Standing on my Soap Box

Have you ever looked back at your life, and remember the exact point where your life was changed? I can.

When I was 15, and in grade 10, there was a guy named Ken that I was dating who attended the same youth group as I did. Our youth group attended a yearly retreat in Stonewall at New Life Baptist. One of the ice breaker games they did on the first night paired up Ken, with a guy named Chris. Chris and his girlfriend attended a church in another part of the city. As I think back now, I have no idea how that youth group which was a “spin-off” group of the Plymouth Brethren church ended up at a Baptist event, That being said, Chris had a girlfriend named Cindy. That weekend was a defining moment in my life.

If I wanted to see Ken at all that weekend, (and back then I did), then I would have to see Chris and Cindy as Ken and Chris really hit it off well. Long and short, Ken and I broke up at Christmas that year, however I enjoyed Cindy’s friendship, and kept in touch with her. When I called Cindy and told her about what happened between Ken and I, she invited me to come to her church. I asked my dad to take me the next Sunday, as I didn’t really get along well with the others in my youth group, and going there after Ken and I split would be a little weird. Little did I know he would quit going to church, but that is not part of this story.

I started attending Cindy’s church regularly. I got to know the Sunday school teacher who taught our age group, and her husband, as well as others in the church. To shortly down a long story by a few years, when I graduated from High school, the Sunday school teacher’s husband suggested I apply at the company he was a VP at and he would put in a good word in HR for me. That started a 13 year career. Then a few years later one of the other people I met at that church was separating from her husband and their house was not selling. I got an opportunity to move into the, and take over their mortgage as my own. It allowed me to move out of my parents house (albeit a little late at 25).

Someone else I met at that Plymouth Brethren church introduced me to another lady who went to a different church in downtown Winnipeg. By going to that downtown church, I met my husband, and the rest as they say is history.

Here is another defining moment that happened to me in the last few years. In working at my old company, I met a man who was the owner of this company, who came to talk about advertising job postings for us. I mentioned in passing that I had written for a magazine in the town I was living in, and they asked if I would be interested in writing a blog for them (that is how I got to doing this blog). I would run into Brad at different places, and through my blog and some of the business emails that flew back and forth, he learned about my convictions and aspirations. I told him about what happened at my old company.

One day he was in a meeting with someone about a company that she runs, and that she needs to expand. Somehow in the conversation, my name came up, and I have no clue what else they discussed. One day Brad emails me and asks me if I heard about a certain company, and that they were looking for someone. Would it be ok for him to send my contact information to her? I am looking for a job. So, yes, please send her contact info to me and mine to her. The rest as they say once again is history, and I am now working for an amazing company.

Why do I tell you these stories? Firstly, BECAUSE I CAN! (HE HE HE) And also to show you, how you never know how your life is going to change. When something is going to happen that comes totally out of left field. Things that you never expect, how God can cause a chance meeting to change the path of your whole life. I know who changed my life (and while it would appear that it was Cindy, Chris’ girlfriend) it was God. He aligned things to happen in ways that I would never see happening. I don’t think the church that Cindy and Chris attended ever sent back to that youth retreat. But somehow for one weekend they did. And that weekend changed my life.