A quick life update

February 26, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Job Search, Life, Religion, Work 

Here’s what’s going on in my life at the moment.

Job Search – I’ve been putting most of my effort into gaining Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the PMI.  My application has been approved and I’m scheduled to take the test next Thursday.  I’ve been spending the majority of my time during the day preparing for the application, taking an online class, or studying.  As a result, my job search has been more or less temporarily stopped.  This certification will open up many job openings that I do not qualify for today – not because I can’t do the job, but because the company chooses to require this certification.

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Home – It’s been a busy week – Carolyn or I have been out each night this week with something.  Monday was the monthly ham radio emergency test, Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday, last night was her yoga and Ash Wednesday, and tonight I have the school production.  The weekend is hockey-free and will be quieter.  House is fine, wife is fine, cats are fine.

Project Open Door complete

February 18, 2009 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: Religion 

The Project Open Door task force, which has been studying our congregation’s hospitality and community interaction for 18 months, completed it’s work tonight with our Final Report to the session.

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This Week

February 17, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Ham Radio, Religion 

This week is “in between” time.

I’m in the middle of the process for obtaining Project Management Professional (PMP) certification from the Project Management Institute.  I’ve had the skills for years, but never got the certification.  My wife already has this certification.

It’s a lot of work getting this certification.  I had to document 4,500 hours of work leading project tasks over a period including at least 36 months of time.  I also had to document 35 contact hours of training.  The process of documenting that alone took me a solid week.

Then I chose to take an exam prep training class to make up the 35 hours.  I found out later that I already had the 35 hours (my previous boss reminded me of an in-house training class that counted), so I should be able to carry some hours into the next reporting period.

I completed the training class yesterday and submitted my application.  Now I’m in the up to 5 day waiting period while they decide whether or not to approve my application.  Then I pay for the test and either immediately scheduled the test or go through the 5-day audit process.

This PMP certification will open up a lot of jobs that I am qualified for aside from not possessing the certificate.  Many large and medium-sized companies require this certification for project management jobs.

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Tomorrow is busy anyway.  I need to drive to Philadelphia (in the rain and/or snow) to pick up a city ID card for my volunteer work with the Philadelphia Digital TV project.  I was recruited by the local FCC office as a ham radio operator to assist with the installation of Digital TV converters for the elderly or disabled.  I may be volunteering this Friday to do this work.  Then in the evening my church committee Project Open Door is presenting our final report to the church Session.

Thursday I’m having lunch with somebody from the church.

Friday as I mentioned above, I may be volunteering in Philly.  There is a Trenton Devils hockey game that night.

Saturday evening is a major event.  The Trenton Devils are retiring the number of Scott Bertoli – who played his entire professional career (aside from a few trips up one league) with the Trenton Titans.  I’m definitely going to that game and getting out all of my old Trenton Titans stuff.

Sunday I have coffee duty for the deacons at church, and youth group in the evening.

Faith and Discomfort

February 11, 2009 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: Job Search, Life, Religion 

As my readers know, I’m going through a tough time right now.  Being out of work for 6 months (tomorrow) is very difficult.

I have often heard people make statements about people going through difficult times (unemployment, death in the family, personal health problems) along the lines of “he/she has his/her faith to comfort him/her”.  Or people speak about how their faith has been a comfort to them, creating a feeling of peace.

I don’t get that.  I can’t think of a single experience when my life was difficult where my faith was a comfort to me.  I can think of several happy times where I’ve felt something akin to “God in the room” and once akin to “God in my heart”.  But those have never been difficult times.  When life gets tough for me, it seems like God is absent.

For me, faith has always been more of a discomfort.  I’m Presbyterian, and like all Reformed people I believe that we are not as good as we can be and must always strive to better ourselves.  For me, faith is part of what pushes me to be a better person.  Faith is a Discomfort.  Faith is a way to push me off of my comfortable pattern of behavior in order to better myself or help others more.  I’ll never be perfect.  Faith pushes me to be better.

My pastor did a sermon on this that clearly stuck with me as I remember it over 2 years later:  The Discomforter

That’s great while things are good.  When things are bad, faith is still pushing me to improve.  At that point I’m in a more fragile state – needing to be reminded that I am good.  And my faith is telling me otherwise – that I can be better.  The conclusion that is easy to draw is that my lack of perfection (or distance from perfection) is the reason for what happened to me.  This is particularly true in work-related trouble – it’s easier to take a pass on personal reponsibility with a bad situation in a family member or a health situation.

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So for me, faith is more of a discomfort.

There is one exception.  When life gets me down, the people who help me the most (aside from Carolyn) are church people.  They do their best to understand what is happening with me, and to try to keep up with my life even though that might involve hearing unwanted bad news.  Church people will pray for you, and even if God is not hearing those prayers you know that someone out there cares for you – and usually not someone who wants something from you.  I’ll admit it – I’m not an easy person to deal with when experiencing heavy negative emotions, but they keep trying.

I know what you’re thinking.  You’re saying to yourself, “Hey, Mark!  Those people ARE God’s presence for you.”  And you’re probably right.  And I do realize that and appreciate it (though that appreciation may not make it through the emotions that I’m feeling to the surface).

I just don’t get faith as comfort.

So God – thank you for your people who you have sent to help me.  There are too many of them to list here, but know that I see their efforts and appreciate them.  Amen.

Project Open Door news

February 5, 2009 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Church New Member Process, Religion 

A while ago (perhaps 18 months ago) I wrote about my new committee studying hospitality at my church.

That team chose to call itself Project Open Door.  We were charged with studying hospitality to visitors, the community around us, and inactive members.

We completed the majority of our work last night.  We’ve produced a 44-page report which will be given to the Session in 2 weeks.  We were unable to complete our work on inactive members (due to personal issues of several team members at a critical time) and have suggested that this task be forwarded to a successor committee.
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Several of you have expressed an interest in hearing what we’ve learned.  We intend to ask the Session for permission to release our report.  If I am able to do so, I’ll post it here.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers over the last 18 months.