relying on the Lord to supply our needs. So the change of jobs was a very positive one. It was good to have medical insurance and other benefits. It was also a relief to know Brian had a full-time job.
It was amazing to see how God led us here. My parents lived in the area (45 minutes away). The only downside was that we knew that it had been difficult for them to find a home church. So we joined them in their home church. I’ll go into that more next time.