Saturday, March 9, 2013

A Stewardship Journey (continued)

Part 5

Now I certainly won't bore you with my endless instances of witnessing God working through our lives in the manners of stewardship (trust me, there are hundreds), but there are a just a couple more "God Moments" I would like to share.

As I had mentioned in my first post, Steve was working at a car dealership (Saturn) as an oil change technician. He had been struggling with what he wanted to do as a "career." He had gone through two years of college for architecture, but determined that wasn't for him. He had also tried out jobs in a couple of other areas, but they weren't what he was looking for either. He actually obtained the job as an oil change technician at Saturn, partly due to a connection his dad had with the Service Manager.

Steve started out at Saturn of Brown Deer, changing oil. Eventually, they saw potential for him to start up an in house auto repair shop. So he became a Body Shop Consultant. Over the course of 16 years, he worked his way up through various body shop positions and ended up as Body Shop Manager at Saturn of Greenfield. We lived in Milwaukee when he moved to that position and our home was about 5 minutes away from his work. It was an ideal situation.

In September 2004, we moved to Ixonia. By this time, we had been blessed with our Benjamin. He was 3 years old. Isaiah was in first grade. Steve's employment allowed me the luxury of being a stay at home mom. We had come from our church home of St. Paul's in West Allis, where my boys were 5th generation members. I had deep ties and I was missing my "connection" to my church home and church family.

I remember sitting in the pew at St. Paul's of Oconomowoc reading the blurb in the bulletin looking for a full time church secretary. In my mind, it was the perfect way for me to become integrated in my new church family. I had no intention of working outside of the home and Steve wasn't very keen on the idea. But I decided to "throw my hat in the ring" (over eight years ago) with no office experience, and see what God had in store for me. As most of you know, I got the job. You may find this hard to believe, but I am working my dream job. To be surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ on a daily basis and to be serving my church with the work that I do, is more than I could have ever dreamed of. Not to mention the fact that I was really able to get to know my new church family:).

Meanwhile, Steve was driving to Saturn of Greenfield each day, which was a 45 minute commute each way. He had about 3 guys working for him and they all got along really well together. There was lots of joking around and fun days. I wouldn't say he loved his job, but he didn't mind waking up and going to work.

Through all of these times, we were faithfully attending church as a family every Sunday, becoming involved in Bible Studies and continuing our commitment to tithing.

In November of 2009 on his way home from work, Steve was pulled over by a police officer for expired plates. It also turned out that our car wasn't registered (long story, but not the main point:)). The ticket was $400, along with some points being added to his record. We were less than thrilled with the situation, but had the means to pay it if necessary.

Fast forward 2 months to January 6, 2010. Steve had a court date to explain the circumstances of the ticket and hopefully get the points reduced, if not completely taken away. He called me at work later that day to let me know that they not only took the points away, we didn't have to pay the ticket either! I was ecstatic! (It's the little things for me:)).

That evening, the kids and I were having dinner at my in-laws before Time to Grow. Steve would always join us after work. I remember him walking in to the dining room and asking to speak with me privately. He told me he had lost his job. After 16 years with the company and with no real reason, he was let go. No severance pay, no notice, nothing. This was during a time when I was hearing of people who were taking months find employment.

I looked him in the eyes and said, "Okay. God has given us this. What do we do now?"

I had such a sense of peace and serenity with the situation. There was no anger, no frustration...complete trust. I knew, without a doubt, that He would take care of us. He always had and he always will. There was no reason to believe otherwise.

To be continued...

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