It Is Finally Over!

I have some good news to report. After 16 months of temp positions, hundreds of job applications and job interviews, it is finally over!!!!

I have accepted a new position effective July 1st. I will become an administrator at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls. Yeah, no more driving to Vermillion each day (1 hour each way)! While I will miss USD, I am looking forward to leaving the world of career development and moving into a new realm of working with students at SETI.

I couldn't be more thrilled at how God has answered the prayers for the past 16 months. While that time has been challenging at times, it has also been a special time. Evie and I have started having nightly devotions and prayer, I read through the entire Bible this past year and we are stronger in our faith and relationship as a husband and wife team.

God is amazing how He works in our lives. There have been numerous (too many to count I think!) jobs that I REALLY wanted and wondered why I didn't get them after doing what I thought were good interviews! But all along Evie and I have continued to pray that God's will be done. I can look back and see how God has protected us, taught us and redirected our paths in some cases.

It is nice to be appreciated once again for my professional expertise and to be earning more money than what I did in my last job at USF. While money isn't everything, it is sure nice to have! And another way of how God provides in our lives!

So thanks dear friends and relatives for your love, prayers and support during this time. One has no idea what the job market is really like in 2010 unless you have lost your job. I don't recommend any of you try it. But I reflect back on what my precious, dear daughter Carrie said to me the day after I left USF in February 2009, "Dad, remember while God did not cause you to lose your job at USF, God will use this to bless you and you will come out on the other side a better person!" Man, out of the mouths of babes! I have reminded my wise daughter many times how true that statement was.

I have come to appreciate my daughter, son-in-law, other family and friends as a result from this experience. For I realize it is during such experiences one discovers who their friends really are. Some folks I haven't heard from since my days at USF. I have realized that perhaps they were never really a friend to begin with. But my true friends have stood by me these months with smiles, prayers and words of encouragement. For that I will always be grateful. Thank you dear people!

Love,

Markus