It was about one year ago that I stood on the platform of Eastlakes Corps in New South Wales, Australia with my 7 classmates and received my Certificate IV in Salvation Army Youth Ministry from the Salvation Army's School for Youth Leadership. Already, the SFYL class of 2006 has stood before attendees in Sydney, NSW, Australia to receive their certificates, ending their nine months at the school.
So, what has been accomplished in the 365 days that have passed? Have any of those days been wasted? Have I learned anything, matured at all or made any sort of a mark on those I've come into contact with?
At SFYL the staff undertook to show us how to live our lives as "agents of positive change." People who lead the way to making a difference in our world by living Kingdom lives. My father also recently wrote a post titled "
Living Without Regret" - Have I?
So, I'm going back a year in my memories - what has happened? After returning from Australia I spent two weeks resting and re-acquanting myself with Calgary, my family and my friends. I quickly became bored without much to do so I took a job at Staples Business Depot as a Night Stock Associate. This was one of my longer lasting jobs during my pre-Peace River months, I think I kept it for almost two months. I did do my best at the job, and did quickly earn a reputation as good, hard, dilligent worker - but it just wasn't a good fit for me.
After leaving that job I took a job with Bridgebrand, a food food-services distributor, again on the night shift as a "picker." I really enjoyed working for Bridgebrand and the job wasn't bad either. The pay was good, the company took two full weeks to train me, one week during the day learning how to operate the equipment, read labels, etc. And another week at night completing more training, including proper living habits for night shift workers and then picking orders with my own private trainer who I observed and then who followed me to make sure I was doing okay. I didn't last long after that though. I was put on 4 - 10 hour shifts, which wasn't so bad, but because of a labour shortage (as felt throughout the province of Alberta) we didn't have enough pickers, and 10 hour shifts quickly turned into 12 hour shifts. There was also very little personal interaction as chatting among pickers while working was discouraged (for the sake of speed and accuracy). I couldn't handle it all and I quit after about a month working there. I wasn't know so much as a good worker there as I had high picking errors and a slow picking speed, but I had developed a reputation as punctual, friendly and easy to get along with.
I then took a job working for Leon's Furniture. I was finally working during the day, and no longer doing labour work. No heavy lifting in this job - I was a Front Office Clerk/Data Entry worker. In other words I was a cashier who did some basic filing and data entry when there weren't many customers around. I had great co-workers and generally enjoyed my job. This was the cleanest job I've ever had in my life, and most of the time the pace was pretty relaxed. It didn't pay as well as some of my other jobs, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. I probably would have stayed there for quite a bit longer if I hadn't taken the job i have now. At that job I was known as punctual, hard working, friendly, and a good customer service worker. I was also recognised as having strong beliefs and as someone who has a strong faith. I often impressed my supervisors, and when I did make errors I was quick to try to learn from them and rarely repeated the mistake. A co-worker and I were both very hard workers and were quickly setting new levels of expectation for serving our customers and getting paper work done quickly and effeciently. My plan in that job had been to work there until September when I had intend to attend SAIT where I had been offered a seat in a two year program there. I had intend to work part-time for Leon's while studying. I left that job and turned down my seat at SAIT to take another job - the one I currently am in.
In May I moved 8 hours north of Calgary to Peace River to take a position working for the Salvation Army. As the Community Ministries Worker I took over responsibility for the Community & Family Services Centre, including a food bank and other social assistance services; the Salvation Army's local Emergency Disaster Services; and the Christmas Campaign, including Hampers, Kettles, Coats for Kids and Toys for Tots. I arrived to a situation that was generally disorganised, with only very broad guidance on most day-to-day operations. Since arriving the process of creating written policies and procedures to guide all of our CFS operations has begun, the centre has been organised and a large amount of the stored waste has been disgarded. A cleaner, more friendly client space has been created by opening up the space some more and giving greater attention to maintaining cleanliness. In conjunction with the corps, a mid-week Kids' Church has begun on Wednesdays. An effort to better understand the needs of our community, as well as how the community sees us has also been undertaken so that we can look at ways to increase and improve our services.
I have made many mistakes in this new experience - some of them rather serious. I have lost my temper on several occassions, usually with my superiors. I have also disregarded policies (which I wrote) leading to some problems. I have made quick decisions that were not necessarily for the best. But I recognise those things, and am trying to learn from them. At times I have been ready to give up and go back to Calgary, but I am still here and am learning how to deal with those things that are real struggles for me in more effective and productive ways.
So, those are the things that I have undertaken for employment (and generally these make up most of my life, especially here in Peace River). In my personal life, the largest journey that I've made in the past year is in my calling to Officership. When I returned from Australia I began the application process for entry to the College for Officer Training. I had intended at that time to enter training in September 2006, which has now passed (and you might have noticed that I'm not living in Winnipeg at the College). After completing the preliminary step I decided to delay proceeding with that application for the time being. I recognised that I could not meet my goal financially. I also realised that I wanted to gain some hands on experience in ministry.
My initial hope was to move to Thunder Bay and participate in a "Pastoral Apprenticeship" at
Redwood Park Church. They take on young people who intend to enter full-time vocational ministry, giving them experience, training and mentoring in pastoral work, as well as part-time studies through Briercrest Distance Learning. I had been corresponding with the sr. pastor there for a while and saw this a good possibility to pursue. I soon learned that the church had decided not to take on apprentices in the fall of 2006 because they intended to use those funds to hire another pastoral staff member. So, I asked for written information on the program and using that formulated a proposal for a modified concept within the Salvation Army. I then sent that to Divisional Headquarters in Edmonton.
They didn't quite adopt what I had suggested, but they did suggest that I consider a position here in Peace River, which I eventually took. I moved here with the intent of gaining the experience of hands on work in a small town, learning more about Salvation Army operations (particularly in this type of setting) and also benefitting from the experience of the Officers here.
I have resumed the application process for entering the College for Officer Training, and intend to remain here until that is complete and, if accepted, I am ready to move to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
So back, to my initial questions. I think that I have been somewhat successful in my mission as an agent of positive change. I know that I have made mistakes - but who hasn't? I am trying to learn from those things. I am making an effort to be intentional in what I chose to say and do. And I'm trying to do the best I can to be used to impact the people I come in contact with. Living with regrets? Not now, not ever!
Well, things are really into full swing for Christmas now!! Last week we started our Christmas Kettles at work. We have them out Wednesdays to Saturdays, which is enough in a town the size of Peace River.
We had a formal little "kick-off" up at the IGA on Saturday. The Mayor and MLA were both in attendance, and the newspaper covered it to include with a story on the Christmas Hampers which will run in the paper this week (I think). A brass ensemble from Grande Prairie also came up to play some Christmas songs. They brought along an extra cornet for me to play so that all the parts were covered. Then a few of us had pizza back at the church with the ensemble before they headed back.
