I arrived in New York from my home in Northern Ireland in May this year, joining Nichols, my (American) husband after a year’s wait for my spousal visa. New apartment, new city, new church, new(ish) husband – it felt like a lot to take on! But what I was really impatient to get started on was a new job. I had left academia a couple of years earlier to manage a Christian non-profit based in Belfast, serving people with disabilities in the UK and Kenya. When I arrived in NY and people asked what sort of job I was looking for, I didn’t even know what to say!

Job searching is really hard, wherever in the world you do it - it’s so easy to feel discouraged and isolated. However, one of the most positive outcomes for me was discovering the care for job seekers through the Redeemer Diaconate. On my first Sunday at Redeemer, I saw an announcement about the ‘Job Search Roundtable’, which is a program organized by the Diaconate, and I decided to attend.

There, I met other New Yorkers looking for all sorts of different jobs, and they were all struggling in one way or another with what is frankly a pretty stressful and scary time in anyone’s experience. But it was SO encouraging to hear how God was working in their lives. One of the most important things I took away from my fellow job seekers was that whether working or unemployed, my identity and worth is rooted in Jesus alone. That lesson continues to keep everything in perspective for me on a daily basis: in a city in which success, salary, personal appearance or popularity are areas from which people derive their identity, I learned that having Jesus as my identity is the most valuable thing. Because whether I’m on the mountaintop or in the valley, He never changes and never fails.

I’m happy to report that I got a job in the end, and it is the very best job I didn’t know existed! Every single day I have thanked God for leading me to it – the way in which He did is an amazing story that would take too long to tell here! But suffice to say it was definitely by His doing.

When I look back now, I know that God had perfect plans for me. Despite my impatience at being unemployed, He waited until everything was ready and the right job was there and then led me to it, like the good Shepherd and loving Father He is. I feel such peace going to work every day and knowing it’s exactly the job He wants for me.

I want to thank the Diaconate for providing such amazing services – they were so helpful at a time when I most needed them, and gave me encouragement and strength when I was feeling vulnerable and a bit lost. Finally, I just want to praise the Lord here today, because He has been so good and so faithful to me.