A few weeks ago I realized that I was going to run into some financial issues soon if I did not get some sort of income while here at Elim. I knew all the places in town that I could possibly get a job because I have been down this road before. There were two problems. One, I had no desire to work at any if the places. Tough luck, get over it. Two, I had heard that no one was hiring. Randomly, I don’t know what brought it to mind (or maybe I do) but I remembered before when I applied at places that while I sat at the place that I would later end up working at for a time, a man sitting across the booth form me mentioned that the Christian school was looking for someone to clean a couple of evenings a week. I had no experience cleaning and no desire to work at Lima Christian School, though something about it was almost tempting. I threw the idea aside and took a different job that ultimately did not turn out to well.
That was three and a half years ago, but if they needed someone then, maybe they would need someone now. I mentioned it to my mom and she said that maybe it was God that brought it to mind. I kind of agreed and began looking in the places where they had put an add before or where they might put one now. Nothing. I checked their website but also found nothing. For a couple of weeks I waited, randomly checking back to see if they had put anything. Then one Saturday I went around town and applied at different places. Returning to my room afterwards, I felt very discouraged. The only person who seemed at all interested in hiring me appeared to change his mind at the mention of Elim. Funny, that is the same thing that happened three years ago when I applied there. Some things never change.
At any rate, I talked to my mom and she mentioned that perhaps God had something better for me. She then proceeded to mention the possibility of babysitting which happened to be something I DO NOT do and would be far from an improvement. If I got asked to babysit, short of God cracking me on the head, I would instantly say no without so much as a second thought. One good thing about the conversation was that her mention of God having something better made me think about the cleaning position again. It felt so right, so I decided to do something more than wait. I called, when no one answered I e-mailed.
That Monday I received an e-mail from the school principal asking me if I would be interested in a substitute cleaning position with the possibility that someone may decide not to be on the regular cleaning crew and then I would get the regular job. I stopped by the school later that week to get an application. The principal was not in but someone took my name and phone number. The following Monday I got a call from the principal asking me to come in that week for an interview. We scheduled it for the following morning. I kept telling myself over and over again, “someone left. They need you for the regular cleaning crew. God wants you to have this job and you are going to get it. This is meant to be.” During the interview we kept running into problems, or one all encompassing problem really, and that was the difference in schedules between Lima Christian and Elim. Elim lets out two months before LCS and Elim has twice as long of a Christmas break. But they needed someone because one of the regular cleaners was not coming back this fall. They agreed to a compromise. They would find someone to replace me for the last two months of school if I made myself available at all other times despite Elim’s breaks. As we had been discussing the schedules I kept thinking, “This will not work, you know it won’t. Tell them it won’t work and get this over with. You know that is how it is going to end anyway. Say it now.” But I did not. Something in me still believed that this was meant to be.
After giving me a tour of the school and laying out the basics of how it all worked the interview ended with the principal giving me an application and a copy of the LCS schedule and telling me to let him know if it would work. Walking home, I could not get passed the fact that it could not work but neither could I get passed the thought that it was meant be and I was going to have the job. The closer I got to home the clearer things became in my head, details falling into place. How much would it cost to stay at Elim over breaks? Would I still get a decent length of a break over Christmas? Thanksgiving? What should be my priority right now? Where does God want me? Here at Elim in the fall and in the spring. I could see that apart from a miracle, without this job there would d be no spring semester at Elim. God brought me here, told me stay for three years. I needed to make being here my priority. God would provide, but unless someone was going to drop a few thousand dollars in my lap randomly I would need a job. The only real question remaining being, is this job God’s way of providing for me?
I believe the answer is yes. It has been a week since the interview and a couple days ago I was officially offered the position and I accepted. I will be starting the first week of September, right after classes begin at Elim.
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