Moving South to Virginia

After two years of crazy shift work in Pennsylvania Reed transferred to a national park in Virginia.  We’ve lived in the same house for twenty years, but Reed has worked three different law enforcement jobs with two different agencies.  Looking back, we can see God’s hand in each one of the job changes.

One of the most memorable job changes was the opportunity Reed had to work for the U. S. Forest Service.  He had applied for a job change within the National Park Service, but we would have been required to move into the park.  The commute would have been too long for me to continue teaching school.  In God’s timing the perfect job opened up with the Forest Service that allowed us to continue living in town.  He worked for the Forest Service for fifteen years until his retirement two years ago.  I’m still teaching in a public high school and looking for ways to share Christ in my job.  I’d appreciate your prayers when school starts on August 12.

Another GodMove: from TX to PA

While living in San Antonio, Reed applied for several law enforcement jobs around the country.  He wanted to transfer from his historical interpreter’s job to law enforcement, but he had to make the switch before he turned 37, the cut-off with the National Park Service.  He was offered a job in Pennsylvania, shortly after our second child was born.  I felt like Abraham and Sarah, moving far, far away from family and friends.

At first, we didn’t know why God moved us all the way to Pennsylvania, but within the next two years God made it very clear to us.  We were able to share Christ with several friends, but our friendship with the Aiosas made the biggest impact on our lives.

My parents came to visit us for two months while Reed was in Georgia at the law enforcement training center.  They became friends with the Aiosas, too.  My dad had the opportunity to tell Joe about the love of Jesus, and I had several opportunities to share Christ with Bobbi.  Just before we moved away from Pennsylvania Bobbi got very sick.  She had hepatits so we visited by phone.  I talked to her again about Jesus.  Then I asked my dad to call her.  He talked with her again, and she trusted in Jesus for her salvation shortly before she died.  That’s when we knew why God moved us all the way to Pennsylvania. 

Later when we moved to Virginia Bobbi and Joe’s daughter began writing to me, and I had the opportunity to encourage her to put her faith in Jesus.  Unfortunately, Roni quit writing to me after I witnessed to her about Jesus.  I’m hoping that she eventually turned her life over to Christ.

Debbie Albrecht is another reason God sent us to Pennsylvania.  She and I became good friends.  Her husband worked long hours on Wall Street.  Sometimes we got together when our husbands were working.  Our family got to meet her parents at their New Year’s Eve dinner.  Their daughter, Kristen, and our daughter, Sherry, became good friends.  I had the opportunity to share my faith, and she talked about her Catholic background.  She said that her family didn’t go to church anywhere because they didn’t want to influence their children.  They wanted to let them decide for themselves what to believe.  She knew that we took our children to church to introduce them to Christian beliefs, but the final decision was up to them.

I have the same hope for Debbie as I have for Roni.  I hope that our conversations made an impact on her and that she accepted Christ as her Savior.  Unfortunately, I lost contact with her when she divorced her husband and later remarried.  Our daughters corresponded for awhile, but eventually the letters stopped coming.

I’m always disappointed when I witness for Christ, but no decisions are made.  But I have to remind myself that I’ve done my part by sharing about Jesus.  Only He can save.  I hope to see Roni and Debbie and their families in Heaven some day.  God doesn’t need me around for them to make decisions for Christ.  The seed has been planted.  “God yields the increase.”

Move to San Antonio. Blessing or Curse?

My husband and I have moved several times over the past 32 years.  Most of the moves were job-related.  Each time we wonder if the move will be a blessing or a curse, even though we try to remain positive.  My husband had worked as a police officer in a big city for several years when my brother offered him a job in a new company.  We prayed about the move, but had a lot of trouble determining God’s will.  The rotating shifts were really hard on Reed.  He had trouble sleeping more than 4 or 5 hours during the day.  He also had a funeral escort business with other police officers as a side job.  On top of that, he had to mow 2 acres around our house every week and take care of a 2 year old on his days off while I worked.  We finally decided to give it a try.  We figured that he could always finish his college degree if the business weren’t successful.  His VA educational benefits were going to run out in a few years.

We moved to San Antonio in July and bought a house with a 15 1/2% interest rate.  The business went under in November, and I had to find a teaching job.  That’s not very easy to do when school has already started.  Unbelievably, a teacher had just resigned from his job the week before I needed one.  After I was hired I discovered why he had resigned.  He must not have had control of the classroom.  Many of the kids were very disrespectful and didn’t want to learn.  One student rubbed his hand against my leg as I passed his desk.  Fortunately the administration honored my decision to remove him from my class.

Reed was not eager to return to school.  He was banking on a successful business.  When the business failed, he really wanted to go back to his old police job.  The police chief had told him when he left that he could come back anytime.  We decided to put the house up for sale.  Unfortunately, no one wanted to buy a house when the interest rates were so high.  Meanwhile, the air conditioning broke down.  We were so broke that we didn’t fix the air conditioning and suffered through the 100 degree weather with fans.  We slept with the windows open.  We would have been nervous about keeping the windows open at night, but God had provided 5 barking dogs next door.  Reed says that the best deterrent to crime is a barking dog.  Unfortunately, the barking dogs had fleas, which the neighbor girl blessed us with, when she came over to visit.  We even had fleas in the car and flea bites on us!  Our pastor, Bro. Van, loaned us his car to use while we put “flea bombs” in our house and car.  Then he inherited fleas in his car.

Meanwhile, Reed was working on his degree and delivering pizzas at night to help pay the bills.  The car kept breaking down.  We discovered that our Chevy Citation was a piece of junk.  We finally found a buyer for the house.  He put down $500 earnest money.  We moved out, and the buyer and his family moved in.  His loan didn’t go through.  When he moved out of our house he took our ornamental monkey grass with him and left a hole in the bedroom door!  The roof started leaking, and we discovered termites behind the tile in the shower stall.  What else could go wrong?!

Reed finished his bachelor’s degree.  He already had an associate’s degree in law enforcement.  He majored in History since he thought he might like to teach.  He took three education classes, but the last one “did him in”.  He observed students in a history class at the school where I taught.  He was shocked at the disrespectful, lazy behavior of the students.  He wanted to handcuff them and take them to jail. 

What do you do with a History degree?  He thought he might be able to get a postal job since he was a “5 point veteran”.  He had served in the Air Force during the Vietnam era.  He made a perfect score (100 +5 points) every time he took the postal exam, but the post office was only hiring “10 point vets”.

Reed went to the Federal Building in downtown San Antonio and applied for a federal job.  Then he went to the Job Placement Center at UTSA.  The counselor told him that he didn’t have a chance of getting on with the National Park Service.  He didn’t tell the counselor that he had already applied for a job.  He was hired by the San Antonio Missions National Historic Park as an interpreter.  He had taken several Spanish history classes, never realizing that this particular background would enable him to get a job telling stories about the Spanish missions in San Antonio.  The job paid much less than his salary as a city police officer, but at least it got his “foot in the door”.

A short time later he transferred to a National Recreation Area as a park ranger (law enforcement officer).  Finally, after four years in San Antonio we were able to see our move as a blessing.  We made some special friends and enjoyed living near our families.  But the next move would take us far away from family.  Would it be a blessing or a curse?