God's Time Is The Best - Miss To Mrs. A

God’s time really is the best time. It’s crazy how, when you clear out space in your life and get rid of all the negatives or things that were dragging you down, God (or the universe or whatever it is you believe in) brings so many positives to your table.

the last couple of weeks were the weirdest and greatest weeks I’ve had for a while. There I was just plodding along, enjoying my time in lockdown, learning how to work on things that bring me joy (blogging and coding) and then BAM, work opportunities come and slap me in the face!

Opportunity 1:

I saw this job ad for an Admin & Communications Lead for the local church that’s on the same complex we just moved to. A job that is a couple of days a week, working from home, community focused and a role that’d definitely nourish my soul. I applied thinking they wouldn’t give it to me because I’m pregnant, but I applied because I had nothing to lose. I’m also a believer in the fact that opportunities don’t come your way unless you can handle it: God’s time is the best time. So, I was totally honest in my application in terms of:

working in marketing for 9 years so I had no immediate experience but a bucket load of transferrable skills
expecting a little one
the impact of Covid-19 on the role I had originally lined up, but the fact that lockdown had also taught me the importance of having more time to spend with my family and friends
doing a computer sciences course and blogging in my spare time in lockdown
I was perfect for the role because of my work history and the fact that I had been brought up in the church and our family had been very active within the community

To my surprise I got an interview and considering it is just a part time role, there would be an exercise that’d be a part of the interview process: they wanted a blog post, of which they would send the brief an hour and a half before the interview.

The Brief

“We are starting a series of blog posts running over a number of weeks, where different people in our community will guest post exploring what one of our church values means to them in their daily life. Your job is to write a blog post that will introduce the series, for an audience of the wider community. The community is diverse ethnically with a mix of long term and new residents, the age demographics are quite young, with a lot of young families and an increasing number of young adults. The values for the church are Defined by Dependence on God, Passionate about People, Dreamers who Dare to Make a Difference. You should pique people’s interest to encourage them to engage with other posts, you may want to include some of your own personal reflection/story and should consider how this might translate to other social media formats. It should reflect our tonal values of: simple, fun, honest and motivating. You can complete it in a simple Word format, it doesn’t need to be ready to upload, but you should demonstrate that you have considered what would need to be set up for it to be ready, you’re welcome to include imagery if you choose.”

My Response

Though the brief came over 15mins late, I read it and instantly knew what I’d write. Luckily, one of their previous posts also tied into my idea so I was able to link in previous posts as well as putting my own personal touch to my response. I called the blog series ‘What Church Means to Me’ and I initially set up the idea of the series:

“We now want to hear from you: what is it about our Church and values that keeps you coming back time after time? We want to start a new series of blogs written by you, the residents, about how our church values play a role in your daily life.”

I reiterated the church values and then related one of them, ‘Dependence on God’ to my personal experience of 2020: how at the beginning of the year, I had a plan and thanks to Covid-19 my plan was railroaded. But the time in lockdown allowed me to see what I should be doing instead, what I should be focusing on and what I wanted to have in my life moving forward. Again I was 100% open and honest – I had nothing to lose and I believed in God’s time.

The interview itself was 45mins long with the church leaders and the Head Of Community Churches in my Diocese: I thought it went well, I answered all of their questions thoroughly and the vibe I got from them was one that made me feel comfortable and felt I could work with them long term. It was the first interview that I didn’t feel like I had to be ‘on’, I could just be 100% myself and it made me feel so at ease. The church leaders live 2 roads away, have young children and totally understood my position and appreciated my honesty.

So much so that the next morning I got a call to say I had got the job!

I’ve never been one to be overconfident or comfortable selling myself to others, but this experience made me realise that being myself and being open is what some employers, the right employers for me, want.

I still have to pass my DBS check and they need to contact my referees, but this was a win for me to have some income of my own once again. And to top it off, the role is to work from home for the foreseeable! It honestly is perfect.

Opportunity 2:

My Dad’s been working with Immediate Theatre for years and they recently set up a community radio segment to keep the Young At Heart in Hackney connected especially during lockdown. As a part of this, they’ll be working with the Hackney Caribbean Elderly Organisation to give them and their attendees a platform. With Windrush Day on the 22^nd June they wanted to have a package that celebrates those that were a part of the Windrush and how the Organisation serves the community.

My background in radio led to my Dad introducing me to Immediate Theatre as a producer. So I interviewed, produced and edited a package for a community station. If all goes well, they have made it clear that I will be able to work on other packages that I think would be great for the segment.

I had a kick-off meeting about it a couple of weeks ago, and it got me so excited despite the quick turnaround needed. I literally just wrote about how production was no longer an option for me because of my lack of recent experience and not wanting to work for free, and yet here comes an adhoc opportunity that is funded, and I can get back into an area that I loved spending so much time on. Honestly, life is so funny sometimes.

The package I did ended up on the actual radio without any notes from the team to amend. By no means was it perfect, but given the fact that I hadn’t recorded and edited something in over 10 years and the turnaround I had, I’m very proud of the work I did.

Now theres a role they’ve advertised for 3 days a week for 13 weeks which I’ve been told to apply for by Immediate! They know my situation but I’ve been told they’d be happy to consider my application should I apply due to them enjoying my work so much so fingers crossed!

I don’t share these stories to brag. I mean neither of these will be bringing me all the money in the world. But I just wanted to show that when one door closes another will always open. Clichés like God’s time is the best and everything happens for a reason really are true and you have to believe in them. It may not happen in the way that you want or expect, but something will come along that’ll be exactly what you need.