My name is Tim Anderson. I am the marketing director for NewSpring Thrift Stores.
I have occupied many roles in my time here. That is part of the game when one is involved with a non-profit, or a ministry. Almost everyone in our little family multi-tasks, and we make it work.
I'm not complaining, it is the state of what is. The title associated with my name on a particular day means nothing...except that the title might give an overview of what activities I might be engaged in on a particular day. What is important about my title is how I got it.
I don't have a degree in marketing.
I don't have a degree in advertising...or even business.
I don't have a degree.
So how did I get here?
I met Lawrence Gunnells, the COO of Africa For Jesus/NewSpring Thrift stores about six years ago, when I was operating a coffee shop in Springfield that my wife & I owned. Lawrence was working for a local newspaper that he owned, and he often held staff meetings at my shop. After we had owned the shop for about a year, I took on an additional volunteer position with a local church as their worship pastor. I occupied a few other roles during my stay there, eventually being named the associate pastor.
I had never owned a business of any kind before.
I don't have a theology or divinity degree, nor am I an ordained minister.
Fast forward to early 2010. Lawrence and I had a lunch meeting with a mutual friend. I asked Lawrence what he was doing, and he said that while he was still working for a paper, but he was really excited about this ministry that he was working for called Africa For Jesus. He told me what they were doing in Africa, and I began to get curious.
I have never been on a mission trip of any kind.
I did some online research, and I called Lawrence and told him that I would love to get involved somehow and would pray about it, and I asked him to do the same. A few months later, I still found that this ministry was in my mind and on my heart, so I called Lawrence, and he said that he wanted to meet with me because some things had changed, and that there might be a place for me. We had a couple of meetings where Lawrence outlined a position that he called Director of Store Operations. My wife, Ana, and I prayed about it for a couple of weeks, and got clearance from the Lord to accept the offer. Lawrence told me that he didn't offer the job to me just for my management skills, or the way that I cared for people, or my gifts for dealing with the public. No, he said that the deciding factor for him was that every day that he was in my coffee shop, I was always talking to people about Jesus.
Nothing that I could ever list on a resume will ever top that for me. Someone hired me because he saw me doing my everyday thing and telling people about Jesus in the process.
I don't write this to boast about myself, or anything that I might have achieved. I have nothing to brag about...other than my God. Anything that I have, any position that I have ever occupied, the provisions that are my wife, my son, my family and friends, are all gifts that He gave to me because He loves me so.
And I do love Him.I'm not just a bit taken with Him.I love Him. I want to be just like Him.
The most powerful thing about my resume is that I didn't write it. God has continuously brought me into situations that are "far above my pay grade," saying to me over and over again, "Trust me, son. I made you for this moment...& I will be your Provision."King Jesus is still in the business of taking the things that the world calls foolish to confound the wise...And that...is how I got here.
-Tim Anderson
Director of Marketing
NewSpring Thrift Stores
@NewSpringThrift on Twitter
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