Soon

God’s different plans were for Ryan to be out of work from November 1st to March 1st. And during that time, God provided in more ways than I can list on this blog. We were never hungry, never without heat or electricity, not without a wonderful Christmas, never without wonderful friends and family, never without gas for the cars; basically, we were never without...anything!

And my God will meet all your NEEDS according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Not want you WANT but what you NEED!!!

God began a work in Ryan and I that would forever change our hearts. We began having quiet times. We began to pray like never before. I began memorizing scripture. We made a promise to each other and to God that we would not fear during this trial. We would press in and lean against God and let him teach us what we needed to learn. Pastor Tom had asked the staff to read a book on prayer and had challenged us to dig into God’s word. So we did. We decided that we would tithe on any penny that was provided to us. We decided that we were going to trust in and believe the words of the Bible.

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 7:38

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10

Every time we obeyed God and gave our tithe, God replaced that money almost instantly. One morning, when our checkbook was extremely low, I laid on the floor and begged for provision. When I got to work that morning, AG handed me a handful of cash that was “anonymously” given to Ryan and I…in the exact amount I needed. I can not tell you the amount of times things like this happened. God’s word is perfect and true…and He loves to show that to the children that love and honor Him. I had never experienced anything like this before…honestly, it was too cool!!!

While we were crying out to God for him to provide the perfect job, Ryan searched the internet…Ryan made calls…Ryan sent resumes…Ryan networked with co-workers from the past…Ryan did everything he could to find a job. While searching the internet one evening, he found a listing for a civil engineer position in Bells, TN (20 minutes northwest of Jackson). He sent his resume. They called. He had a phone interview. After the phone call, Ryan told me that the job sounded really interesting and he hoped they would call back for an onsite interview. But we did not put much stock into it. It might happen, but he did not want to get his hopes up. He continued to search and pray…and he continued to come up with nothing. And then a week or so after the phone interview, they called back. They wanted him to come to Jackson for the day. Ryan went and interviewed. Ryan prepped and prepped and felt good about the day. He thought the position was a great opportunity. It seemed like maybe a job offer would happen. And then we got an email. The dreaded “things are on hold at the moment” email.

Really, God, really??? We are praying, seeking Your word and Your will and really, “things are on hold”. So what did we do? Did we throw in the towel and stop doing our quiet times, praying and seeking God’s will? No…we pressed in even harder. We refused to worry. We refused to let Satan steal our joy. Does that mean things were easy? No. Does that mean that we didn’t continue to get on our knees and cry out to God? No. We decided that we would live by these verses:

Be joyful always; pray continually; give THANKS in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you as well. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:33-34

My soul clings to You, Your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:8

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

You will keep in perfect peace the mind that is dependent on You, for it is trusting in You. Isaiah 26:3

In late January, during TSC’s week of prayer which was named the Genesis project, God decided to let us hear him by sending me a dream. Now, I honestly believe God sent me the dreams, because I remember dreams. I can even wake up angry or upset over dreams. Sweet Ryan does not remember his dreams. Here is the email that I sent out on the morning of 1/28/10…

I just wanted to share a little something with all of you this morning. Actually it is a big something and I really want to stand on a mountaintop and shout.

Ryan came home from Bible study last night and told me that while he and the guys were praying, God told him that our “trial” would be over soon. Soon, that was the word he used. I said, okay, so “soon”, it will be over “soon” what does that mean? He just hugged me and said I don’t know for sure but in my heart, God is telling me it will be over soon. God also gave Ryan this verse…Romans 8:18 “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” We have talked about that theory so many times, that yes this is a trial, and it is hard, but we are learning so much and leaning in and pressing towards God, and that how even though the process has been painful, it has also been an incredible and precious learning and growing process.

I am an early to bed kind of girl, usually 9pm-ish, but last night, I could not sleep. I tossed and turned and finally at around 11pm, I drifted off. I had the first of two very interesting dreams. I woke up around 3am-ish, checked the clock, and went back to sleep, which is when the second dream happened. Without boring you with the details of both dreams, they were extremely different but both had the same outcome of “Everything is okay. You’re fine. Don’t worry.”

