Zellers

Henry Wiebe took me out for lunch or dinner, we were in the cafeteria of a Zellers there in Winnipeg.

His simple question was as my future father-in-law, asking me how I planned on supporting myself, and his daughter, once married. At this point I didn’t know much about the Wiebe’s. Not anything near what I someday would come to know. How he, acting as agent for his wife, must have been sent, to ensure that I was roped into their web.

My answer was simple. If God wanted me to get a job, he would let me know.

You though, you need to know that at that point I was 20 years old. I had worked for a living ever since I was 13 years old. First as a paper-boy, then as a stock-boy at a local pharmacy store, and eventually a cook and waiter for a restaurant called The Country Kitchen. I also worked as a lifeguard and swim instructor.

I worked for the Canadian Red Cross as a member of the Boating Safety Detachment, a travelling team of young people, who went from beach to beach, and camp ground to camp ground, setting up demonstrations. We had 6 canoes with us, that we pulled on a trailer. We’d demo canoe strokes, and teach the safety that went along with boating. Such things as what to bring along with you in the boat, floatation, noise maker, extra paddle, etc.

There was a fight between me and another member of the team, and my employer chose to kill two birds with one stone. She removed me from the team, and placed me at the Canadian Forces Air Base as Lifeguard, a position that had come up.

I was the waterfront director for our church camp, a paid position that I had myself created by writing up a proposal. I ran the water safety for our church camp that was 6 weeks long, Junior, intermediate and senior girls; then another three like that for the boys.

I could go on, but I knew it at that point. But at college, I had mistakenly, perhaps, gone there to study. Not realizing I could do both.

When I told him that God would tell me if he wanted me to have a job, one of the first things he said to me was, “A job isn’t just gonna walk through the front door! You have to go out and look for it!” It was evident that he was confronting my naivety with his life experience. He and I had already established a close relationship, at that time, but later it would grow. He was both a man of God, led by the Spirit. But he was also in a relationship with a woman that ruled over him. He was caught in the middle somewhat. There’s this one time, when he had prepared a blessing for me one Sunday. He was our Sunday School teacher. We were already married at that point, and his message was that I had the gift of loving those who didn’t love me. He broke down in tears as he said this to me. I knew he was speaking of either himself and his wife, or just his wife. That he knew of her aggressive stance against me. I’m not prepared to accept that he was “all in” on that agenda. They had an unhealthy hold over their daughter. One that she, Lori, reached out to me to be delivered from, but I instead got pulled into it. Its like sibling rivalry. Which is described as the wish to have the exclusive love of one’s parents, to the point of wishing the other children to die, literally or figuratively. My failure to leave and cleave, caused me grief, and ultimately cost me that marriage. The offer to flee back into their arms, an escape route, was always there, and at times the offers were sweetened with promises of a car, and other such things as she may need. “Don’t worry, if you leave him, we’ll provide for you.” kinda thing…

Amoung other things, though, he asked how God would go about telling me to get a job, and I agreed that he, as an elder in the Lord, could be such a source.

When I got back to college, I sat down at my desk in my dorm room. Picture it with me. A room just wide enough for two single beds, my own and my room-mate’s on either side, and the same width in between like a path to the back of the room. On the back wall, a window that was from waist high to just about to the ceiling. At the foot of the beds there was a space, and a desk on either side, facing the door to our dorm room. A book shelf above that. Just inside the door was a similar size space, with a dresser for clothes on one side, and a coat closet with no door on the other side. I was there, Greek homework in front of me. My Greek text book, my Greek New Testament, and my notebook, pens and etc. I bowed my head and prayed,

truth be told, I am a shy person at heart, and the idea of hitting the streets and looking for a job was daunting for me. I was in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and my home town was Winnipeg, Manitoba. My prayer, as I bowed my head to give this ‘word’ to God was, “Father God, I submit to you. I need you to give me all that I need here. Where to apply, and how to do it, in Jesus name, Amen.”

Now hold onto your seat, cuz what happened next is the absolute truth. Picture me there, facing the door, with my pen in hand, looking at my text book, and that very instant, a knock came on the door, and Brian Cornelius, one of the other first year students there, entered my room. I think his body was half in the door, half hanging out there, like someone delivering a message like, “lunch is ready” … but instead he said,

“Are you looking for a job?”

I probably blinked, but I said something like, “funny you should ask…” and invited him to tell me more. He had saved up all his money for college before coming, but God had told him – he said – to give it all away. When he arrived at college, he immediately went out and applied for several jobs. This resulted in 3 interviews/job offers. He could only take two of them. Would I like to go to the job interview at Pinders Grosvenor Drug Store?

an aside: if you’ve forgotten, go look up there, that’s one of the job experiences I had, working in a drug store.

I went to the interview. I also “fleeced” by telling the manager that I could not work Sundays. I was hired as a cashier. The job came walking through my front door. Yes, my father-in-law was instrumental in preparing me for this! Definitely. But God also honoured my heart’s integrity! I was sincerely looking for him to lead me.

Matthew 6:33-34

So… think what you will. But as I write this down, its a significant story that God meets us where we are at. Look in his word, that’s how God does things.

What I found was that although I now had to do school work, and be employed a few blocks away, I actually made better use of my time, and responded to the structure of having to plan my study times.

Look at 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 and other scriptures that talk about “if a man won’t work, he shall not eat.” The principle of working for a living is a tangent we can go on soon 🙂 This is something that I have not thought of in connection with this time in my life. For it was through Lori’s parents that was taken out of the notion. . . I had the heavenly realm on the one side, and the practical realm on the other. God pays his bills.

I see this in the fact that God called Abram out of the world, and separated him as an individual. He had his girl Sarai. They made the journey OUT of their country. God didn’t take over a nation, he called a man out of the nations. This was, as we see through the scriptures, God preparing a place for Jesus Christ himself to be born into. God prepared a place! Through him, Abram, all nations would be blessed. A foretelling of God’s plan, that Abram would have had no idea about. But as I wrote out Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus… its all there… God brought the proposal to Abram. Abram knew only that God was speaking, and calling him out. And Abram’s obedience? Quote here, Abram believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abram was saved by grace through faith.

Back to my dorm room, on yet another day. If you have a bad memory, go up and read the description of that room I was in. Now, walk out my dorm room door, and look left and right. On both sides of the hall were the other dorm rooms, the bathroom and shower area, and at the far end, was the apartment of the dean of Students. At both ends were stairways that led down to the first floor. On the right, down the hall from our dorm room, was the door to the stairwell that led down to “available room” I’m laughing cuz that’s what I called it. It was the foyer of the dorm. The girls dorm led up from one side, and the boys from the other. In the middle was a set of doors, a glassed in staircase that led down into the cafeteria. On the girl’s side and boys side, under their respective halves, were the games room for each. Ping Pong, TV etc. The cafeteria and foyer were common areas. Opposite the stairway down into the cafeteria was the door to the campus itself, the classrooms, and at the end of that hall way, on the right was the Chapel.

When meal time arrived, we would gather in the “available room” I mean, foyer, and they would eventually unlock the doors so that we could all go down to eat together. Single boys and girls would meet here, incidentally. And they by that fact were available for relationships to form.

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