Interactions with God #63
Right after leaving the church in Nashua, we found a church not too far from where we lived in Lowell, MA. It was the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Chelmsford, MA. It was a great church. One of the best we have been part of even to this day. Pastor Ed Conway was a nice guy and a good teacher. In my first meeting with him, he listened to my story without any criticism or judgment. When I finished, he did something that really helped me heal. He apologized.
Not that he needed to, for he had nothing to do with all the bad church experiences I had up until then. He said “I am sorry. I am sorry you had to experience those things.” I just sat there for a second. I just can’t tell you how much those few words meant to me. Everything just seemed better after that. It was.
In a relatively short time, Martha and I were placed in a position of leadership. Actually, we were conned into it by a man I would call my mentor, Bernie Michaud. Yes, conned. For those who know Bernie, well, this is would not seem that unusual.
Bernie had approached me at the end of a service late in 1993 and asked me if Martha and I would co-lead a home group with another couple. The goal of the group would be to filter off several couples who were in the church’s counseling program. When we went to the first meeting, I spent the whole night trying to figure out which couple were the other leaders. I finally gave up and cornered Bernie in the kitchen to ask him. He replied, “Well…the other couple, kind of backed out.” “So, Martha and I are going to lead this alone?” “Yup, pretty much.” “Oh…Ok.” Yes, we ended up leading the thing, and we just loved it!
On the other hand, Selling insurance was not going very well. The year of my stable salary had ended. Each month now, we made less and less. I did sell some insurance policies, but not enough to make up the difference. It became clear that the commission needed to survive required a very large number of sold policies. I didn’t have them, and I wasn’t going to get them anytime soon. By January of 1994, we realized we could not afford to live after February ended. It was crunch time.
While praying for God to fix the work situation, God took us down to the wire. At the Vineyard Church, I met a guy named Chuck. Chuck had gotten a job doing telemarketing at a software company called Sybase. Basically, they would call companies that responded to a marketing ad. The goal was to find out if they were really potential customers. If they were, we passed along their information to an inside sales rep. Chuck had told me about a job opening in his group. I went through the interview process that lasted weeks.
By mid-February, the only hope we had was this job at Sybase. If it didn’t happen, we were not going to be able to pay the rent for March. God brought the Job offer, just as February ended. My start date at Sybase was March 4th of 1994. I now made 3 times what I made selling insurance!
Unfortunately, my nails were all but gone. I really need to stop worrying about God’s plan.