I have to write to tell you all of my new job. No doubt it will be the most difficult position yet, but it is such an answer to prayer I can't help but be excited.
As I was finishing up in Topeka, Kansas I learned that my job with Empowered Church program through Amazing Facts was going have to end because of legalities of stipend workers and government regulations (they were going to have to pay me a regular wage rather than a stipend and they couldn't afford it).
Pastor Jean Ross took my resume and presented it to the church in Sacramento CA where Doug Bachelor preaches from. They e-mailed me a few times and asked me to come out for a three month probationary position! This would have become a permanent position with great opportunities. It was a Bible worker's dream job for sure - the hoard of people wanting Bible studies would even come to the church and I wouldn't have to drive anywhere! I hadn't heard anything from the other resumes I had sent out and decided that this must be the way God was leading. I was to start in Sacramento on Feb 1st.
Then on Jan 5th I got a surprise call from the Iowa/Missouri conference of Seventh-day Adventists asking me if I would consider a position as the Bible worker and church coach for two churches who are simultaneously doing the Empowered church program (which is what I have been doing for the year and a half). I will have to live in Sioux City for half a week and Spencer for half a week (a 2 hour drive apart), and one of the churches doesn't have a Pastor or any leadership at all... It's not exactly a dream job, but I have to explain something....
When I first became a Christian I was watching a video report at church that showed a map of the USA with little shining dots appearing where missionary work was going on. They were reading a quote about how the message of who God really is will go to every part of the world. And I watched to see a light appear in Iowa... the scene ended with not a single dot in Iowa and just one or two in the whole Midwest! It sparked a dream in my heart to be a light here in Iowa so that all my neighbors and family would also get to know God. And as the years have gone by I have tried to get a Bible work job here, tried to share with my family and neighbors, tried to stay here to shine for Jesus. But I kept getting sent everywhere but Iowa!
Now my dream is coming true! I know it will be really difficult - the needs here are so great that even a whole team of Bible workers would struggle to make a difference. But God has led me for the last 7 years... to Ukraine, to ARISE, to my first two years of Bible work in Michigan, to Radiant Living, to working in three places with the Amazing Facts Empowered Church program... I have learned so much in these places. Most of all I have learned that God is the one who loves people, and I am the one who gets to witness it! And I am SO thankful that He is calling me to shine my little light here in Iowa. There is a dot on the map now! Even if I only get to be a small part of starting this work, I will be eternally grateful. God fulfills the dreams He plants in our hearts!
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