When God Writes the Story {My New Job}

“What’s the highest degree you can get?” I asked my mom.

“It’s called a PhD,” she replied. “It’s kind of like being a doctor, but instead of having patients, you’re a doctor of books.”

“That’s what I want to be then,” I said. “A doctor of books.”

I vaguely remember this conversation. I was probably eight or nine years old, and I had just learned that you could go to school again after college. This possibility was intriguing to me. I loved reading and writing, so going to school for extra years sounded like an amazing idea.

This idea of getting my PhD lurked in the back of my mind for the rest of my youth. When I checked out books about colleges from the library in 8th grade, I thought about my PhD. When I went to a college fair my junior year, I thought about grad school. I lost sight of my PhD a bit as I delved into journalism during high school and considered a career as a news writer or editor, but by my sophomore year of college I had switched my degree from journalism to English and began contemplating graduate school once again. As I watched my English professors talk excitedly in class about poetry and novels and politics and the history of kings and queens and priests, I knew without a doubt I wanted to be a professor. I wanted to read books and grade essays and mentor students and stand in front of the classroom each day passionate about teaching and writing and learning.

I taught high school English for five years after college. I loved it. It’s one of my favorite things I have ever done, and I acquired a wealth of experience about students and learning and different cultures and worldviews from my time in various high school classrooms. But I always knew it wasn’t my forever job. I always knew I would eventually get my PhD and teach college like I had always dreamed of doing.

And now that time has come…

I am thrilled to announce I will be starting as an Assistant Professor of English at Vanguard University in August.

This is the job I’ve always dreamed of. It actually exceeds my dreams. It’s so perfect for me, for our family, for this season of life that I can honestly say it’s only by the Lord’s favor and sovereign plan that I have this job.

It all started when I was two years old. You think I’m exaggerating here, but I’m not. The Lord started writing this story for my life in 1985 when my mom was searching for a preschool for me. She chose a new preschool in town called Cedar Park. It met at a church near our house, and I excitedly started attending two days a week. The following year the school was quickly expanding, so it moved to the back of a mall. {This is not important to the story; I just want to note that my school met in a mall for one year.} Eventually, the school moved to its permanent location in Bothell, Washington and I attended there until 3rd grade when we moved to a different town. My time at Cedar Park was transformational for me. It’s where I realized I loved school and excelled in academics, but most importantly, it’s where I met Jesus. My parents talked about God at home and I had a good understanding of the Bible at a very young age, but it wasn’t until Miss Sitki, my pre-kindergarten teacher at Cedar Park, shared the gospel one day in class that the truth of Jesus’ redemptive work on the cross began to sink into my heart. I went home that day, hid my five-year old self behind the sofa because I
somehow understood the gravity and reverence of my choice, and I asked Jesus to
save me from my sins.

Twenty years later, I had recently moved back to Washington after spending six years in Texas for college and my first teaching job. Micah and I were dating and, although I was anxious to attend graduate school and start working on my PhD, the timing still wasn’t right. Instead, I needed a job to pay the bills. My sister had just started teaching kindergarten at our old school, Cedar Park, so I decided to apply to teach English at the high school. I got the job and loved it.

Two years later, Micah and I got married and moved to Arizona, so I could finally attend graduate school. I knew my job prospects would be slim once I got done with my PhD, as professor jobs are increasingly competitive and hard to find, but I pressed on toward my goal, trusting that God had a plan. When the opportunity arose for Micah to take a job in Orange County this past fall, it made no sense. I was excited about the idea of a new adventure, but all the jobs for this coming academic year were starting to come out {open positions in academia get posted about 6-12 months in advance}. I saw jobs that might be a perfect fit for me in Florida and North Carolina and Tennessee, but we were headed to California and Micah needed to commit to his new position for the next few years.

At least, if I was going to be “stuck” somewhere, Southern California is filled with colleges and universities. Maybe, just maybe, God could provide an opportunity for me here. I began applying for jobs as far north as L.A. and as far south as San Diego. I analyzed commute times, as I sent off applications to universities more than 50 miles away from our house. Surely something would turn up.

