What a Journey!

What a journey! It is said, by those in the know, that a person will change careers eight time in a lifetime in the world of work. Let's see how I have done. I began as a barber in Swift Current, SK; then I followed my father into the airforce where I was a military policeman. Upon escaping the service I returned to barbering for a time; and when that didn't work out, I tried life as a drug pusher. This ended up in prison, and I tried my hand at mechanics. Then for a couple of years, school became my obsession, but when I got a job as a truck driver paying 22.00 an hour, education became the last thing on my mind. A motor vehicle accident on the Second Narrows Bridge ended my driving career for a year, then I got a job doing pickup and delivery. A major life change resulted in my first attempt at church work. I was a janitor in the Salvation Army. This was quickly followed by a couple of years at bible school where I began to believe that I was destined to be a pastor. I turned to Christian mission work. For the next ten years I spent my nights and days as a childcare worker in a small Christian mission in the Okanagan. I advanced through the ranks at the One Way Adventure Foundation and found myself directing three distinct programs, which in turn lead to an administrator's position in charge of social services. During my time at the foundation I often found myself teaching rock climbing and leading wilderness expeditions during the spring, summer, and fall of each year; and after ten years of intensive child care work I took a break and went to seminary-the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary to be exact. I returned to the Foundation for a couple of years as an administrator. of the Side Street Program in Penticton. After a couple of more years of this I turned again to education, and graduated from Regent College in Vancouver with a Masters Degree in Christian Studies. I began then to work with street kids as a detached street worker and followed many of them to the federal prison system (as a service provider not a prisoner) with M2W2. I tried my hand at educating, and returned to the One Way Adventure foundation as Administrator of the Applied Christian Training School (ACTS). When the Foundation closed its doors for the final time I turned once again to studied and earned a Masters Degree in Adlerian Counseling, that lead me to the North Island and the Crisis and Counseling Centre where I served as a family counsellor. Back once again to education and I worked at North Island College as a Return to Work/Welfare to Work specialist. When the college downsized I found myself directing and developing wilderness camps for Rediscovery International. I am getting close to the end! After five years of volunteer work I turned to a 30 year dream, I pastored an Aboriginal Church in Alert Bay. Another failure, jumping the gun on God left me once again without meaningful employment. After a further two years I fell into a dramatic career change. This time another dream held since childhood. I became a cook in a local restaurant. Today, I am the AM line cook at the same restaurant, I have co-founded, with my wife and a federal prisoner, Hope Builders-Christian Restorative Ministries; and finally I am pastor at the Living Room Church. It has been a real interesting journey, and sometimes the journey is the destination.