Apr 21, 2016

Providence Verified pt. III - Hume to Home


Providence Verified pt. III
Hume Summer 2009 was a blessing beyond blessings. Part of the original plan to return to Hume was to be immersed in Christian community right after my active duty service, God made it happen.
Between my move to Texas from Germany, I went to Hume for a weekend. I knew I was going to Iraq shortly after arriving in Texas. Hume had left an indelible mark on my soul my first summer. I had to return one more time before I shipped off to war. I did not see many friends I recognized from that summer, it had been 4 years since I was on summer staff, but there was enough familiarity it still felt like home. By Summer 2009, all but a handful of full time staff were there from my first summer; but it was the same place, with the same passion, and the same mission. Hume will be like a home for me not matter who is working there so as long as they keep to the original mission.
I loved that summer. It was my job to watch people swim and play all summer. For this story, there were two things that happened that summer that has followed me for many years afterward. I met Charlie, a retired LAPD officer who demonstrated a love for people I had not seen before with a man of such… bona fides. There were a handful of veterans on staff, but I was the only one who had been to war, and the others were full time staff. Charlie had seen it all, far more than I had, there was a bond from that first summer. The other thing was the opportunity to see a fulfillment of answered prayers before my eyes.
Summer lasted 10 weeks of campers, it was busy, blessed, and tiring. The summer season goes for 12 weeks, those last couple weeks Hume hosted church groups and Christian school orientations, we were the facilities and food, not the program. The grand finale of summer is Country Fair on Labor day weekend. At the end of the 10 weeks of camp the summer staff of 300+ college age servants shrank to 20-30 of us to continue up through Country Fair. It was those last couple of weeks of summer that I started to look for a plan. The only lead I had was from one of my friends from Germany, named Dave. He and another guy from my section in Germany were working at an Air Force base as contractors in about an hour from Sacramento. I was hoping to jump on the contractor wagon, but I had no idea how to get in. Most Saturdays I would “go down the hill” to Fresno, for movies, BBQ, and sushi. One of those times down the hill, I got a hold of my friend Dave and he mentioned his job might expand, but they were waiting on the government contracts to come through. I knew he would do what he could, but we mere mortals have no control on government contracts. How true that statement turned out to be.
I knew I was returning to home somewhere in the Sacramento suburbs. I was going to housesit for some friends going on vacation for several weeks. I had those weeks to get a lead. Dave gave me the name of the company, I would check the website each night to see if any jobs opened. I was getting discouraged and fearful in those final weeks. I kept refreshing the job opening page and no results were found. There was a solid week I was half-joking that I would go to the Union Gospel Mission after the house sitting. My final night at Hume, I checked the company website one more time, click click, and boom. The job Dave was telling me about was open! I uploaded my resume and filled out the application that night, God was Good!
You might be thinking at this point, “You call this verification?” Not quite yet, keep reading. The next day, as I am driving down the mountain and I get back into cell range, I get a call from Dave. He let me know they saw my resume… but it sucked. I didn’t know what the company was looking for, we knew I had the skills for the job, but one must get the interview to get the opportunity. As it just so happened, the reason Dave called me, was not just to tell me about the shortcomings of my resume. For he and the other guy from my section in Germany were both chosen to sift through the resumes. Wow, just wow. Dave gave me some tips on how to rewrite the resume so he could bring it to his supervisor, who was in charge of hiring.
I got to my friend’s house and fixed my resume and waited. A few days later, I got an email to schedule the job interview. Boom, I’m in. Okay, now I have to think about all my military experience and how to do a job interview. This was a white collar, salaried position with a Fortune 500 company… breathe… breathe… this is happening. Due to the nature of the job, the interview was going to be over the phone. I am not particularly fond of talking on the phone, talking is more than words, it is expressions, inflections, and body language. For this, I only have words and inflections.
The interview, I cannot fairly say it was an interview. I was introduce to the Site lead and when I was getting ready for the challenging questions, she said “Based on your resume and personal recommendations, you were a sure thing. I just wanted to chat to get to know you as we a tight team right now.” Did that just happen? I was given this job. A surreal sense of my finiteness was shadowed by God’s clear hand. He wasn’t done yet. The type of work I did in the Army and as a civilian, required numerous background checks, drug tests, and the sort. Once I started working, I learned I was the first new hire of over a dozen new people. The contract tripled the team over the next six months. On average it took about 2-3 months for new hires to get fully in- processed. I was working within 3 weeks from my interview.
But wait there’s still more! My friends got back from their trip, they did have an open room, which was where I stayed those weeks, but the commute would have been over 1-2 hours. I had to find a different place to live. At the same time, a friend from church, he was a cop two suburbs over. He just bought a new house, there were open rooms. Ding! I got a place to live. As I looked at the location, it was a perfect middle between my commute to work and drive to church. It looks like this civilian life might work out after all...

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