musings from my heart: October 2006

31 October 2006

Livin' La Vita Loca

Though not the quality of life depicted in that Ricky Martin song (if that is how you spell it!), it still remains an amazingly good description of my life at the moment. Life is crazy. Finishing off at Starbucks, working close to 60hrs for another week and then just trying to stay on top of anything else that I have to do. The tactic for survival is that I only do the things that I have to do. I just have to remember to do all the things that I have to do. And remember where to go when my job changes location and then organise the transport complications that result from having to be in two places at once. Ahh, the joy! But life goes on and it's only two weeks of this. Hopefully things will be more normal after that.

17 October 2006

Another job

So I find myself in a situation of almost an excess of employment. Today I got hired for a job with a TSA shelter - different to the one that I currently have. So I am on call there as well. Basically it means that if I can pick up enough on-call shifts there is not a necessity for me to keep the Starbucks job. This is where I have been headed but I also want to handle it properly. So pray for wisdom in regards to decision-making here, whether it is in regards to monitoring the number of hours I work (gonna total 50+ this week) or how to talk to my various employers about working for them.

But in the midst of it I am reminded of God's provision, and how once again, everything involved with Canada and being here and staying here has just been such a smooth process, and God is my provider and the One who watches me every step of the way.

(Just gotta get some sleep in. For three days in a row I have started no later than 6.30am and then finished another job no earlier than 10pm. Thank goodness a holiday is just around the corner.)

16 October 2006

Working

So my life seems to revolve around work at the moment. I worked from 6.30am - 1.30pm today and then got home and somewhere between 2 and 4pm got called in to my TSA work. So work there is from 4pm - 10pm. Then tomorrow I will get up at around 4.30am and work from 5.15 to 9.15am. Then I have a job interview for the other on-call position with TSA and then I have cell in the afternoon. Wednesday will be working at Starbucks in the morning and then I'm picking up another 4-10pm TSA shift in the evening. So life is just a little busy. Thank goodness I am having a holiday for 5 days and travelling to Toronto. Gonna go meet a whole bunch of people. Could be interesting!

15 October 2006

More changes

Just when you thought I couldn't possibly change my schedule any more...

I have just been given another 10hr shift with my TSA job. So that means that I will be working for them 17hrs. I also have an interview with another TSA shelter, Belkin House, for on-call work there. It might be possible for a combination of working for both these places. Please pray that all of this continues to work smoothly and that I can swing things with Starbucks for the current time so that I won't have to work 7 days a week.

12 October 2006

New Starbucks

So I moved to a new Starbucks store this week. I had done a couple shifts filling in their schedule in the previous weeks and then they asked me if I wanted to transfer. The store is kind of crazy, particularly because there are so many people that fill in shifts, and it requires some getting used to in the differences from my old store.

But here's the thing. One of the reasons that it can get quite chaotic is something that I think can be managed. The point, I think, is seen in comparison. At my old store, when we were crazy busy everyone locks into a position and they stay there and do their job there as efficiently and well as posssible. At my new store, when it gets crazy busy the roles of the people on the floor seem to become very fluid, with lots of people doing parts of other people's jobs. Now I think it might be thought that people are being helpful, but when you look at it from the outside, I suspect that it actually slows down the process, because you have too many people changing from one area to another. It works better when everyone has there own role, they know what it is and they stick to it, without trying to do or be someone else.

Hopefully in the not too distant future we will get this and some other organisational issues sorted (you never realise how important seeming meaningless organisational tasks are until they are not done) and then we will rock that town. But I wondered if maybe the observations had some applications to our Christian experience. Something like a body, or something? What do you think?

05 October 2006

New Job

I have a new job. Working with women escaping from domestic violence. It reminds me of YOS at a much slower pace. But I remember why I loved my job at YOS. Because I got paid to talk to people, and help them out with their stuff. And this is the same. And so I have been doing orientation and it reminds me why I love this work and what I did all that study for and it's good to be reminded.

So sometimes life makes sense and sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes God is so close you can feel His breath and sometimes you feel you can't find Him no matter how hard you search. I don't promise to have all the answers, but it still might be fun!

: Name: bec; Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Learning to love God's Word and finding it stretching, growing, remolding and strengthening me. Learning to step up and be who I've been called to be.

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If we are indifferent to the art of dancing, we have failed to understand, not merely the supreme manifestation of physical life, but also the supreme symbol of spiritual life. - Havelock Ellis

musings from my heart