"More Glory to God"

On Monday, January 23, 2006, I was fired from my job as a trainer with a home and auto insurance company. This blow was devastating and liberating at the same time.   You see, for the previous 1½ years, in addition to teaching techniques for effective insurance sales, I had also been quietly but effectively sharing my faith with students and fellow employees as the Holy Spirit led me.  I had also been expanding my training work into other departments in that 800+ employee company, and was working on a recruiting and retention program to present to the company President/CEO.

Though the firing was not without warning, it was unexpected because I had been making progress in the areas of shortcoming identified by my supervisor.  

Just the Thursday before, I had lunch with my Pastor and at the end of our time together, I asked him, “How can I
pray for you today?”  Without hesitation, he laughingly said, “Well we need a secretary/office manager in the church office.”  Immediately I had a witness in my spirit that resonated as a knowing of God's presence.  When I went home that Thursday evening, I shared the conversation between Pastor & me with my wife.  When I got to the part about“a secretary/office manager in the church office,” that witness was there again, just as strong as before, so I told my wife about it.  We agreed to stay aware of it and to pray and seek God's will for it's meaning considering my present job situation.

When I went into work on Monday after the weekend, my supervisor met me at the door, invited me into a nearby
office and fired me.  I called my wife on the way home to let her know.  When I got home, we prayed together for
God's wisdom and grace about my employment situation. My wife is a stay at home mom whose full time job is
mothering, tending to, educating and advocating for her 7 year old son, my beautiful stepson who has some
learning disabilities, in addition to her work in the ministry.

We agreed that I should start the unemployment insurance claim immediately while we began praying for my next
job/assignment/position. You see, as difficult as this moment was, our faith had already been established.  We were sure of God's promise in Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected (hopeful) end. Then shall you call upon Me, and you shall go and pray to Me, and I will hearken (listen) to you.  And you shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart.”  

Here's a portion of the Glory to God:
On Tuesday we revisited my conversation with Pastor Dennis, prayed about it, and felt we heard from God that
during this time of unemployment, however long it might be, I should sow my time and talents into the Pastors, and the church as a volunteer in the secretary/office manager position.  I called Pastor Dennis and Pastor Sandy to let them know how God was leading me, (they already knew about the firing), and we all agreed to meet after service on Wednesday night to discuss the details and expectations.  That Wednesday we came to an agreement and I started volunteering in that position on Tuesday of the following week.

This arrangement proved to be mutually beneficial, though I believe I got the bigger blessing:  in return for applying the customer service, business management, organizational development, and ministry giftings that God has given me, I received the opportunity to learn Pastoring 1st hand in a Moses/Joshua relationship with my senior Pastor.   Praise God!

On the way to church/work one Tuesday morning, I had a blowout of my front left tire about ½ mile from church.  I
slowly drove my car into the church parking lot, went into the office to let the Pastor know that I would be back to my post just as soon as I took off the flat tire and put on the donut spare.   A little while after I had been working on it, he came outside to keep me company. In walking around my car, he pointed out that the right front tire had the fragments of the steel belts showing through.  Feeling totally beyond helping myself, I just looked upward as said something I've heard my mother say many times, “Well Lord, You know.”  What else could I do?  The Lord was the only resource I had, and I admittedly had no idea where His help would come from or how.  I only felt absolutely certain that it would come because I was doing His will.

After getting the tire changed I went into the church office to get to work.  I had no one to call to borrow money from for 1 or 2 new tires, so after relaying and discussing the situation with my wife, we decided I would continue to drive my car to church and “do the work” for as long as the donut spare held out.

More Glory to God:

Later that morning, a husband and wife who are church elders came to see the Pastor.  They knew of my job loss
and assignment to serve the Pastors.  After their meeting with Pastor Dennis, they saw me in the hallway and the
husband said to me, “Pastor told us about your tire; what size do your have on you car?” After I told him he said, “I'll get back to you this afternoon and let you know what to do.”  He did call later and told me there was an appointment set up for me on that coming Friday to get my tire taken care of.   I called B to let her know and we rejoiced and praised God in thankfulness for this provision.  From Tuesday afternoon to early Friday afternoon I drove slowly, carefully and prayerfully on that donut spare 30 minutes each way to work at church and back home.

