In kindergarten, one of the things that we do everyday is calendar and weather. We talk about the seasons and some of the signs of spring. The kids are getting really good at telling me why it is spring. "Mrs. D. it is spring out because it is raining a lot...I can hear the baby birds sing...the sun shines right through my window early in the morning...there are flowers popping up in our garden...I can run on the green grass."

Talking about spring everyday has my mind thinking a lot about new life. Tonight as I work around the house, my thoughts have gone to two precious people that were born recently. Both are small, new, and fragile. They have lots of machines hooked up to their tiny bodies, running tests and such to see what the next day may hold.

I've been reminded that even though life, for young or old, may seem uncertain and at times confusing, God is Sovereign and in control of all things. God not only thinks good things about us, His plans for us our good too!

From Psalm 139:13-15

For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!

Winds of Change

Sooooo, this is the first time I (Marco) am adding thoughts to the blog. I have to do this before working on the aquarium. Talk about incentive.

As the title states, things are changing in my sphere of influence. Up to now, I have been static with life. Getting married and having a beautiful woman moving into the house has been a big change for me. I am thoroughly enjoying the time with Kristin and watching her add her influence to life. Being single past thirty has allowed me to settle a bit and enjoy one place for more than 6 months. That is until recently.

Since 1999 I have worked for Hertz Rent a Car, starting in Banff, and moving to Red Deer to assume a branch manager role. The Red Deer office was new when I started and so the first years have seen many experiences and lessons on how to run a car rental office. It has been a struggle over the last couple years as I come to know more about the pressures of corporate life and the reality that at the end of the day I am a number and therefore at the mercy of executives that make decisions that affect lives. I became one of those statitics of a company trying to go lean in the search of greater profits and efficiencies. Red Deer was deemed to not be profitable enough to justify its existance at this point in time and I was given to the end of April to find a new job.

Well, to say the least, it took me by surprise, something like getting sucker punched, except that I have known that I would get sucker punched for sometime, I just did not know when. That's the irony of a sucker punch. One of the first things I did was take this concern to Jesus. I knew that I could take this in two different ways, negatively or positively. I decided to take this as an opportunity to see what God would like to do in my life. We also asked our small group to pray for us, which ironically was studying James and discussing reactions to major disruptions in life. I also talked with a few other people, mostly to let my feelings and emotions out, but also to try and get a sense of what God is trying to tell me.

So on the first Wednesday of April I found out about the closure. On the Friday I received a message to contact a business person out of Rocky Mountain House. I talked to him late on Friday and we setup a meeting on Monday at the end of the day. Also on Friday I was informed by my boss Helen that there was a position at the Calgary Airport service center to manage the distribution office, which cooridinates a fleet of up to 4000 cars. It would mean we would have to move or I would commute about an hour and half each way daily. This position was actually filled tentatively and the candidates had not been told yet. So Helen was sticking out her neck to try and reopen the position to give me an opportunity. Helen asked me to think about it. Sunday was our small group. Monday came and the meeting occurred at the end of the day. Brent from Rocky Mountain House offered me the job of continuing to manage Red Deer and he would supply the fleet and other resources needed to make the office run. He invited Kristin and I for supper where we continued to talk about the opportunity. He asked me to let him know soon. Helen also wanted to know soon. So Monday night I faced a delimma. Both opportunities were good, both had risks and I wasn't sure what to do.

I was reading through the book of Proverbs and in chapter three vs six it states that I should acknowledge him(God) and he will make your paths straight. I realized then that I needed God to make my path straight and to trust Him in the decisions.

On Tuesday I talked to Helen, I told her that I did not want to burn any bridges and appreciated all that she had done for me. She informed that she was going to close the door on the Calgary position, leaving me the one choice to make.

Since the decision was made I have been working towards a change over. It is now at the end of May and starting to get hectic. It will be a challenge to keep things smooth and provide seamless service. I am looking forward to what comes up over the next several months. Brent has been telling me some of the opportunities he would like to see happen and I have longed to do them and more.

Well, off to the aquarium.

Marco