I haven’t written much about my new job with The Salvation Army yet. At the beginning of June, the Lord opened the door for me to leave my position at Radioshack. Like I said in an earlier post, I enjoyed my eight years there. The door was opened by a meeting at a community yard sale that our church where our church was participating. A women who works with The Salvation Army got talking to one of our leaders. I talked to her and she told me to come in and put in an application, because they were making a choice soon. Monday morning I put in the application and about two weeks later, I was hired.
My primary responsibility at Salvation Army is to drive the donations truck. People will call into the Thrift Store and then I make arrangements to pick up the donations. Driving the truck is easy for the most part, but it is a 24 foot former Penske moving truck, so maneuvering it in some of the residential areas is a challenge. One person said yesterday, “I didn’t know you were bringing such a big truck.”
The harder part of the job is the lifting and loading and unloading the truck. I have a part-time helper and when he is not there, his job is performed by community service workers. Which finally brings me to the point of the title of this post. I need to warn them from the beginning. It will be hot — this is the south — and most of them have lived here longer than I have, so they should know that. The second thing I should say is, “You will get sweaty and you will get dirty.” Sort of like the signs they have on many water rides at the amusement parks, “You will get wet!” Some of the community service people come in having no idea they will work that hard and get that sweaty.
For me it is a good feeling to come home and have to take a shower from doing a hard day’s work. I love coming home and taking a hot shower to get rid of all the sweat. It’s also good to come home feeling like you’ve accomplished something and in a small way have made a difference in the Kingdom of God. The captain and I were talking right after I got hired and he said, “Yes, this is definitely a missional work place.” Praise the Lord!
This morning I head to our monthly men’s breakfast and then head out to Salvation Army — It’s yard sale Saturday. Pam, by the way is headed to the District Wesleyan Women Convention. Her name has been placed on the ballot for Assistant Wesleyan Women Director. I hope she gets it. Blessings….