When the regular 6am alarm went off this morning, I was lying in bed thinking…man, those dreams were so different, but so the same. That’s kind of weird. And my mind kept thinking about Joseph and the Pharaoh and dreams. I went ahead and pulled out the Journey book, my diet coke and my Bible. I read the page of the Journey devotional but really I wasn’t getting anywhere with it. So, I decided (well actually I had nothing to do with it, it was all the Holy Spirit) to go to Genesis 41 and read about Joseph and Pharaoh. Okay, so there’s a dream about fat and skinny cows, shafts of wheat, you all know the story…and then I read this verse…Genesis 41:32 “Now the reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.”

Hold up…did that just say two dreams, different forms, and God will do it soon!!! Talk about some confirmation!!! So, I called Ryan into the room, told him about the dreams, the chapter and read him the verse. His response was classic Ryan, “Well, that’s just awesome!”

How crazy is it that we are in the “Genesis Project” week? And our confirmation came from a verse in Genesis. WOW!!!! We don’t know what God is doing, but we both feel like he’s going to do it soon!!! So keep praying…We love you all!

Our answer was coming…and it did come soon…

Don't Talk to Strangers

Recently, there have been some very serious reports of attempted kidnappings in the Spring Hill area. One of our Workman safety rules is that every afternoon, Safety Kendall calls me to let me know that she is home from school.

When SK called, I did not want to alarm her over the phone so I tried to quickly review safety rules with the understanding that we would have a complete review with SK and Reid once I got home. Apparently my smooth operator skills were lost on my safety girl.

SK: Hey Mom, I'm home!

M: Kendall, just wanted to remind you to stay inside until I get home. We will talk about the reasons later.

SK: Why, mom, are there kidnappers running around the neighborhood or something?

M: Well, now that you mention it, yes, there was an attempted kidnapping yesterday.

SK: (With a little panic in her voice) What…hold up…I was just kidding…I’m getting up to lock the door right now….when are you coming home?...

M: (...Interrupting...) Don’t forget to let Reid in.

SK: I won’t….wait…maybe I will….(snicker, snicker)

So the normal super sweet Safety Kendall has a rotten streak when it comes to her little brother. For a fleeting moment, she was actually going to leave him outside to fend for himself against kidnappers. Thankfully, she was just kidding. She loves her little bro...even if he drives her insane every now and then!!!

So now to review safety rules:

When you were just a young girl and still in school,
How come you never learned the golden rule? (That's funny - I thought the golden rule was to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.)
Don't talk to strange men, don't be a fool,
I'm hearing stories, I don't think that's cool.

Don't talk to strangers
Baby don't you talk
Don't talk to strangers
You know he'll only use you up
Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk
Don't talk, don't talk to him
Nobody, nobody ever told you

And Auntie Jenny this part is all for you:

*Fais l'amour avec moi (*Make love to me)
What's he saying baby?
*Viens dormir, mon amour (*Come to sleep my love)
I asked you not to talk to him
*Je t'aime donne moi ton coeur ce soir (*I like you to give me your heart this night)
I'm begging you

Don't talk to strangers
Baby don't you talk
Don't talk to strangers
You know he'll only use you up
Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk
Don't talk, don't talk to him

Be safe out there everyone!!!!

Melissa

Take this Job and Shove It

Let’s start of part 2 of the Jackson story with a little history on Ryan.

When Ryan was growing up, he wanted to be a bulldozer. Not the bulldozer operator, the actual bulldozer. He loves to play in the dirt, whether it be on a backhoe, bulldozer or four-wheeler. He loves sunshine and the outdoors. He enjoys hiking up mountains, and through canyons. He grew up in the big city of Nashville…but he is a country boy at heart. He loves to piddle at a work bench, on the farm, on an antique tractor, or sometimes with nothing in particular.

Ryan’s love language is acts of service. He will do anything for anybody at anytime. He puts everyone but himself first. More about those last couple of sentences in a moment.

