A long story today--make up for missing Friday!

Day 169, "Every picture has a story"

This is the pond at the North Dakota School for the Deaf.  The story for today:

Gail and I spent 2/3 of our year, 68/69 training at the school.  We were there in the fall taking classes which came out of Minot.  Mrs. Lake and the superintendent were our teachers.  In the winter we were back at Minot and then we were at the school again in the spring.  I had taken "Deaf Education" only as a stepping stone to some other profession.  I had the sense to take a scholarship which paid expenses plus a stipend instead of borrowing more money!  In the spring of the year I was offered a teaching position and accepted.  I found that I really liked teaching and it seemed that the administration was pleased with me as well.  In the school year of 74/75 I agreed to be taken off of the state payroll and go under Title 1.  That meant I would have extra money to spend and also a full time teacher aide.  I was promised that if the Title 1 money was eliminated I would go back under the state payroll. A year later, in May of 1976, the superintendent asked me into his office.  Our principal was leaving in June and I thought maybe he was going to ask me for my idea of a replacement.  To my surprise he asked me if I wanted the job!  Of course it would mean a raise in pay and it was a year round job.  Deep down I said yes in my spirit as it would mean an end to driving cement truck for Lake Ready Mix!  I was surprised and told him I would let him know in a day or two.  I probably was not good at pay negotiation but I accepted and got a pay raise.  I told him that I would be away for part of the summer as I was finishing my MA in Grand Forks.  The next year was one of learning and enjoying.  For sure there were parts of the job that I did not like but over all it was a dream job for me and ended up being my most favorite job ever.
In the early spring of 1977 things started to happen.  The prayer group in Grand Forks invited us to be part of an IMPORTANT meeting there.  We went and they shared that the prayer community, as a whole, were moving to the Twin Cities to join Servants of the Light.   We were invited to be part of that!  Oh my here I was in a job that I loved and it appeared that I was being very successful and now something new to think about!  We weighed several factors:

• Did we really want to live all of our adult life in Devils Lake?
• Were we happy with the kinds of people we rubbed shoulders with and what about the education our kids would get?
• What did the long term $$ look like?
• We had been considering moving from 710 3rd street, was this actually what God had in mind for us?
• The bottom line was what did God have to say

We took a trip to St. Paul just to look at things and decided that MAYBE we would consider moving in the next year.  I did get a meeting with the Director of Special Education in St. Paul and she said there were NO teacher openings for the coming year.  At home I was well into the fall schedule as far as the school went.  I had worked on and finalized 27 different schedules for the dorm parents over the next 52 weeks!

We decided to take in a charismatic conference in Kansas City that was July 20-24.  We left Devils Lake July 11th and went to the Saunders farm.  Marian and Chic went with us to the conference.  We arrived home in Devils Lake July 27 and I was all ready to dig in for the fall.  There was a voice on our answering machine from Ron L who taught in St. Paul.  I called him back and he said the Director of Special Education had called him on Friday and asked him to get a hold of me.  A teacher had resigned and she was offering me the job!   Now one can NOT ignore that as a sign from God.  The next several weeks became a blur and perhaps fodder for more stories!  BUT that ended our 9 years in Devils Lake AND of course the end of my dream job as well.  I have to add that following the Lord in those circumstances was the best thing I ever did.