my job

Some of you have asked about my new job. So I thought I'd fill you in. First of all, I love my job! They handed me a check today and I was like... you mean I get paid to do this!
I am so grateful every morning as I drive the 30 minute commute to my job because I can't believe I get to do what I do!
It is so much more than being the receptionist for the church I have attended since the week that Randy and I were engaged in Feb. of 1979. I love this place... this community of grace we call Open Door Fellowship. I get to see so many that I love and I get to serve them and answer the phones and help the various ministries in any way I can and best of all, the staff is so fun and awesome! And because our church happens to be in a very congested, busy part of Phoenix ( oh and a half a mile from one of the "top ten most dangerous intersections in the nation"! )... well, we get needy, drug-addicted, mentally ill, homeless people in our offices every day. And the stories are heartbreaking. And I get sad... and mad... and feel so helpless. We offer them what we can... knowing it's not enough. And I pray I will not grow weary and heartless to their plight but that I will be an encouragement to them with kind and loving words.

So, how about a little, light-hearted story that happened a couple of weeks ago. It was VBS week on our church campus.
Ok, let me back up 25 years... my last job was the music teacher and cook at a preschool, the five years prior to Shawn's birth. But I was also the resident "tooth-puller" those five years. And a mighty darn good one I might add. Never made a kid cry in all those years. Well, word must have gotten out... cuz that week of VBS, I was called out of a meeting, and there stood the sweetest, saddest little girl. Our Children's Pastor explained to me that this little girl was sad cuz her tooth needed to be pulled... so I knelt down and pulled it... umm, more like the tooth fell onto the tissue as I reached in to pull it. The little girl, who btw, did not even know me, gave me the biggest smile and the biggest hug! I walked back into my meeting and yelled out "I'm back! I still got it!" Seriously, I was in tears... that I would be so blessed to have made a little girl so happy by pulling her tooth. Come on, how many of you get paid to do that!!

So, I am the receptionist and I also input updated information for each member of our church on FileMakerPro, while I am answering the phones. And I work Tuesday, Wed. and Thursday. And I love my job.