Huntin' for a Job...

Well, I'll be home in less than three weeks now--that much I know. What I don't know is what exactly I'll be doing once I get home. I'm planning on hanging out in northern Indiana for a while to spend time with my family and friends. However, odds are I'll be back on the mission field sooner rather than later--hopefully within the next year. So I guess the big question is: what will I do for the next year?

Being a person whose life has revolved around youth ministry for the past several years, my heart is definitely in investing in the lives of young people. Unfortunately, a year (or less) isn't really an ideal amount of time to get plugged into full-time youth work. It's really not fair for any church, and it's especially not fair to the young people. This puts me into kind of a tough spot. I certainly don't want to "waste" a year of my life just hanging out and waiting for God to reveal His next big plans for my life. After such a stretching year this year, the last thing I want to do is spend a year getting comfortable and not really pouring myself into young people, which is clearly God's calling on my life. But I also realize that I can invest in people's lives no matter where I am and no matter what I "do" vocationally.

I've considered even just doing some substitute teaching. Sure, the pay's not great, but it's a chance to hang out with young people every day, and it's obviously an extremely flexible job--I can just work whenever I want to work. Other than that, I suppose I can get some other job in the "secular" world--maybe work as a waiter or something. I think it would actually be kind of cool to be out in the "real world" for a while and really get a chance to be salt and light.

Most of all, I'm just praying now (and you can be praying, too!) that God will open up the right doors for me and make things clear. And who knows...maybe He will use you to show me the right door? I know that most of my readers are friends or other people involved in ministry in some way--or both. If any of you have a great job idea, feel free to let me know! Like I said, I'm not sure a full-time youth ministry gig is the best option for me right now, but I'm not totally ruling that out, either. Besides that, as far as ministry goes, I think I can add value to a church in the areas of worship and/or missions. I have a passion for worship through music and have been leading in that capacity for several years now. And, obviously, missions is my life and passion as well. Other than that, as I said before, I'm more than open to any job ideas you might have in the secular realm as well.

Okay, my shameless plug for myself is finished. Leave me a comment here on the blog or shoot me an email at ackosmo22@aol.com if you have any thoughts/suggestions. But, most of all, just keep praying that God's hand would continue leading and guiding me in every step I take in life, and pray that I would be sensitive to His leading! Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying faithfully!