My new job!

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted. So much has happened that every time I've thought about sitting down to write, I've been overwhelmed. But here goes!

I finally have a new job!! After seven months of temp-ing at the Red Cross and countless hours of job searching accompanied by a lot of soul-stretching around the questions of faith, worth, and trust in God, something finally came through. This something took seriously a month and a half, from the time I was first interviewed to the time they finally hired me, and it was an epic experience. They'd initially left me a voice mail on my cell phone, asking me to come in for an interview, but something happened and I was checking my old voice mails a week later and realized that I'd never called them. Horrible, horrible! I felt practically sick, and I prayed and prayed and got my roommate to pray with me before I called...and they still wanted me to come in for an interview! So after jumping through all of the successive hoops for a month, and after they had told me to give notice and I'd done so, I received a phone call that they actually didn't yet have funding secured for my position, as the meeting they were depending on had been delayed. That weekend was so stressful for me, as my two weeks notice were almost up and I had no guarantee that a job would be there for me at the end of it. Again, I prayed, except this time I got lots more people to pray for the situation too! (so many thanks to all of you who walked and prayed with me through that time) And they called me back the next week to hire me!

I've worked there just over one week now, and I really like it. It's a small nonprofit that provides case management services and an emergency shelter for homeless folks, and right now I'm working at the front desk. My official title is "Intake Case Manager," but I haven't actually done any intake interviews yet! It's an interesting spot to be in, to be constantly engaging with folks who are almost always very polite but scared and frustrated and tired of jumping through hoops to try to get help. Thus far I hope I've been able to successfully navigate treating folks with compassion and empathy while not allowing their perceived emergencies to become my emergency. It's been great to interact with the other staff, mostly women, who work there, and I am learning so much from them. I think God knew what I needed in a work environment to grow, because they are all very supportive and verbally encouraging, which is just what helps me along!

The downside: at the end of my first week there, during my first staff meeting, my supervisor informed all of the staff that she had just been told that the agency was in such serious financial straights that we should all start looking for a job. I could have fallen over, I was in such shock. We haven't folded yet, and indeed the exec director is hoping that LA county will come through for us with funding, since we provide significant services to homeless folks who come from all over the county, but yes, it's not guaranteed. So my new job may soon become my first layoff. It was a new experience for me to stand around after the meeting and process what was happening with my coworkers. Some people are ever the optimists. Others are angry, or sad, or concerned about the clients. There's a little private swearing that comes out when the supervisor isn't there. As for me, I think I'm still in disbelief. At this point, I can't even figure out what to pray. Hasn't this already been a rollercoaster to get here, God? Was I supposed to reject this job, even though it's the only one to come along in months? If I pray that the agency stays afloat with all of our jobs, will there be something else even worse, the next dip in the rollercoaster, that comes along? I'm so confused.