On Friday afternoon I met the elder at the designated tire store for my appointment.  He handed me an envelope
and I thanked him.  He told me that there were more than 10 people from church who had contributed to the love
gift, and to be sure to testify of this in church and thank the anonymous contributors.  I assured him that we would. Then he left.  After the repairs were made, I paid what I thought was a very high amount for 2 tires, only to discover that there had been 4 new tires purchased, balanced and mounted. Glory Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!

More Glory to God:

The following Sunday morning at church, another church elder pulled me and B aside as we came in and said he
had something for us.  He pulled an envelope out of his jacket pocket and handed it to us.  He said he was asked to give it to us, but the giver wanted to remain anonymous.  We received it, and thanked him and prayed God's
blessings on the giver, and gave God thanks for the gift.  Then we went into the service.  After the service and on our drive home we opened the envelope and found $250.00 in Festival Foods gift cards.  Praise God!

More Glory to God:
In the month of March, B and I separately went through some 20+ hours of personal healing ministry known as
“Restoring the Foundations.”  This healing ministry is about filleting you open to Almighty God and trusted ministry providers, so that the wisdom, grace and restoration of the Wonderful Counselor can be brought to bear for the ministry receiver.  Also bear in mind that we are both attending Bible College full time, and have been since October 2005.  God made it possible for us to have close family friends care for M during our Bible College class times. Once it was made known to our BC classmates, and other church family that I was unemployed, this time of corporate/intercessory prayer took on a whole new meaning for us.  Praise God!

It is important to point out that during this time I was continually applying for positions and after about 25 – 30
applications had been submitted I had received only one (1) phone interview and one (1) face to face interview,
both of which sent me a “Thanks but no thanks” letter.  

More Glory to God:
In May during conversation with our Pastors, Pastor Sandy asked me “Was prison ministry a “call or an opportunity.” “What was the first thing God called you to?”  By way of background, many of you already know that B and I began the prison ministry work in 2001 by going and teaching at Sanger B. Powers Correctional Center. Specifically, we spent every other Saturday evening with the men in a group called Circle of Recovery, and the scope of what we did expanded from there and became Beyond the Bars Prison Ministry.  But back in 1971, 35 years ago God called me into the preaching ministry…and I knew it, but I wasn't ready to submit to His will.  Well, after much prayer and conversations with my mother, (who reminded me of the time and the way the call had come and been manifested) I surrendered totally to God in this area also.  I shared this information with our Pastors and it wasn't long afterward that Pastor Dennis asked me to preach the Wednesday night service, which I did on June 14th. Praise God!

So why am I telling you all of this? What is my purpose? To be certain, it is not to have you feel sorry for us, but to give you hope.  I know that sounds pretty funny, so please look at it this way:  B and I have worked hard on
controlling our flesh and walking in Agape Love toward everyone. We faithfully serve the Lord Jesus Christ.  We
have consistently given tithes, as well as offerings as the Lord has enabled us.  Yet we are and have been targets for the fiery darts of the enemy.  My desire is to encourage you by letting you know that we all must endure hardship as a good soldier. Every day we have to decide to continue to serve in the army of the Lord, to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.  It is important to know, also, that we could not have gotten through any of this without the intercessory prayer of so many members of our church family and other believers.

Concerning employment:  In early May I found a position online with Northeast Wisconsin Technical College that was“right up my alley.”  Twenty-one contacts and five months later I was hired into a position that God tailor made for me.  I started this new position in September, after almost 8 months of unemployment.  Praise the Lord!

I receive this opportunity as a spiritual assignment that will produce financial provision, as I “work as unto the Lord”.

“Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, which has loved us, and has given us everlasting
comfort and good hope through grace, consolation (comfort) your hearts, and establish (strengthen) you in every good word and work.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:16 -17

May the Lord richly bless you in the work He has called you to do.