Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Back to Work I Go

(circa 1990-95)

It was time… The home inspection business was so seasonal, making income very sporadic and unpredictable. The cost of living in Flagstaff was very high (a popular saying in Flagstaff is “Flagstaff: poverty with a view”). Besides, Shannon was in 6^th grade, Luke was in 8^th grade and Bill’s hours were so flexible he could take care of whatever the kids needed. Sadly, my days of being a stay-at-home mom were over and it was time for me to go back to work. And so my search for just the right job began – every Sunday, pouring over the “Help Wanted” ads in the newspaper.

NAU (Northern Arizona University) would be perfect. The kids were growing up – college approaching in their future. Tuition for NAU employees and their families was nearly free and benefits were great, so that’s what I focused on. I submitted application after application and even had a few interviews, but to no avail. Nothing there seemed to open up for me.

But then one beautiful fall day one ad seemed to jump off the page at me, obscuring all the rest: “Executive Secretary to the Senior Vice President of Administration, Amfac Resorts/Fred Harvey Company…” Hmmm, maybe that job was for me and so I submitted my application. Not too long after, I was invited to the office for an interview.

Actually, I love job interviews. I think they are fun and they don’t intimidate me at all. I was looking forward to meeting my prospective new boss. After a quick handshake with a jovial older gentleman named John who had an engaging, wry smile, we sat down for a very pleasant chat. The next day, Human Resources called to offer me the job – and I accepted.

Family Teamwork

Life for our family was about to change drastically. It was time for each of us to take more responsibility around the house. Chores would be divided evenly amongst the four of us and each of us would take a weeknight to plan and cook dinner. Theoretically, that was a great idea; realistically, however, it met with many challenges. (I was dealing with children and a very spoiled husband after all.) This would be good for all of us though.

Bill, whose roots firmly planted in Midwestern Kansas farm heritage, dictated that men did outside work; women did inside work – and never the twain would meet. (In frustration one day a year before, I cross-stitched a sign which I placed in a prominent place above our kitchen sink as a rather overt hint: “No woman ever shot a man while he was doing the dishes.” Unfortunately, it went unnoticed by the person for whom it was intended.) Bill’s tradition was now about to be challenged. Would Bill break the mold when put to the test? I am happy to report that yes, eventually he did! (Notice I said “eventually”.) He learned to cook dinner. He did the dishes. He helped with house cleaning. This was a miracle!

The kids learned skills that would serve them well as they grew. Dinners were, to say the least, simple. Nearly every night when it was Luke’s turn to cook, he would call me at 4:55 pm at work, asking me to stop by the store on my way home and buy some “Hamburger Helper”. Sighing, I dutifully did what he asked. After all, it was their responsibility to plan their menu. However, to this day, the thought of “Hamburger Helper” turns my stomach. I guess it was better than his other specialty: peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

Amfac Resorts / Fred Harvey Company

And so it was off to work I went. What a great, fun place it was to work! Every day when Charlie, the Vice President of Human Resources, walked by my office, he would croon the old Ritchie Valens’ song “Ohhhh, Donna”, echoing the song, along with my protests, down the hallway. When I was going through menopause, frantically fanning myself during hot flashes, John would laugh hysterically at me. And when we went to lunch at our favorite teppanyaki restaurant our 6’4” very dignified CEO, Allen, proceeded to stick chopsticks up his nose. I could go on and on. Laughter was abundant in our office and working there was delightful. Every summer there were company picnics and at Christmas, there were elaborate parties. We even had a very inept, bungling softball team appropriately named “The Last Resorts” that could laugh at every game they lost.

And the company had a 100-year-old history too. The Fred Harvey Company (later becoming “Amfac Resorts”) was established in the late 1800’s, building restaurants and hotels along railroad lines, hiring young women as “Harvey Girls” to work in the establishments. It was largely due to the Fred Harvey Company that the west became civilized. In 1946 there was even a movie starring Judy Garland called “The Harvey Girls”. I loved the company’s legacy.

The company had concessions at three national parks: Grand Canyon, Death Valley & Petrified Forest. They also managed a hotel in Albuquerque, NM and a resort in Napa, CA. The perks were great. One year on our anniversary they gave us a free weekend in a suite in the historic El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon. That included free meals too. It was a very busy summer evening, the lobby crowded with people waiting in long lines for a table in the restaurant. I went up to the hostess, telling her who I was and was immediately ushered to a table in the dining room and given the VIP treatment. I must admit, it felt really good.

