Random ramblings

Can you believe that last week marked the beginning of my sixth month in Montreal? How time flies!

Update on the Job Search

The most recent exciting news of my life, which has been a subject of much prayer over the last 4 months, is that I have found a full-time, permanent job and I started this week. I am now officially working for a company called BackCheck. They are a Canadian company, their head office is in Vancouver and they have very recently opened an office in Montreal. They work in the field of Human Resources with clients all around the world and here's a blurb from their website about what they do. "Founded in 1997, BackCheck specializes in pre-employment background checks, including Investigative Reference Checks, Employment Verifications, Criminal Record Checks, Credit Inquiries and Education Verifications. With thousands of clients ranging in size from under 50 to 150,000 employees, BackCheck is Canada's leading and largest provider of employment screening."

A job like this is nothing like what I was looking for when I first moved to Montreal, but I have realized a lot of things in the past few months, among which include the fact that getting a job in the non-profit sector in a french-speaking province is incredibly difficult when you're not fluently bilingual. I don't think that I can count the times that I have been asked "do you speak french" or "how's your french" during the job search process, which is mildly frustrating when your honest answer will not result in a job offer. But hindsight is always 20/20 and, as I look back over the last four months, I can see very clearly that God used my search for a job to teach me a lot about Him, myself, and my relationship with Him. In all honesty, while I knew all along that God would provide a job for me, I think that I "thought" that I knew what that job would be that He would provide. Now I can see that I was wrong about what type of job it would be, but He obviously has other plans.

A little while ago, Rachel asked me a question that got me thinking. The question was something to the extent of "would I work at a different job or in a different field to stay in Montreal?" A lot of things go through your mind after someone asks you a question like that, but every time I thought about the question and my situation, I could only come to one conclusion. I knew that God has called me to Montreal and, as hard as some of the last four months have been at times, what else could I possibly do but stay in this city, no matter what it took. God is amazing and so incredibly full of grace and patience for His children and I have never felt such peace during a time which, by worldly standards, should be incredibly stressful and chaotic. God is faithful and I have been humbled again and again when I think of how He miraculously provided for me financially over the last few months.

It is also amazing what God has done through this whole experience as well. I never realized how much pride I used to put in being able to earn a living for myself and not really having to worry or think about where the money was going to come from, because I knew, unless something dramatic changed. But then I was faced with the situation where I didn't know and that stretched my faith in ways that were a bit uncomfortable at times. In all of it, the only way I can describe right now what He has done is to say that He broke pride in me that I had never seen before (or thought possible), brought me to my knees in absolute brokenness, and then called me into this place of intimacy with Him that I have never experienced before. As I look back, I can see that God had some shaping to do in my life and He used the job situation to do it... or part of it, at least.

So, it's been a challenging and interesting four months and I am so excited to start working again. Before I had even been interviewed for this job, I somehow knew that I was going to be working there and I have such a peace about it. I have a LOT to learn, but I think it's going to be really interesting. While I was doing my business degree, I loved the field of Human Resources and it's always interested me even though I have never worked in the field.

From what I've heard so far, this is an exciting time in this company as well, what with the new office being opened in Montreal. About twelve employees from the Vancouver office have temporarily moved to Montreal to start up this office, but these people may or may not decide to stay in Montreal. They are hiring people who will be the future leaders of the office because, whether or not the employees from head office decide to stay or not, the company is going to grow a lot over the next few years, meaning the opportunities for growth are huge. I don't know what God has in store for the future, but I'm excited about what He has brought to me and how He wants to use me there. It's a fairly small office right now, because it only opened quite recently and they haven't been hiring for long, but their goal is to hire 250 employees within the next year and a half. That's one really big sphere of influence all under one roof, so that's really exciting. I'll have to save the details of what I'll be doing for later... once I completely understand that scope of it. :)

Life in Montreal

Other than the job search part of my life, what can I say? I love living in Montreal and it continues to be tons of fun to explore and check out different areas of the city. Living in Quebec never ceases to amaze me that I am still in Canada. The architecture is beautiful, the culture is so rich, I don't understand the language half of the time... I feel like I'm in Europe and I love it! :) I have managed to update my online photo site with photos that I took up until the end of June and I'm sure that I will soon get to July's photos! :) If you wish, you can check them out from time to time at http://www.captivatedbygrace.shutterfly.com/.

Since I've been in Montreal, I've been able to spend quite a bit of time with members of my family who live here, which has been great. I have really enjoyed getting to know and reaching out to a large part of my extended family that I never knew or have only met a few times in my life. Last night, I had the chance to get together with a great aunt and uncle, another great aunt, some second cousins, and some cousins at a dinner at my great aunt and uncle's house in Mercier. It was so much fun - the food was great, it was awesome to meet more of the members of my extended family, and we played games and laughed a lot! I've discovered that there are a lot of people in my extended family who have great senses of humour.

Update about Victory Heights International

It is such a blessing and an encouragement to be a part of a church plant and I really treasure the times that we have together, building a community and reaching out to those around us. I love the times that we spend together... talking, getting to know each other, playing games, eating (there always seems to be some sort of food involved), and just genuinely enjoying each other's company. We were talking one day about the need to take a Sabbath day and I realized that, more so than ever before and probably because the church is still small, Sundays have really become a Sabbath day to spend with family and God.

Guy recently changed our meeting times, for various reasons, and so we are now meeting on Thursday evenings for what used to be the Sunday meeting... worship, a message, and a meal of some sort. I guess you could call it the Thursday meeting now and we meet at 7:00 pm for worship and the message, followed by dessert and coffee and tea. On Sundays, we now meet for prayer at noon at a location somewhere in the city. The first Sunday, we met at the viewpoint on the top of Mont Royal, and this past Sunday, everyone met at the Notre-Dame-de-Grace Park, which is a large park that is just around the corner. This is a fairly recent change, so we have only met for two Thursday evenings and two Sunday afternoons so far, and it is going to be exciting to see what God is going to do through both of the meetings. It is encouraging and exciting to hear the prophecies of what God is going to do in this city and to get to know the people that He puts in our path. We have had several visitors to the church over the past two months, we are all continuing to build relationships with people that we meet, and I'm sure that we will soon be too big to meet in the Lacey's home anymore.

Being a part of a church plant over the past few months has been an incredibly challenging and stretching time for me personally and it's definitely a journey. I am continually in awe of the depth of who God is and what He has done for us. If I could use any word to describe this time in my life, it would be the word "refining"... I feel like I'm in God's refining fire. I've come to realize that you can't hide, in any respect, when you're a part of a church plant, and God is using this time in my life to reveal to me a lot about my character, things I had never seen before, and then shaping me for His glory. The past few months have been pretty intense, but the intimacy with God that is resulting is beyond what words can adequately express.