I had been working in childcare for many years and had just resigned from a job that I hadn’t been at for very long. I still loved childcare but I had been very unhappy at the nursery I was at and felt it was time to go. Due to the way it all happened I resigned just before the summer holidays and was going to be payed up to the end of August. I had the summer to find a new job which is not always easy as many nurseries close for the summer.

A few weeks into the summer holidays I went on my church’s annual week-long retreat. This is a week filled with great talks and teaching, amazing ministry as well as lots of social activities and sport. Early on in the week, at the evening session the speaker had been vicar of our church, just before I joined it, and was speaking about the church he was now vicar of in North London. He was speaking about all the amazing things God was doing through him and his team at the church. He then said, “Not everything is going well. For example, all our nursery school teachers have just resigned.” Of course, I picked this up immediately but he did not elaborate and went on to speak of other things. I began wondering if there was any possibility of me working at this nursery. Did it even exist if all the teachers had just resigned? As soon as the talk was over a friend came up to me and said, “Did you hear what he said? You could work at that nursery.” I prayed a prayer that night that if God wanted me to work at that nursery mentioned in the talk, then would He somehow make it possible for me to get some more information about it.

I must add at this point that this retreat was huge. There are several thousand people attending and at any one time there are numerous activities, events and talks going on. The chance of accidentally running into someone is very small.

The following day I went into the dining room for supper and sat down at a table with my friends. I looked across at the table next to me and sitting there, on his own was the man who had given the talk the previous night. This was not an opportunity to be missed. I went up to him and introduced myself and explained that I was looking for a job in childcare. He was really nice, said that they were recruiting teachers for the nursery school, told me who to contact and gave me their details. I really think God was at work here and that it wasn’t a coincidence. As I said, it’s really hard to accidentally bump into someone on such a large retreat but I ended up sitting next to the very person I wanted to talk to, had the perfect opportunity to talk to him as he was on his own and I actually didn’t see him again that week!

When I went for an interview they had all heard the story of how I had heard about the nursery. And I got the job!