Unemployed

I'm done.

Today was my last day of work.

After two and a half years I'm done.

I am now unemployed. It feels...the same.
I'm serious. I'm not sure how I expected to feel when I finished, but not like this. I feel the same way I felt when I had a job. Am I in denial? Or do I just not really care one way or the other? Whoa! Scratch that last statement. I do care. After two years of office work (a job I never thought I would do) I am finally free. No more typing papers, answering phones, staring at a computer screen, and making photocopies. I think my true reaction to being unemployed will hit in about two weeks when I don't receive a paycheck and am faced with the prospect of flying to another country with no income.

Hmm...what's it like to be broke in New Zealand?

On the plus side, God continues to work. Yesterday my Senior Pastor took me and my sister out to lunch. Good conversations. I really love my Pastor. For the past two and a half years I feel like I have been under an intense discipleship program as I've typed his notes for Sundays, Bible studies, Seminars, etc. He is a wealth of knowledge and I have been able to speak with him about some tough and deep theological questions. Who needs a degree from a Seminary or Christian College when you are discipled daily just by working at your job. Also, he really has a love for people, Christian and unsaved. This love spurs him to give of his time for members in the body of Christ when he really doesn't have it, and it has sent him to the streets, with or without others of the flock, to share the Gospel with those who so desperately need Jesus' forgiveness. Seeing this love has given me such a respect for ministers. Through him I have seen the ferver and the concern of the Apostle Paul lived out right before me.

The cool thing is I didn't work with just one Pastor but three. Three times the discipleship (in varying degrees), and three different perspectives of what it is to be a Pastor. This is the part of the job that I know I will miss.

I also worked with many other people who I will also miss. My hiring/firing boss, the head of the Properties Committee, surprised me, my sister, and the new secretary with a lunch of chinese food (ordered from a great restaurant called Hunan on Coventry). He picked up this food from the restaurant and then brought it to the church and proceeded to set a table with silverware and china plates so that our meal would be "special." He also served us a dessert of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with cookies arranged in a lovely design in a bowl. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it. He said it was a thank you from the Properties Committee to the secretaries for all of our hard work. He also gave me a big bouquet of flowers in a vase. Wow! I felt very loved. As a final gift, he has offered to pay for the cake for my going away party. Yay! Thank you Lord. There are so many wonderful people at my church just like this man. I'll miss them all.

So I'm unemployed. That's alright. Because, you know what? I know I'm loved...by family, friends, and most importantly, God.