So one or two things have happened since my last blog entry. I guess that happens when you wait nearly a year to post a new one. :-) I was reading through my old posts today and was blown away by the last thing I'd written. God has brought me so far since then it was like reading someone else's story. I love looking back at hard times through the glasses of the present.

Since my last post I've gotten a job, bought a house, had a baby (well, obviously my wife had the baby), quit my job and dived head first back into ministry--all in less than a year. Wow.

My first job was with a youth services company that cares for young people who are unable to live with their parents. I mentored foster kids, worked in one-on-one residential care with mildly to extremely troubled kids and supervised access visits between parents and the kids who have been taken from them by the state (usually for very good reasons). Needless to say, it was a very stressful job. I coped well enough with the stress for the first 6 months or so, but around February of this year it just became too much. I got phone calls at all the wrong times asking me to work. I came home from work so stressed out that I had to just veg in front of the television for a couple of hours before I could carry on a meaningful conversation. I rarely knew when I would have a day off, and when I thought I knew it would change. The pay was good when I had enough work, but because I was a "casual" employee, work was never guaranteed. I noticed physical symptoms of stress: my personality was changing--I was less lighthearted and easygoing, I started getting gray hair (of course, that could just be because I'm almost 30), I developed nervous ticks (no joke). I never wanted to go to work. That grocery bagging job I wrote about was looking pretty good.

In May of this year, I was offered a job at Christians Against Poverty's head office in Newcastle. I jumped on it. I prayed about it a bit along the way, but the signs of God's hand were so obviously all over this, I was able to just move forward with confidence. I went to the interview in peace. Interviews scare the living poopy out of me, so I knew it was God. :-) My resume fit the job perfectly--my WHOLE resume. I never thought I'd find a job that covered all of the apparently random things I've done with my life so far, but here I am.

I've been working with CAP for almost a month now and so far I love every part of it. I'm working in funding and communications and IT services: researching grants, keeping the website up-to-date and troubleshooting IT problems as they arise. I'm quickly becoming the in-house worship leader, as well. It's challenging stuff, but I enjoy a good challenge.

One of the challenges is that we're back to "living by faith", financially speaking. CAP is non-profit and though I'm paid a salary, that salary is paid when enough money comes in from grants and supporters to pay it. Believe it or not, this was actually one of the things that excited me most about the job. I love that I get to look forward to miracles on a regular basis. I really missed that part of being in missions.

So apparently I can't stay away from ministry. Apparently my life experience has been worth more than I thought. Apparently I should trust God a little more.