Called Again: What’s Next, God?
In a previous post, I mentioned how God was calling me into a sense of leadership, but not the sort of leadership I had done before. A few months ago, the Morley Salvation Army had its 50th Anniversary event, a bunch of events over nine days. What a powerful time it was! The last Sunday of the events was entitled "Looking Forward"; after the message, there was a call-and-response time lasting longer than 20 minutes! What a powerful time!
During this time, I asked for prayer, and someone prayed that God was telling them I would be a leader of people for God. Wow! So not only was this prayer prayed over me in 2021, but now, in 2024, the same prayer was prayed over me by a completely different individual. Two times in my life, what a coincidence! However, I don't think it is a coincidence.
You would think that after the first time, I would just surrender all and say, "Yes, God, send me!" But I didn't. To be honest, I am probably not alone in saying this, but when God calls us to do something, we can get these feelings and questions that make us second-guess ourselves, and we listen to them. In 2021, when God first called me to this new form of leadership, I said, "Yes, God, send me, BUT" and inserted various questions like "Do I even have the skills to do what you're asking me to do?". Here we are second-guessing God.
So why am I bringing this up? Well, let's get an update on where I was, and where I am now, in life leading up to this calling.
If you're not aware, around September last year, I was made redundant from my job, where I'd been for 4 years and 11 months. I am living proof that God provides healing and restoration in times of pain. I went from one Friday working on websites to Monday walking into the office for the start of a work week at 8:30am and being told instantly, "Your services are no longer required, effective immediately". Boom, the door of life was slammed shut in my face. No one realised, other than family, that before this, not even a month earlier, I had some time off work for the Funeral of my only remaining Grandparent, Nanna, who was a major supporter of many things in my life. My Nanna always spoke powerful words about Jesus and thanked God for the things I did in my life, including joining the local Gridiron Team with my Cousin.
So, in this time of pain and doubting myself, "Am I ever going to get another job?" God opened another door. My brother, Stephen, texted me about a job and called me immediately with excitement in his voice, "Now, I am sorry that it will be a short time to apply, but you need to check out this job and apply. You have about 6 hours to apply. It's for a Christian School in Forrestfield". I opened the advertisement for an "ICT Support Officer / Marketing and Media Support Officer" role.
To sum up, the Job advertisement was for providing ICT Help (Computers), Marketing, Sound, and multimedia. This was pretty much everything I was already doing in my Church and some aspects of what I was doing at my old job. Still hurting from being made redundant, I pushed my pain aside and applied, putting in a ton of effort and leaving myself just 20 minutes before the deadline; when I thought, "This is good," and after praying about it while writing, I submitted my application. This post is quite long, but to cut a long story short, I stand here today, coming up on 1 year at the school, as a successful applicant for the role. The Office Admin even told me she said to the principal, "I don't think you'll find anyone who can fulfil all the roles you're asking for," and then my application came in. WOW!
So, let's cut forward to where I am now in my life, sort of.
I have received an invitation and am currently at the Salvos "What's Next Developing Leaders Conference." I am going in with an open mind, not knowing much about the event other than its title and where it is hosted. But I am going in with a receptive mind: "What are you calling me to do next, God?"
- Andy
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