I’m now a year and a half into my two-year stay in Prague, and slowly but surely reaching the twilight of my work in student ministry. I have to admit, this fills me with some sadness. Last week I was in Poland for the IFES North Central Consultation, an annual conference for staff and students from countries in my region, ie. Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Estonia etc and found it a hugely encouraging time.

International Christian conferences are always great, I love meeting believers from other countries and hearing their stories. I find this is particularly true when I chat to a Christian from a country I know next to nothing about, say, Latvia or Lithuania. I naturally feel detached from these sorts of countries generally, yet upon talking to a Hungarian or Lithuanian Christian the gaps can be seamlessly bridged. It’s great seeing the warmth in their faces as they speak about what the Lord has been doing in their lives and ministries, even if communicated through imperfect English. Evidently Jesus doesn’t have the ignorance I have concerning many countries; He knows all of them inside out and is concerned with gaining glory for Himself from them; it’s good this includes raising up mature Godly men and women who can teach this self-righteous Brit a thing or two.

As great as the conference was, a sense of sadness was still lurking in the background. The more I enjoy IFES events, the more I realise there won’t be any more after this year. No, after this year I’m exiting the world of volunteer student ministry (of which when I finish I’ll have been involved in for 3 years), leaving Prague, and returning to the UK to enter the ‘real world’ of full-time employment. This will be a rough transition; leaving Prague, and all the friendships I’ve made with people in the Czech Republic will certainly not be easy; especially since I’ll be trading Prague most likely for a terraced house in Salford. In one sense, it’ll be great to go back to Manchester – I have many friends and a truly awesome church waiting for me, but the move involves a lot of stresses.

Not least of these is getting a job. In 2/3 years time I want to pursue full time ministry and go to Bible college, but in the meantime I’m going to have to try and enter secular work. It’s not an easy time to find a job, so I’ll just have to see what I can get, whether that’s a job back in retail (I worked 3 years part time in Debenhams during college and university) or in something else. Either way, I’ll need to start looking before I move back to England.

I have a degree in Graphic Design, and of course if I could get a job in the design industry that would be ideal. It’s not easy though; design is a notoriously difficult field to get a job in, and many better designers than me are not working in industry. So it’s going to be hard anyway, but add to that the fact I have no experience and also that I have been away from the design world for 3 years and an already tough task seems impossible.

Or is it? At the beginning of the year I went to an Expat-Expo in Prague, ie. an exhibition of companies/services that would be helpful to expats, and I happened across a design firm, Firefly, who had a stand. They seem quite a big company; they have offices in Prague and New York, and have done work for such big-name clients as UPS and Samsung. I thought I’d ask if they offered unpaid short-term placement opportunities to graduates like me, and they answered in the positive. They said that if I was interested I should email them and send them a link to my website/portfolio.

Now, I would have done this straight away, but to be honest my website/portfolio is frankly not up to scratch. A lot of work on there is sub-par and I know I can do better now, so I need to have a bit of a rehaul. I couldn’t do this until this past Christmas because I needed to access files I had left in England, but now I have those files. Upon returning to Prague after Christmas I realised what a huge job I have to do. I’m going to have to be very disciplined and work hard in order to get things right in my portfolio.

The potential benefits are huge, having recent experience at a reputable design firm in Prague could be the difference between working in design next year or stacking shelves in Tesco. That said, it’s all or nothing. Even if I work really hard and get my portfolio/website to the highest standard I can, that doesn’t mean I’ll get the placement at Firefly. They might just not like my style. And even if I do, that far from guarantees me a design job in Manchester. In the end, the experience might not even make any difference.

The idea that so much hard work could be for nought is demotivating; and if this plan has any chance of working I need to start work now, and work hard. Of course it’s all in God’s hands, and he will provide all that I need over the next year, but since I have this glimmer of an opportunity, I should probably be focused and get on with it. Prayers would be appreciated.

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