After 15 years at Church of Valley as the business administrator, Dawn knew it was time for a change. But it wasn’t her position as community relations coordinator here at the mission that first caught her eye.

“When I heard about this job, it came during a very interesting period in my life,” Dawn said. “I knew it was time to go. But there was a position elsewhere that came up and it looked like a slam dunk for me.”

Dawn was dismayed to find that the position wasn’t a good fit, but soon realized why. “It wasn’t a fit for a reason,” she said. “If I would not have gone through that situation, I wouldn’t have been available for this position. I saw God’s thread of grace through it all.”

While preparing for the interview at the mission, Dawn was drawn to the Scripture passage, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” In every follow up email she sent, Dawn wrote, “I’m still knocking. I’m still knocking.”

Dawn has been in her position now for a year and a half. She attends chamber and outreach meetings, runs events and handles publicity. Her role at the mission was quite a departure from her previous post. “At Church of the Valley, because it’s been in the community for 65 years, it’s well established and people come to the church,” Dawn said. “This job is not everybody coming to us, it’s us coming to others. We are out there with our boots on the ground, taking the Gospel out. It just satisfies something way deeper in my soul.”

Dawn draws on her own challenging times to help others. “Our brokenness may not be homelessness, like in my case, I went through a very, very difficult divorce,” she said. “Our brokenness comes in all different ways, but then so does our healing and so does our restoration and so does our recovery. He wanted me to learn those things so that I could share them with the people who come my way.”