Galveston Island State Park, Galveston, Texas
A wicked man listens to evil lips; a liar pays attention to a malicious tongue. ~ Proverbs 17:4
The weather’s not been cooperating too much lately. I guess because we’re due for a visit from named storm, Isaiah. We’ve been mostly holed up inside, with a jaunt to the beach the past few days. Today, just to change things up a bit, we walked the opposite direction. Not a ton of interesting, but it’s a beach! And that, in and of itself, is enough. 😊
They’re kinda trashy looking in person, and almost all of them have these decks built over top of them. Guess they don’t have room for a porch area on the side??
Since I have few words or pictures today, I’ve decided to share another God Moment.
In November, 2006, Ron Southerland decided to close his practice and head to the Middle East. He had joined the Army Reserves in 2004 and his practice had begun a slow death ever since. I won’t go into all that here, but the purpose of telling you this is because of what happened after. My friend Janet Sigler, helped me put a resume together and I started checking the want ads and praying. My prayer was very simple – “God, just put me where You want me.” That’s it. That’s all I really cared about.
I applied to several jobs, but got few responses. It seemed no one wanted part-time, uneducated help. But one day, I came home to a very garbled message (On an answering machine! Remember those?) that someone was setting up interviews. I listened over and over, but couldn’t figure out anything on the message except the interview part. At that time, there was only one place that I had recently applied to, so I wrote a note and faxed it to “Sarah” at that place. Nothing. In January, I happened to overhear a conversation that a woman from our ABF, Joyce Smith, was going to need to hire some help for her assisted living home. I called. She was excited to hear from me. We met. We talked. She offered the job, but the hours were horrible for me. So I called my friend Connie (with the intent of getting the job for her friend Phillis, but Connie would have to drive her, so that’s why I called Connie first). Connie wanted the job for herself. I put her in contact with Joyce. Connie got the job. They were both unhappy about me not taking it, but as it turns out, it was the perfect job for Connie and Joyce loves her!
So, now Connie had a job, but I was still out of work! Then, one day in January, I got a call from a woman named Sarah from Lifeline Partners. We set up an interview. During the interview, I caught a glimpse of the fax I had sent to a “Sarah” back in November – so this was the same place that had called me that I couldn’t understand the message!
Anyway, everything about the job seemed perfect – except the location. I thought it would be at their Canton office, but the opening was in Stow. So I left there with a promise from Sarah to call me in a few days to let me know whether or not I had the job, and in the meantime, I was to decide about Stow. Of course, when I shared everything with Blaine, his first response was the distance and the fact that there’s only one way to get there from here and that’s the expressway. If there’s an accident, etc., you just have to sit there and wait. But, as I pointed out to him. Our prayer had been to be where God wanted me and I just wasn’t comfortable saying “Thanks, but it’s too far.”
Sarah called the next day (not 2-3 days later) and offered me the job. I took it. As I was in training, I kept hearing from many different people – including the owner in Youngstown – about how Sarah had hired two other people before me and they didn’t stay but a couple of days and how they’d never had that problem before – ever! I knew then that God had been holding this job for me – so I could help get Connie her job! How cool is that! I’m still not sure why God has placed me there, but it’s a great company to work for and my co-workers are terrific. I’ve had several opportunities to witness there and I’ve enjoyed that immensely! And, at my 1-year evaluation, I took the time to explain to Sarah how I ended up at Lifeline. She said she thought that was a great story and thanked me for sharing it with her. I love sharing my “God Moments” with anyone who will listen – including you, whoever you are, as you read this.