TGIF

Thank God it's Friday! This week was nice, but it always feels even nicer to come to a weekend. Even if I'm working :)

Jane previously asked how I wound up in my job. I suppose I should tell you about my job first... I am at a Catholic church, as a "director of religious education" officially.... unofficially, that means I do a whole lot of stuff for kids /families from birth to grade 5. Even more unofficially, we're required to be team players and help out on all sorts of random things, like fundraisers or thank you dinners or Very Important Masses. And most of the staff likes to collaborate and support each other, so we also find ourselves at things like Senior Luncheons, or helping folks with their computer (?), or organizing a parish wide picnic.

Kade becomes part of the Church family.

Oh, officially I'm also in charge of preparing folks for the Sacraments of Initiation- Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist (Communion). Reconciliation falls in there too, and so anyone of any age who wants those sacraments comes through "my" ministries. Technically, there's 6 programs I manage. We have over 50 wonderful volunteers who really make those ministries happen- my job is more of setting things up to make sure they can do it, both logistics and formation wise. Our parish has about 12oo-1500 families, and "my" ministries serve about 120-150 a year. We're considered small for our area.

Deacon talks about Mass with little kids & their parentals.

But how did I wind up here? Short answer- God. Medium answer- a friend (also a member at the church) told me about the position, and I applied, and ta-da. Longer answer- Way back in the day, when I was trying to decide what to major in, I talked to a bunch of people and realized the actual degree was probably more important than the major (especially because I had ruled out specific areas like biology!). Deciding to focus on what I'd enjoy learning about, that narrowed it down to theology, english or theater (I know, right?). Theology seemed, please forgive me, the easiest option. Less reading and writing (not exactly) and less competition (mostly true).

Youth acting/praying the Stations of the Cross.

From there, I've done about 4 "professional" jobs. They've been either educational or religion-related, though this is the first time I've worked directly for the Church (it's never been a career goal). I've also done 2 years of service (which led to one of the jobs) and I've turned down maybe 3 or 4 jobs. In every single case of a job offer, it's people who already know me. Anyway, to wrap up this long answer, my choice of college led to my choice of the major, which led to me meeting certain groups of people (orders of priests), which led to... this place! Ta-da :)