And now... the Teichroew News

In one of my previous posts, I eluded to some big changes that had come down the line for Jonathan and I. Here's a bit more on the explanation--and an opportunity to thank God for his amazing provision.

So about three weeks ago, as we were gearing up for our church's missions festival, Jonathan came home from work to let me know that he had some important news. Turns out due to industry slow-downs, the Minnesota district had been ordered to cut everyone in his position at all the stores in the district. The cut was immediate, he was told on Friday night, and his last day was to be the next Monday.

I was a little shocked. We knew things in the market were not looking good, but had not anticipated that this action would come so soon--and even when we thought about it, we had always assumed that they would create another position for him (in fact they had already expressed desire to transfer him into a trainer position--but right after that talk, corporate had initiated a hiring freeze on the whole district, so we had been waiting for that to be lifted so he could transfer out of his position).

That Friday evening, we had to leave home almost immediately to set up for our missions festival with the rest of the team. I was mainly just walking around in a daze, trying to process what had happened... by the end of that night though we were starting to come to grips with it, and had a chance to talk things through a bit.
As we talked, we both realized that we had been praying about his work situation for months... as J gets ready to start school in January, his previous position would have been a very difficult situation. It was almost an hour commute from our home (each way), and even farther from school. The hours they were demanding would have made it very difficult to get to classes (It was not uncommon for J to leave at 6am, and get home at 6pm--and those were the short days!), and adding school and homework to that mix would have certainly cut out almost any time we had for each other.

As we had a chance to step back, we realized that if we had been praying for God to work in J's work situation, how could we do anything but trust Him if things started happening. By Sunday afternoon, we were wondering if God wanted us to finish J's schooling in China

If you know me, you probably know that I like things to be laid out and planned... yeah sure, I've been known for spontaneity--but you have to understand--it's a carefully thought out spontaneity... Yes we can go to Canada in the middle of the night, yes there's a car to sleep in, yes I have enough money in my bank account to take care of emergencies... My craziness has usually been strategically applied. So for us to suddenly be out of work, with a mortgage and bills to pay--My natural reaction would have been to freak out--try to figure it out--make a gameplan--and get on top of things again.

Instead, we both just felt this great peace about it. As we consciously worked to trust God--that he was doing something in this--I let go of my desire to 'figure it out' and we both prayed and really tried to wait on God, to see what he was going to do. This doesn't mean that Jonathan didn't start looking online for jobs and such, but there was just none of that desperation that we felt it was really up to us.

On Monday morning (J's last day at that job), he began saying his goodbyes at work to the people he has met over the last two years. By Monday afternoon, there was rumor of things happening in the upper levels of the company. See, last October (05), Jonathan had been chosen to lead a relief team to Gulfport MS, to help with Hurricane Katrina disaster relief. We had both gone (I was the trip photographer), and in that process, had gotten to know some of the leaders within the company. Turns out, Jonathan's lay-off had been a middle management decision, and these people not only didn't know about it, they were upset that they were losing him.
By Monday night they had apologized for the confusion and expressed a desire to keep him, by Thursday, he had an interview with a sister company in the district, and on Friday, a week after losing his job, Jonathan was offered a position with this other company.

Now the even cooler part. This job is only a 15 minute commute (as opposed to an hour), and his work schedule will be flexible with his school schedule. Those are just a few of the cool things that have worked out so far. Oh yeah, and now the alarm usually goes off closer to 7am, pretty sweet. :-)
We are very grateful, as we really feel that God was working on our behalf to arrange this in a way that we never could have done alone.

So that's the big news. Sorry for the long post, but I hope that this story encourages you to trust God in your situations--even when they initially are shocking or look bad.

"The eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout all the earth, looking to show himself strong to those whose hearts are wholly his."