Sunday, July 09, 2006

about the job - finally the update!

Finally the update about my job situation... so here's a long update!

After writing about job hunting for many months... starting to wonder if all my efforts were in vain, getting paranoid on numerous occasions and wondering if I sent the wrong resume, or if I had misspelled words etc... I am now finally working! yay! And how it came about was just a blessing. About eight weeks ago I had just about given up hope finding a decent job. Anyway a former colleague of mine from my Hong Kong working days and I were chatting online, and out of the blue she said to me, "Ann, I've been meaning to tell you something for a while now & I should have told you earlier but I was really hesitant... I've been praying for you and I feel that you'll be getting a job in the education sector." I was really gobsmacked when I read what she wrote, yet somehow funnily I felt a sense of peace over the situation but searching for a job for months I tried not to give it too much thought (didn't want to give myself false hopes!) Anyway a few days later I had an interview with a recruitment agency, within a week I got a job! It wasn't the job the agency had originally got lined up for me... but I somehow ended up with a temp job in the Department of Education... It was originally a 5-day long job, but that has changed and I'm still currently working there with the possibility of staying on till December. I'm really enjoying the job too! So I may not want to be a teacher just yet, but it doesn't mean I can't be doing stuff related to education! haha how humourous is that! Sheesh what a blessing! I feel like I've been pampered by God.

Well here are some of the lessons I learnt from my crazy job hunting experience:
- My God is patient, even when I'm not. I guess being a city girl who's used to everything being "instant", having to wait was just agonizing. I prayed for a job, and believed that I would get a job, but when I didn't get an immediate result I panicked, I doubted.
- God wants to communicate to me. I think often I just tell God what's been happening and what I would like etc, and especially when I started feeling pressured about not having found work, my communication with God was even less. And because I wasn't communicating well with God, He used my friend in Hong Kong to speak to me.
- Reflecting back on the whole situation just makes me enjoy my work even more.
- Reminds me that - God is always working for us, despite us.
- Psalm 37:4-5 "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you."

I was able to share this story with my church a month ago (just two weeks into the job)... the crazier thing was that I was supposed to share something (it's a scheduled segment for young adults to share something that's been on their heart, that happens every couple of weeks in the Sunday evening service) a few weeks before that, but in all honesty I felt like I had nothing to share cuz my world was just looking so grey and the events coordinator just so happened to ask if it was alright if I could postpone the date because of other events happening at church around that time. It was just timely, more like God's timing, that my world got turned around before I was supposed to go up on stage to share... I was pretty nervous and felt burdened that Sunday morning I was to share the testimony and my cell leader prayed for me at church and as I was driving home for lunch I began to feel freer, and by the time I got to church for the evening service I was actually feeling pumped... It later reminded me of the scripture in 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."

Anyway here are some pics from the past month:


ann on stage (view from the big screen) + my newly knit white scarf

the trees outside church by day + by night

my friend carlos came over to perth for a business trip + my connect group girls dressed as our favourite hero and villain outfits for the end of term 2 youth