Our very first week in California, before we had even found a place to live, I began scanning the employment pages of some of the private, Christian universities in Orange County. I loved my time teaching at ASU, a huge research university, but in the past year or two I had been feeling drawn to working in a private school again. I wanted an intimate campus where I would pass my students on the sidewalk in between classes and know the other faculty really well. We had been in California for about four days when I noticed Vanguard University was hiring adjunct faculty for the spring semester. On a whim, I decided to apply. Most of the time, it’s not beneficial to take an adjunct job at an institution where you might want a full-time job. Once you’ve labeled yourself as an “adjunct” it’s hard to lose the title. But I thought that maybe a smaller school with a Christian mission might not play by the same rules. Maybe if I could get my foot in the door and show them that I am an excellent teacher who cares about my students minds and hearts, I could apply for a full-time position if it were to open up. I told them in my interview for the professor position that I took the adjunct job “strategically and prayerfully.” I saw that the English department only had three full-time faculty and none of them specialized in writing. With nearly 2,000 students on campus it seemed apparent they might need more faculty in the English Department, especially someone with my background in rhetoric and composition. I skimmed the list of other adjuncts and none of them had their PhD. If a position opened up, I would be the only internal candidate qualified for the role. I also learned that Vanguard is an Assemblies of God School, just like Cedar Park where I had attended as a student and had worked back in Seattle. I mentioned the connection in my cover letter and submitted my application.

As soon as the department chair emailed me back about the adjunct job, I knew in my gut I was going to get it. I started teaching at Vanguard in January (two weeks before my dissertation defense – it was nuts), and within a few weeks the chair had offered me more adjunct classes for the fall. I was very candid with her and told her that I was actually seeking a full-time job. However, I was loving the Vanguard campus and students, so if any full-time faculty positions opened up, I asked her to please let me know. She emailed me back instantly. “Serendipitously,” she said, she had just been conversing with the dean about adding a new faculty member. Ideally, it would be someone who specialized in writing. Within in a few weeks, the job had been posted and I worked diligently on my application materials.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Micah and I were still looking for a church in Orange County. We visited many during the fall, and for one reason or another they just weren’t right for us. Now it was January and we still hadn’t found a church home. It was discouraging, because we are the opposite of church-hoppers and just wanted to settle down. For some reason, I kept feeling a pull to return to a church called Encounter we had visited once in November. The first time we visited the church there had been a guest pastor preaching, and we had already visited another church we thought we might commit to, so there was no real pull to visit it again. However… I met the pastor’s wife on our first Sunday. And she brought us dinner the VERY NEXT NIGHT. I explained to her that we were in the middle of a crazy move from Arizona to California and she quickly replied, “You need dinner. I am bringing you dinner tomorrow night.” Her kindness was amazing. So when January rolled around, and we still didn’t have a church, I kept suggesting to Micah that we try Encounter one more time. We did and instantly realized it was the church for us.

We got to know our pastor Jason and his wife Julie well from the start, and learned that he had attended Vanguard for college. Before planting Encounter, he had worked as a youth pastor for years at a nearby church under the leadership of a senior pastor named Mike… who had recently resigned as head pastor to become the president of Vanguard. At the time these seemed like mildly interesting connections, but a few weeks later the full-time job opened up. I told Pastor Jason at church the following Sunday and he instantly put his hand on my shoulder and prayed that I would get the job. After he said “Amen,” he said, “The president of Vanguard is preaching for me here in three weeks. You’ll get to meet him.” So three weeks later, Micah and I dressed up a little extra for church {ha!} and I conveniently got to meet the president of Vanguard face to face a two weeks before my scheduled interview with him. By this time, I knew I was a finalist for the professor job and he had just read over my application materials when I met him.

Two weeks later, I was sitting in the president’s office in the midst of my on-campus interview day. Since we had already met, we fell into conversation easily and I asked about his daughter who lives in Seattle. I told him about my teaching experience at Cedar Park, and he looked at me and exclaimed “No way! That’s where my grandson goes to school.”

Five days later, the provost called me at 8am to tell me I got the job! I am thrilled. It’s everything I ever wanted in a professor position… I will teach three classes a semester and run the campus writing center. I should have a reasonable work schedule and be able to spend a lot of quality time with my own children. I will be able to share the gospel with my students and disciple them to know the Lord more deeply. And my university is ten minutes away from Micah’s work. Ten minutes. We will move this summer or fall and both of us will live so close to work we won’t even have to get on the (dreaded) freeway.

I laugh now that I was contemplating jobs in L.A. and San Diego, considering a 90 minute commute and tracking rush hour traffic on my phone to see where we should live if my work was 50 miles away. I should have known God had something better in store for me. He knew all along that He had prepared this job for me. When my mom was enrolling me in preschool, He knew. When I took a job at Cedar Park while longing to go to graduate school, He knew. When we moved to Orange County on whim for Micah’s job, He knew.

Vanguard University, I’ll see you in the fall. God knew in August of 1985 where I would be working in August 2016. His story is better than any I could ever write.