Invitations

I told Ryan that I thought about recapping our garage sale from this weekend, and he told me all of you would quit talking to me entirely. Sorry (but not) for the cliffhanger on Friday! :)

So I shall NOT tell you about the garage sale - at least yet - and will instead pick up my story where I left off.

After we hit send on that email, I held my breath, wondering if we'd ever hear anything back at all. Within 24 hours, we did! A gentleman named Rob wrote us back, and much to our surprise, he didn't slam the door on us. Rather, he invited us to join him on a Zoom call so we could learn more about the job - and so he could learn more about us. We scheduled it for four days later, and that night I wrote in my journal, Give us wisdom, Jesus. Don't let us run into something just because it's our idea, but if this is how we can be confetti in Your hands, let us be just that.

Between the day of the invitation and the day of the Zoom call, Ryan and I prayed hard and made a list of questions we wanted to ask. On the evening of Saturday, May 23, we sat at our kitchen table, in front of our coffee bar, ready to meet Rob and learn more.

An hour and twenty minutes later, after a really informative and encouraging conversation, Rob prayed for us and said, "Well, I'm going to send you an application, and that will be your next step. Fill that out, send it back...you keep praying...we'll keep praying...and we'll see how the Lord leads!"

We disconnected the call, sat back, and exhaled. Rob had been so easy to talk to, and as strange as it sounds, the call had felt so natural, and not forced at all. I wrote in my journal, So Jesus, I'm asking You to guide us. If this is something we are chasing for the wrong reasons, then either change our hearts to the correct motives or close this door. It isn't fair or right for us to pursue this for a wrong reason. But if this is the threshold of an amazing new way of life where we can impact the Kingdom for You, then blow the doors wide open. Destroy any obstacles in the way - whether those be our lack of experience or anything else. Just blow those things away, my Jesus!

This is probably a good time to pause and explain what we were even pursuing!

The organization as a whole is a Christ-centered social services organization that offers a variety of services to troubled children and their families. They have a residential campus, school, farm, foster care services, adoption services and a program specifically for those who have aged out of the system but are unsupported as they seek to enter adult life.

And that is the program about which we inquired. Several months ago, the transitional program opened a new piece of its ministry: an apartment building where 18-25 year olds can live for a period of time while they learn life skills and receive help in connecting to the community (relationships, church involvement, jobs, education, etc.). They were seeking a Community Advocate Couple who would be willing to live in the building with the residents, do life alongside them, and serve as mentors and guides.

Have we ever done this kind of work before? No. But did we feel led to explore the possibility? Yes.

And Rob must have seen something in us, because he invited us to apply.

We spent most of the day on Memorial Day (two days after our Zoom call) filling out a lengthy, multi-page application, and calling people to see if they would serve as references for us.

The day after Memorial Day, I returned to regular office hours at the church, but my heart already felt a disconnect. I didn't know for sure if it was my own issue or if it was God beginning a work. I only knew something had changed in a big way, and it would never look the same again.

The day after that (May 27th) Ryan and I went out for an evening walk, as we often do when the weather is nice. We walked all over the neighborhood, talking and dreaming, and as we walked back up our driveway, we noticed a van driving by the house. I said to Ryan, "Was that Pastor Shane?" He's the children's pastor at our church, and I've loved working with him over these last few months. He's just fun. (He is a children's pastor, after all.) We waved, and the van stopped and backed down the street to pull into our driveway.

We asked them what they were doing in our neck of the woods, and they said they'd driven by a house down the road that was for sale. We knew they'd been looking at houses for months (as in over a year) and had never been able to find one that fit their needs and their budget. The market is insanely hot in Kokomo right now, and they were finding it difficult to even get in to see houses. Many are under contract hours after hitting the market. But the one down the road had been there for over a week (not that I knew this from my own realtor.com obsession) so they drove by.

We asked what they thought, and they said it was far too crowded on that street. Couldn't argue with that. Those houses really are on top of each other. We did tell them, though, that the neighborhood was a great place to live. We could vouch for that.

Pastor Shane said, "Well I know for sure who ISN'T moving, and that's you guys! You've done way too many renovations on your house to move now!"

I didn't dare look at Ryan. It took everything in me to say, "Park the van and come on in! You never know! We might be selling soon!"

Instead we laughed off Pastor Shane's comments, waved goodbye, and came back inside the house. We found an email waiting, letting us know our application had been received, and it outlined some additional steps we would need to take. After all...a job in social services comes with many hoops.

We would have to send in consent for background checks, copies of our driver's licenses, and we would have to make a fingerprinting appointment.

While Ryan hunted online for a place doing fingerprints before fall (or so it seemed), Rob called. I answered, and he said he had spoken about us with the director of the whole organization, and the two of them wanted to invite us...


...for a face-to-face interview.