During my employment there we enjoyed many “freebies” and hotel discounts too. It really came in handy when our kids got involved in hockey. We did a lot of traveling for tournaments and saved a ton of money. Sometimes we were even greeted by huge VIP fruit baskets in our room.

But then the fateful day came when a huge Chicago conglomerate bought the company out, forcing the CEO, Allen, to resign. Everything changed from that day on. The normally jovial atmosphere in the office became somber; the camaraderie was replaced by suspicion. Anyone who was loyal to the old company or to Allen was driven out, me included. And so, after nearly 5 years, there I was again, pouring over the “Help Wanted” ads in the newspaper.

A Church Secretary? Really?

And so my focus was, once again, on NAU. As much as I tried again to get hired there nothing opened up for me. I had several interviews there but just couldn’t get hired (which was a big blow to my over-inflated ego). It had never been difficult for me to find a job before. But God, in his wisdom, had very, very different plans for my future.

And then another, very different “Help Wanted” ad jumped off the page at me. This time it was for an “Executive Secretary in a mainline denominational church…” Hmmm … interesting… I decided to go ahead and apply for the job, thinking that there was no way a church could come close to the pay or benefits I had been getting. But I do enjoy job interviews and thought that this might be fun. I did not take it seriously.

They did call me for an interview one evening. When I walked into the room there were 12 smiling people sitting around a huge table, staring at me, ready for the interview. 12 people – really? I recovered rather quickly from the shock and decided to just be myself, enjoy the evening, go home and forget about it.

And so after the interview I left. The drive from the church to our house took about 15 minutes. By the time I got home Bill told me that they had called him, asking what kind of pay and benefits I would need. The next day they called me, offering me the job with comparable pay and much better benefits!

Okay, now I had to take this seriously and make a decision. A church? Really? No way!!! For a multitude of reasons (which I will enumerate in my next blog post) I could NEVER picture myself working in a CHURCH, of all things! Is this actually what God wanted me to be: a CHURCH SECRETARY – in a United Methodist Church?!?

Bill and I spent the weekend discussing the prospect. This would probably be a dead-end job but we decided to go ahead and give it a one-year trial to see how it went. Little did I know how this would change the trajectory of my entire life!

July 1, 1995 I reported to Trinity Heights United Methodist Church for my first day as a church secretary. I walked into my new “office” and was greeted with a room that was about 10’x10’, crammed with two full-sized desks (there was a part-time secretary too), a huge copy machine, and a noisy dot-matrix printer sitting on a table behind my desk. The “office” was equipped with some kitchen cabinets (upper and lower) and, drum roll … a kitchen sink!

Added to the congestion, Rita, the other secretary, and I had to share a telephone, which was located at the front of my desk. Whenever Rita used the phone, she had to stretch the cord across a narrow pathway, causing anyone crossing it to either duck under the cord or step over it. Whenever one of us was on a phone call and another call came in, one of us would have to run to the pastor’s office to answer it. And there were many times when people would come into the office to make copies or just spend time chatting. Sometimes it was so crazy I couldn’t hear myself think, let alone get any work done.

But you know what? I learned to love it there. I loved the staff I was privileged to work with; I loved the members whose love and care for me and for others was boundless; I loved the hyper-activity (at times there were activities happening 24/7) and when we adopted “Holy Fun” as our motto, that became our reality. It truly was “Holy Fun”. (We even put that on the church van’s license plate.) And, by the way, we eventually moved into a larger office.

And for the next 14 years Trinity Heights United Methodist Church became my second home; my second family. So much for a one-year trial. This is where I belonged.

“Follow Me”

I thought I had my career planned. I thought I knew what I should be doing with my life and I headed down that “road”, full speed ahead. But, after meeting with roadblock after roadblock, I finally slowed down and discovered a little fork in the road, leading to a small side road. I hesitantly turned onto it and at the end of that road I found a lovely place – exactly where I needed to be – the place God had prepared for me. And when I quieted my heart, I discovered that God had, all along, been whispering to me: “follow me”.

I had no idea where he was going to take me but, by faith, I followed – and I’ve never regretted it. Sometimes gratitude overwhelms me as I consider the impact it had on my life and the life of those around me. As much as we think we know best, God knows much better. We can trust him. We can follow him wherever he takes us.