It came to pass that on the last day of the eighth month, after many months of prayer and seeking and exactly two months of joblessness (more or less), I finally found a new opportunity to serve. Today I started work as the communications, evangelization, and outreach coordinator for the Church of St. Andrew in Elk River.

It is a half-time position, which means it provides a base of steady income and the freedom and flexibility for me to write and pursue freelance work. But because it’s only half-time, it also requires me to find enough other work to cover our bills.

It is providential in many ways:

• As I mentioned in my last few posts (“He’s Saving Me,” “Long Way Down,” and “Daily Bread and Darkness“), I think these two months of uncertainty were meant for the good of my soul—for interior preparation, surrender, and reliance on God in this new role.
• The parish business manager, Melissa, said that on the afternoon I applied for the job, she was in the chapel praying, wondering why they weren’t getting the interest they had hoped. Meanwhile I was staring at my computer wondering how, when I had visited the St. Cloud diocese job site multiple times in the past few weeks, I had not seen this posting. I applied, and she got my email that evening.
• Almost exactly a year before I saw this posting, I wrote an essay about what I felt called to do in the Church, and last spring, I wrote a job description. I shared both documents with Melissa and Fr. Mark after the initial interview. The similarity is uncanny, and those first conversations actually helped shape the final job for which I was hired!
• I came in yesterday for a second interview, during which I discovered that the deacon at St. Andrew’s is close friends with our Deacon Greg and that the faith formation director is originally from Albertville and the friend of a close friend of ours. (She has been trying to connect us for years.) The interview went well enough that I had just made it home and was taking off my tie when they called me to see if I could come back and discuss employment.

When I left the faith formation job, I told Jodi I thought was about to work harder than I ever have. Sorting packages for FedEx in the wee hours at age 42 is one kind of hard. Hopefully I can drum up enough freelance work to leave that behind—but I think this will be a new kind of hard. The spiritual growth and deepening trust of the past two months will be essential.

For the record, we are not leaving Albertville or St. Michael Catholic Church. I’m just working one vineyard to the north.

Thank you for your prayers and support, and please continue to pray that I can make enough freelance connections in the coming weeks to make ends meet and continue to progress on my own writing projects. I cannot do this alone.

As always, I am praying for you. If you have specific intentions, do not hesitate to share them with me!