Living my dreams

Allah is truly Great. He always has a way with surprising us with His blessings.

There are three which are most memorable for me, there surely are more than three occasions in total but my humble human brain can only recall those three.

The first is when I received a call from British Council announcing that I had been selected as a candidate for a postgraduate study scholars and that I would be interviewed at a given time. It was April 20th, 2006. It was my birthday. I was working in Aceh, visiting an outreach child protection post for the internally displaced people, somewhere in the middle of a jungle. I was having trouble contacting UNICEF’s HQ to report my position via SatPhone and radio call in the UN car. Suddenly, there it was, a ring on my cellphone. It was so surprising that I thanked Allah and told him that even if I didn’t actually get the scholarship, it was a great gift for my birthday.

The second is when I was called by British Council again about three weeks ago. The call informed me that I have been shortlisted for a job interview and that I have been sent an email to inform me further of the arrangement. I was surprised because the job application confirmation email that I received clearly stated that if I didn’t hear anything by 15th of February, I must assume I didn’t make the shortlist. When I received the call, I was at loss for words. I haven’t checked my email in a while and I was quite desperate for work. I had been applying for 23 vacant posts and less than 25% responded at all (yes, I do keep tab, even made a spreadsheet in Excel to monitor my application). I was desperate also because my wife was pregnant and we would need a more stable income.

It was truly amazing. British Council’s vacant post was one of few posts that I was not overly optimistic that I would be called on. The initial application process itself is one of the most challenging and demanding of all that I’ve been through (the other is the most recent, my application for Ibu Foundation. I was required to take a full day psychological testing, FGD and interviewed while I received news that my wife had a miscarriage). I was required to fill a form which in certain part require me to elaborate my skills and experience in a Behavioral Event Interview-format (Situation-Task-Action-Result).

The most recent is yesterday, when I received a text message from the lead interviewer for the British Council’s job application.  My wife and I were in sad mood because she had a miscarriage. The lead interviewer, a Mr. Hugh Moffat, text-ed me asking whether he could call me soon after. I did mention in our interview session done last week, that I would like to be notified as soon as possible as I was expected to give my confirmation regarding my availability for the position of Language Assistant for US Embassy’s technical assistance project for which I have been interviewed and offered the position earlier. I was driving with my wife when the text came in. I asked my wife to reply that I was driving and that he should wait for another 10 minutes. After I am ready to take the call, I texted him again telling him so. He called to confirm that I am indeed selected for the position. I was speechles again, I mumbled something incoherent (I think) which I hope will not cancel my being offered the position. I was overwhelmed that the lead interviewer, who is also going to be my supervisor for the position, actually called me personally and even texted me in advance to ask for the permission to call me. I felt so appreciated. He even went so far as to tell me that I was the best candidate for the position. Alhamdulillah.

Truly Allah is Great. This I learn from all the three surprised blessings. That Allah indeed loves us and that if we worked hard enough, prayed hard enough and be patient…He would grant with blessing and lifted us from difficulties. And do it in a most mysterious and surprising way. Perhaps, only in such way that I will truly valued the blessings. Alhamdulillah ya Allah.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 10th, 2008 at 2:22 pm and is filed under Weblogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.