All your circumstances are in the hand of God, so never think this strange concerning the circumstances you are in.

Oswald Chambers

September 2023

It all happened so fast. One day Jonathan was looking for work and the next was entering into the Master’s Degree program at New Mexico State University. For months he looked for work here in the city and prayed that the opportunity to attend West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas would become available. He waited to hear any news about a scholarship to help finance his continued education, but nothing seemed to be there. After prayer and consideration, he let the school in Canyon know that he would not be attending in the fall. He had faith that God still had a way open to him with either work or school. Less than twenty-four hours later, he received an e-mail from a History professor at NMSU. The professor noticed that Jonathan had applied for the spring semester and wondered if Jonathan would be interested in attending in the fall. This was the beginning of August and classes started on the 16th! Jonathan said he would be interested but would need funding, a scholarship, or work to help pay for classes. He received a reply to contact someone at the campus museum because they were looking for a graduate assistant. He e-mailed the contact, answered a few questions, shared his skills and future goals, and the next day was told he got the job! The graduate assistant job is a paid position plus his tuition is being paid for as well.

We hurried to get things he would need for his room (as much as we knew at the time) and moved him up there. He enjoys his museum work (20 hours a week) and the classes are going well. He is super tired (there is a TON of reading and a few papers a week due) and is still trying to figure out his daily schedule. John and I have been up there several times to take him out to lunch and to help get things he finds he needs. It was a whirlwind of activity once he was “in” for the semester. We drove up there the Saturday before classes started either looking for a dorm room or an apartment for him to live in. He applied for an on-campus room and got one that same day. It’s an apartment designed for four students. There are two rooms on either side of the apartment with a bathroom on each side, a living room in the center (sort of -very sparse), and a kitchen to share. It’s a small room, the building is old and in need of repair, but we agree it’s a roof over his head for now and it’s on campus with buses that are easy to get on to take him across campus to get near to work and to classes. He does have our truck to drive when he needs to go to Walmart or somewhere if he needs something. Or if he misses the bus! He is starting to get into the new rhythm of days now and John and I can rest a little more as things are getting figured out (financing and meals, to name a few).

November 2023

A lot has happened since I started updating you on Jonathan’s next life steps. We were all excited about the opportunity back in September, but “things” haven’t worked out the way we thought they would. First, the school backed out of the contract they made with Jonathan concerning payment for tuition. (The tuition payment and museum work payment were separate. The museum has paid him no matter what the school was doing on their end.) Second, we all caught COVID at the same time and Jonathan lost nearly a month of classes and work due to being so ill. At present, he is behind on classwork because he was absent for so long. He is finding it difficult to catch up and may not even be able to complete all the assignments by the end of the semester. This would affect any scholarship he could potentially receive next semester. Third, the dorm situation became a huge hassle when he found flying ants under his desk one day. It took several work orders for the maintenance crew to come to look at the situation and a few days afterward before the ants disappeared. He also had water leaks several times due to faulty pipes in the wall that was shared with the bathroom on the other side. Maintenance looked at it once and said they fixed the problem (without ever opening up the wall to see where the water was coming from). It took several minor leaks to an all-out flood in which water covered his whole floor and then spilled out into the hallway and kitchen. The night this happened, John and I quickly threw stuff in a suitcase and traveled to help. It took me over an hour to mop the mess in his room while John and Jonathan emptied the room of his possessions. We stayed a few nights in a motel while Jonathan worked to get another place to stay on campus. We found out later that the overflow drain pipe from the bathtub was not connected, so every time his suitemate took a bath, Jonathan’s room had water pouring from the base of the wall. The new room is dry, thankfully, but now he has a fellow occupant who smokes something other than cigarettes making it difficult for Jonathan to study – let alone breathe in his room.

On the bright side, he has absolutely LOVED his work at the museum and has easily moved through the tasks he was given to manage. He had genealogical research done in the first week that his superiors thought would take months. He had good managers who believed in him and who gave him opportunities to teach others and to lead different projects. Despite missing out on nearly a month of work due to illness, he is practically finished with all the research and documentation that he was hired to do for the semester. The opportunity to work with the museum gave him a great deal of new-found confidence and it was a great experience that will help him in the coming years.

So what does this mean for the future? We have discussed this at length with Jonathan and we agree that nine hours of classes a week plus work was just too much and the hours are a requirement for a Master’s student. He is very meticulous and careful about his assignments which caused too much stress for the amount of reading and written papers that needed to be completed each week. We do not feel this semester was a waste of time, though. The experiences he has been through have been valuable lessons concerning how to handle the unpredictability of life. Just because life doesn’t go as smoothly as we think it will, it doesn’t mean that God didn’t place us in that position to learn something. At present, we are unsure if he will be taking classes again as a Master’s student, yet we don’t feel any discouragement about it at all. We know God will use this time for his glory and Jonathan will be led in the way he should go.

In the life of a saint, there is no such thing as chance. God, by his providence, brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, and the only thing you know is that the Spirit of God understands. Never take your circumstances into your own hand and say, “I’m going to be my own providence here. I must watch this and guard that.” All your circumstances are in the hand of God; never think this strange concerning the circumstances you are in. God is bringing you into certain places and among certain people for a reason: so that the Holy Spirit inside you can intercede along a particular line.
-Oswald Chambers