Professionally, Ryan is a civil engineer. For the past 15 years, Ryan has worked as a consulting engineer, mostly working with builders, homeowners, and developers to develop site plans for homes and businesses. Basically, he took a piece of property and figured out what type and size building could go on the property. He sat behind a desk and drew plans, but never got to go outside and enjoy the dirt or sunshine which was one of his reasons for becoming an engineer. He consulted on project after project, but rarely got to see the completion of the project. When doing consulting work, you have to keep up with your time by the quarter hour so that it can be billed to your client. This task gets quite monotonous and tedious and frustrating. Also, when you are working for clients, there is always one who isn’t happy. A lot of the time, the things that made the clients unhappy were beyond Ryan’s control. So the combination of many frustrating things brought Ryan to the point in his career where he was ready to make a major change.

What he really wanted to say to his consulting position was:

Take this job and shove it I ain't workin' here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason I was working for
Ya better not try and stand in my way
Cause I'm walkin', out the door
Take this job and shove it I ain't working here no more

Well, I been working in this factory for now on fifteen years
All this time, I watched my woman drownin' in a pool of tears
And I've seen a lot of good folks die who had a lot of bills to pay
I'd give the shirt right off of my back if I had the guts to say...

Take this job and shove it I ain't workin' here no more
My woman done left and took all the reason I was working for
Ya better not try and stand in my way
Cause I'm walkin', out the door
Take this job and shove it I ain't working here no more

But he wouldn’t/couldn’t make that major change, because remember those few sentences about his love language? Well, see, when you put everyone else first, you don’t take care of yourself. Ryan would have stayed at that job forever, doing his absolute best and taking care of everyone but himself…and being miserable the whole time. But God had a different plan…

Over the summer, as the financial world continued to collapse around us, many builders and developers lost their financing. And when they do not have financing, they don’t use engineers to consult on their new projects…because there are no new projects. Ryan safely made it through several rounds of lay-offs at his office. And because of the potential of lay-offs and his need for change, Ryan started looking for a job in early 2009. He actually went on several interviews with one certain company in Nashville. The job he interviewed for would have been basically the same job as the one he had, with a few changes, and there was a little room for growth, and while that was somewhat appealing, there was always one factor or another for Ryan to not get hired by said company. (We know now that that factor was God and God’s plan.)

Around late July, early August, Ryan learned that his employer was in the process of selling the company, and was told that his job would be “safe”. That he would make the transition to the new company and all would be good. He would continue to do the same job, just with a new company. He continued to pray that he wanted to be doing something different by October 2009. Ryan went to meet with the new company. He came home after the “meet and greet” and said to me, “I just don’t get how my job will be safe…that company already has 10 of me sitting at desks doing my job.” Our sweet Savior was preparing his heart. We just didn’t know it at the time.

Then on a Thursday in late September, (I’m really surprised that I don’t know the date), Ryan met me and Kendall at one of the middle school football games. He was really anxious in his bleacher seat and he kept telling me that we had to talk but we couldn’t talk there. He couldn’t watch the game, he couldn’t eat game snacks, he couldn’t focus…I knew something was wrong. And you don’t tell your OCD, type A wife that I’ve got something to tell you, but I’ll tell you later…drives me crazy…I can’t stand surprises! So I made him get up out of the bleachers and walk to a quiet spot in the grass. He proceeded to tell me that there were problems with the sale of the company. Basically, he was no longer safe. The civil engineering division of his current company wasn’t going to be purchased by the new company. Guess what, they didn’t need more civil engineers sitting around desks. He would only have a job through October 31st. He would receive a small severance package and then he was on his own. He then said, “You know, I prayed in October 2008 that by October 2009 I would not be doing the same job that I was doing in October 2008. I guess God just answered my prayer.” All I could think at that moment was “Why would you pray something like that? Why did you think that this prayer was a good idea?” but by the grace of God, I did not say it…I kept my mouth closed (another one of Jesus’ miracles) and simply hugged my sweet husband and said “everything is going to be okay, you’ll find another job, no problem, I love you and we will make it through this…but you have to have to find a new job, we can’t survive without your income, we’ve got bills to pay, and Christmas shopping to do and…”. Once again, God had different plans….