JUST WHAT WE NEEDED!
The on-going workload of last Fall's surge in refugee arrivals…
The stress of very few jobs for clients amidst a harsh, winter employment market…
A new people group with lower technical and English skills…
Empty bank accounts…
Bills and anxiety mounting…
God works in mysterious ways as He provides for His children. World Relief / Treasure Valley experienced all the stressors noted above. Then -- along with Spring -- God’s answer to our prayers became apparent. The following story affirms that God has a sense of humor:
Our Job Developers regularly call employers to find open positions…more-so, and with growing desperation last winter. Persistent contacts with a hotel manager prompted him to give World Relief’s information to another potential employer. The manager of Planet Beach Contempo Spa, a local tanning salon, was implementing a new system at her business and wondered where she might find a few female employees who would accept near-minimum wage to clean the tanning beds and keep up with laundry. She called the hotel manager who gave her our number.
When the spa manager talked to Mandi Pearson, one of our Job Developers, Mandi jumped at an opportunity to place clients in employment. Two Burundi women with very basic English and limited work experience were chosen for trial housekeeping positions at the Spa. You can imagine their incredulous looks as Mandi tried to explain to these very dark-skinned African women the purpose of a tanning salon. (Their reactions to lighted beds, upright mystic tanning, and a spa bath were priceless! Mandi assured our ladies that many American women feel dark skin is beautiful and wanted skin just as beautiful as theirs!)
Mandi was involved in job start training inside the Spa. One of the mystic machines has a door that opens and closes when a sensor is activated by a wave of the hand. As one of the refugee women was cleaning it, she accidently closed the door behind her. Frantically, she managed to ‘escape’ from the mystic so quickly Mandi was afraid she would fall. It took Mandi many minutes of ‘creative coaxing’ to get her to go back inside! Meanwhile, the other woman asked Mandi if the mystic machine was to be used as a bathroom…?
After an hour or so our refugees settled into their work. Other American Spa employees couldn’t stop smiling at the energy and good humor they displayed. Since her new employees performed their duties so well, the Spa’s manager recommended the ‘World Relief refugee model’ to other Planet Beach Spas in our area. To date, we’ve scored six placements at various Planet Beach locations, with potential for five or six more.
This lesson reminded us to think “outside the box” because that is where God’s mind and creativity love to be! We certainly cannot put Him inside a box formed by our small preconceptions. His blessings so often come from completely unpredictable places and directions. Who would ever have expected a tanning salon to hire a refugee with limited English? Now, it has become commonplace in the Treasure Valley.
Perhaps God can use this experience to remind all of us to look for a wealth of blessings-- and jobs--in unlikely places. He isn’t limited by our imaginations!
Many thanks to TRV’s Job Development Staff who have worked tirelessly throughout a very long winter: Rachel Anderson, Ashley Gordon, and the author Mandi Pearson...and to their counterparts all across the country who pound the pavement every day looking for job opportunities that will fit their clients’ abilities and meet their needs.
