My Story/Testimony (Page 3)

"Wanted ministry minded Christian couple to work in a youth group home in Cody, Wyoming.  Food and housing provided.  50 miles east of Yellowstone National Park."

You may not believe me, but I knew right then that we were moving to Cody.  I tried calling the office number they had listed, but of course being Sunday nobody answered.  So we went to Church that evening and told our congregation that we thought God was revealing something to us and asked them to pray for us.  After church I couldn't sit still so I went ahead and called one of the other numbers they had listed and ended up connected to the senior houseparent in one of their houses.

I spent about an hour talking to him and he explained to me what houseparenting was, what their facility was like, what the kids were like, the normal day, etc.  The more we talked the more excited I got.  The next morning during my 20 minute coffee break I ran home and called the director.  I ended up spending an hour on the phone with him talking about the position and by the end of the conversation had scheduled an in person interview three weeks later.  We would have to do another phone interview with my wife and complete our applications but we all considered those formalities.

I went back to work and apologized for disappearing for an hour and at the same time asked for time off.  My boss looked at me and asked, "your going on a job interview aren't you?"  I was honest with him and told him about the position and he thought that would be something my wife and I would be good at. 

When we arrived in Cody I was expecting to meet a bunch of people in suits, but everyone was dressed way more casually than we were and my first impression of the director was "giant teddy bear".  We arrived in time for Friday staff meeting so we were able to meet the entire staff all four of them: The Director, Asst Director, and their one remaining set of houseparents.  After the staff meeting they took us out for lunch, but first we had to go stake out the local high school to make sure all the youth in the home were where they were supposed to be.  (during our almost two year stay at that home, we did a Friday stake out many times).  Two were not, they were back in the alley smoking.  The director sent them back into the school with the promise that they would further discuss things after school.  After lunch we spent the afternoon with the housemom and she told us how they got into houseparenting and how much she loved it and hoped they could find somebody that was dedicated enough to stick around for a while.

That night we stayed with the boys and enjoyed a meal of hotdogs, canned chile, and potato chips.  I can honestly say that we were a little overwhelmed with everything we had witnessed that day and pretty sure it was going to be nothing like we had imagined.  The next day we all went to a water park with the kids and staff.  The director was very good to focus on all the fun we were having that day: I just smiled and continued to watch and listen.  On the way back from the park I talked some more with the director and he was really fishing to try and get our impressions. I was honest with him about my concerns and he was good to answer them.  My wife and I had already spoke that afternoon and decided that even as crazy as it all seemed we felt that was what God was leading us to.  We accepted the position.

About Six months later we found out that the job listing they placed in that newspaper was the very first and only time they ever advertised that way and we were the only people to reply to it. 

The weekend we were gone interviewing  in Cody, a pastor candidate was interviewing in Scobey.  When we got back and informed them that we had accepted the position and would be leaving in three and a half weeks they informed us that they had found a pastor and he would be arriving in four weeks.  During that 3 1/2 week period we sold most everything we had in an auction, which wasn't very much.  It barely covered our moving expense to Cody, but I guess that was all we needed.  What we had left we were able to move in a 14 foot moving truck. 

We left Scobey on Saturday, and arrived in Cody Sunday afternoon.  It took about 45 minutes to unload the truck that took me 9 hours to load.  We scrambled to get everything unpacked that evening, because our adventure was going to begin the next morning.

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