Connections

It was time for a change.

Oh, I didn’t want things to change. I was content in my role as a respected website editor with Focus on the Family, enjoying life my wife and three daughters in the home of our dreams in Colorado Springs. I was involved in my church, playing keyboard with the worship team a few times per month. A couple of nights per week I’d watch a movie or Christian music videos with my daughters in our dedicated home theater. The other nights I’d spend puttering around our garden, working on freelance website development projects, or playing Words With Friends with my wife.

In a word, I was comfortable.

And the Lord saw that things needed to change. In my disposition, in my heart, in my relationships … and in my vocation.

Within a span of two years, my wife and I lost a baby to miscarriage, lost my job because of budget cuts, left our church and home in the Springs to accept a digital product marketing job in Illinois, lost that job five months later because of a corporate restructuring the week after our fifth baby was born, and when we had to further downsize lost our $1,600 security deposit on our apartment west of Chicago.

Most recently, after nine bleak months on the market, a buyers’ market in a tough economy, we finally received an offer on our home in Colorado. The closure provided some relief, at the cost of our home’s equity and our life savings.

And with our many losses, though our trust in the Lord’s sovereignty remained firm, my wife and I began to feel that our most stable and fulfilling days were behind us.

After weeks of resume updating and job hunting and employment applications and not-quite-fits, I received an unassuming email from Tim Somethingorother, asking me if I’d consider applying for an IT position with Teen Challenge. I asked my wife, “So, do you want to move to Missouri?” Her response: “Sure!”

We pondered. We prayed. We gathered more information about the position and the region. We drove the family van and our four daughters a dozen hours to southern Missouri for an in-person job interview. And we felt the peace of the Lord to embrace this new life in the Ozarks.

In May of this year I accepted a position with Teen Challenge, serving under Tim Cloninger as IT Director.

I’m now doing a lot of what Tim has done for the past five years: helping Teen Challenge centers access and make the most of our various websites, engaging constituents through Facebook and Twitter, updating and adding new features to our websites, restructuring and building out our webstore, maintaining and troubleshooting the office equipment and “systems,” and helping edit curriculums and articles. Because I’m taking on these responsibilities, Tim is freed up to focus more energy into developing myTeenChallenge.com, a comprehensive student/center management system scheduled for release in 2012.

As I come to better understand the vision of Teen Challenge, my compassion and respect for TC students grows, as does my desire to help local center staff more efficiently serve those students. It’s my joy to serve behind the scenes those who are living on the frontlines of ministry at local Teen Challenge centers.

Two years ago I found myself comfortable: competent in my work, involved with my church, and happy with my family. But the Lord in His wisdom saw that it was time for a change, time to rearrange the pieces on His chess board.

The changes have been heartbreaking, and that’s good; the Lord draws near to the brokenhearted. I’m grateful that He has accompanied my family and me through every loss, losses that have prepared my heart and mind for my role as the national office’s newest IT guy.