30+ Days of Giving Thanks, Day 37: Past Jobs

Today I am giving thanks for the employment I’ve had through the years (outside of church ministry positions), beginning in 1977 with a part-time after school handyman’s helper job working for Claude Rivendell up on Smith Pond in Coventry. Mrs. Rivendell fed me a steady diet of chicken-‘n-biscuits,a meal I disliked, but politely ate and complimented on the first day I worked there, and, because it was their favorite, she fed it to me EVERY day that I worked there. So much for politeness. It worked out, though, because I actually started to like it by the time the job was done. It was there that I learned to ALWAYS keep your shirt ON, wear long sleeves, gloves, and a dust mask when working with the pink Owens Corning Fiberglass rolled insulation. If you’ve worked with it, you know why.

1977--Summer jobs working for farmers putting in hay. Several farmers, several jobs. Hard work. Also very itchy. See note about fiberglass above. Farmers work as hard as anyone I know.

1978-1980--Three summers I worked on some kind of county-subsidized job program for the Village of Afton Department of Public Works. Afton, a small village, combined the job of Superintendent of Public Works with Chief of Police, and gave the job to Jack Bolster—a simple, homespun man who was one of the finest men I ever worked for. I learned a lot about a wide variety of things in that job. I worked with some interesting characters and had a really great suntan those summers!

1979-1982--Various jobs at Philadelphia College of Bible: dish room, washing pots and pans in the kitchen, breakfast cook (I learned to make that grill sing to me under the scrambled eggs or the pancakes.) Even a short stint as security guard. The Burger King girl tried to give me my meal for free at the drive-up window when she saw me in my security guard uniform!

1982-1983--Night auditor at the George Washington Motor Lodge, the Willow Grove Motor Lodge, the Horsham Motor Lodge, and finally the Vestal Howard Johnson Motor Lodge. These overnight jobs fit my college schedule, more or less, and left me tired all the time.

1983-1985--God miraculously provided a job right after Kelly and I were married. The job I thought I had lined up fell through. I was hired as a two-week replacement for a masonry laborer who was on vacation. I worked hard and two weeks turned into two-and-a-half years at Worthington Associates Construction Company, with two promotions and several raises in between. Another job where I learned a lot, some of which I can still remember. I was sad to leave this job, but my first full-time ministry position was starting and I moved to New Jersey with Kelly and 16-month old Derrin.

1986--Delivering newspapers (part-time) to less than 40 customers to supplement my youth pastor salary. A short lived job, partly due to my first knee surgery, during which Kelly had to cover my route.

1987-1992--Five years in the United States Army fits here. It seems like that deserves a post of its own, so I will say little about that now.

1993-1994--A series of assignments with various Temp agencies here. I did some administrative work at Arco Chemical and then at a Sunoco oil pumping terminal near the Philadelphia airport, rewriting the company’s Policies and Procedures manual. Sound interesting? That’s a mistake.

1997-1999—Part-time Bible teacher at Goshen Christian School. Great school, great faculty (mostly), great students (mostly), great parents (mostly). The administrator, Ted Vernon, was the son of my high school biology teacher in Afton. “Small world.”

1997-2000—Prudential Healthcare/Aetna US Healthcare. Started as a temp job, became a permanent part-time job, then a full-time job, then a promotion to Site Manager. An interesting job until they pulled the plug. As Site Manager, I was the last person left, supervising the closing of the office and turning the space  back to the building manager. My first, and only (so far!), severance package.

2001-2006—Levitan, Yegidis & Associates, LLP. Probably my favorite non-church job so far. The partners were fantastic to me. They allowed me the time I needed when my father was ill. They allowed me to grow with the job and with the firm. They were patient with me and taught me much about bookkeeping and accounting principles and practices. The admin staff I supervised were professional and competent and helped me do my job successfully.

2009-2010—Back to Goshen Christian School, again teaching Bible part time. The school was much smaller this time around, despite adding 3 grades of high school. Probably due in part to the troubled economy, the school struggled financially and could not open in September 2010.

2010-2011—Delivered newspapers again, this time for nearly 400 customers. The schedule nearly ruined me, and took a heavy toll in many ways. I don’t miss that job. Yet, I can say now that I am thankful to God for each of the opportunities I have had through these years.

My mother said that whenever finances got extremely tight, she would pray, and God would send her another job. She did income taxes for I don’t know how many customers on the side after coming home from her full-time job. (This was in the dark ages before Turbo Tax, in the days when everything was done manually with adding machines, pencils, pens and paper forms.)  God has many ways of providing for the needs of His children. These jobs I have listed above, and reminisced over, are just one of the ways He has taken care of me. I thank God for each one.