Towboats, Batteries and Chicken Plants

With cash in hand my mom and I headed off for Houston in her massive, white, gas guzzling F-350. We made the trip in good time and I went into the Kirby Inland Marine offices on monday. After a pleasant chat with the HR officer I was given a slip of paper and some directions to a medical clinic where I would have a physical before beginning work. After some funky mobility tests and blood work I got the job.
Working on towboats was nothing like I'd thought it be. After going through a 12 day deckhand training course with some good but pretty rough men I headed to the boat I'd been assigned to. I ended up on the MV Pecos. The crew was kind and I had my own room. We worked a 30/15 work shift. 30 days on the boat and 15 days off. It was a great feeling to come home to a lump sum of cash in your account but the work environment was a bit tough to say the least. Especially for someone trying to hold on to his faith. In all I was on 5 different boats, as most men don't last more than a month and many boats were undermanned, with a new crew to adjust to every time. After 6 months I once again found myself unhappy and quit.
Since I had come home from Thailand there had always a been a faint conviction that I should return. I never understood it, "why return to a place you weren't particularly thrilled with or don't even really like for that matter?". Yet for some reason I had a constant conviction, not desire, to return to Thailand.
I talk to some Christians and they tell me how God just touched their spirit. How His assurance in any situation fell upon them like a warm blanket. Or how they were struck with awe and wonder at the mission which God had so clearly placed before them.
Not me. I ran from God. I wanted absolutely no part of what he had in store for me. He could keep His will for my life and Thailand too.
My next job was in a battery factory back in Oklahoma. Working 4:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. it was less than pleasant as we donned aprons and sweat pants in the underpaid, time consuming task of manufacturing batteries for those miniature cars 4-year-olds love to drive around the living room. No peace, no satisfaction. I lasted less than a week.
Finally with nothing left(I had spent all my money on I don't know what.) I went down and applied for work at Simmons Processing Plant in Southwest City, Missouri. I was given a job on the night shift packing chicken parts with ice and stacking them on pallettes in the freezer.
Considering the area, the work paid well but it was a job no one wanted. The whole factory was mostly staffed with Mexican immigrants anxious to get ahead and get their kids in school. I was one of a few white guys in our section. At first I was a bit nervous being on the receiving end of the whole minority scene. However, day after day my co-workers impressed me with both their work ethic and their kindness.
It was during this time that I began to listen more to that nagging in my soul. After two months of giving my paycheck to my dad to save for me, I had enough for a one-way ticket to Bangkok. I contacted the host missionary who have invited me to teach and we set a date for me to return to Thailand and begin teaching.