My new job part 2

Kelley says.....

As always there is so much I want to say that I have to really ponder what I want to write. I guess I will just start by telling you more about what goes on at my job. We have clients that have hit a bad patch in their lives. Some of these clients are executives who have lost their jobs. A lot of them are just like me and you.

They start off by making an appointment to come in. When they get there they are greeted by a volunteer. Then, they meet with a counselor who is also a volunteer. The counselor gets their story, asks them questions to get to know them better and see what is going on in their lives. Then, the client is presented the gospel!! How awesome is that?! There are lots of tears and awesome stories that come out of this time. Once they are done with the counselor, they get to go pick out clothes for each person in their family and any household and miscellaneous items we have that they may need. Once they are done in our clothing room they are met by more volunteers who have all their food items on a wagon and their items are taken to their cars and unloaded for them.  They can come and do this once every 30 days.

We have many events throughout the year. I started at the beginning of October and for Thanksgiving we gave out frozen Turkeys and all the trimmings so they could fix their own meals at home. It was a great day. We all went and volunteered and the girls met people all day that were in the same position we were in back in 2009 when Deryl had lost his job.

For Christmas we had a big Birthday Party for Jesus. Every child received a gift as well as every adult! It was so amazing. I just loved every single minute of it and again, my whole family was able to be a part. After this we moved on to what is called "Adopt-a-family". These families stories break my heart. Most of you who know me or have followed me for a while know that I grew up very poor. I lived many years of my childhood in trailer parks. I was always so embarrassed and always picked on and bullied because of it.

The majority of the families who filled out an application in hopes that they would be adopted live in trailer parks. With the exception of families who actually live in old chicken coops. Yes, you read that correctly. There are some old chicken coops that were made into an apartment type living environment and this section is very close to the trailer parks.

I must say that the following story blessed me more than anything else I have experienced at my job so far. The day we were going to deliver some gifts it started raining. I just couldn't believe it. A lot of these people don't have any transportation and if they do they don't have the extra gas money to come pick up their gifts. But it isn't really somewhere you want to go after dark. So delivering gifts was proving to be difficult.

If we didn't get these gifts to these families, they weren't going to have Christmas. I couldn't stand it. I was determined that I would do everything in my power to get as many gifts as I could delivered. Keep in mind, I had never actually been to these areas yet, I had only heard about them. I loaded up my 4 Runner and we loaded up another volunteers SUV and off we went. It was dreary outside and sprinkling off and on. As I got started with my deliveries and I started getting glimpses into these peoples lives a flood of memories came rushing back in my mind from my own childhood. I thought about how awesome it was that God provided this job for me. I felt so incredibly blessed at that moment but so sad that nothing like this existed when I was young. There is just no way for me to go to work each day and not be so very thankful.

I think some people really have no idea what it means to be poor. I mean I know for a fact that some people actually feel like they are poor if they can't go out to eat and to the movies whenever they want. I myself have felt poor if I can't go get clothes for my children that they need. But let me describe poor to you. The majority of applications we took in for families that were hoping to be adopted didn't request dolls or toys or things you would imagine for their children. They asked for socks, underwear, and shoes. Some of the ladies asked for cleaning supplies. The closer it got to Christmas the busier we were. We ended up being totally booked all the way until January 10th and no one could even get in for an appointment. People were calling in saying that they were completely out of food or that their electricity had been turned off.

We all know that things are bad in the economy right now but things are much worse than you could ever imagine for a LOT of people. My job is at a non-profit and they are ran almost completely on volunteers alone and they accept no help from the government. They run strictly on donations. I just think it is amazing and I ask you, my faithful followers of this blog to pray that God would bless my boss and his wife abundantly!! They have a vision to have a medical and dental facility on the property as well. They do SO much more that I would have to write a book to tell you all about it. But it is wonderful.

We have a short bible study and prayer time every Monday. We pray for the clients and other things. On my first Monday there, I found out that not only that small group of people but that several HUNDRED people had been praying since early in 2011 for the perfect person to fill my position. So people were praying me into that job back when my world had completely collapsed back in Texas!! Isn't God just SO darn amazing? I still can't believe it. I know there were the naysayers that questioned how we could have moved so quickly but they just didn't understand. When I found out how so many people who didn't even know me had been praying for me I just couldn't contain the tears. God never ceases to amaze me. So I am here to tell you once again that God is a God of the impossible. Don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Just trust in the ONE who is always on your side and will NEVER let you down!! He is always, always, always FAITHFUL!!