Following the synchroblog topic of Money and the Church, I would like to share my experience of learning to trust God.
Are you sitting comfortably?
Almost Twenty six years ago now Tim and I were married, we were living at the time in a small two bedroomed cottage in Colchester with our son Paul, Paul was 4 months old. The cottage demanded a low rent due to the generosity of a member of St Matthews Church, who saw a need and responded. Other needs were also met, such as furniture a pram and numerous other small things that helped to make life more comfortable. Tim was an engineering apprentice, we were pretty broke! It was during this time that we began to encounter the God who worked through his church, as faithful people responded to need and helped us.
Life moved on , 2 years later we bought a house in a nearby town, Emma and Chris were born, we moved again to a larger house in a waterfront village. When Chris was diagnosed with a major heart condition that required frequent hospital stays in London the people of God responded again. Paul and Emma were cared for when we had to be away, meals arrived on the doorstep for Tim, washing and ironing were done, and we received a gift to offset the accommodation fees for the parents accommodation.
Chris recovered well from his first set of operations, and in 1997 we moved as a family to Houston, Texas. We rented our house to a young couple who needed somewhere to live, grateful that we were able to offer it at a low rent. We lived in Texas for 3 years before the company Tim worked for moved us back to the UK.
This is where the "fun" started, we had to find somewhere to rent, as our tenants needed to be given a period of notice. One of them became quite ill and they were unable to meet the rent, suddenly we were paying both mortgage and a rent on the property we were living in - things became very, very tight! Our tenants relocated to a housing authority property, and we decided to renovate our own home, we re-mortgaged. One month before we were due to move "home" Tim was made redundant (laid off), I was working in a local school but my wages did not meet our needs. We prayed.... and at the same time we began a course of study with St John's Bible College.
Tim found another design job quickly and life settled down for a while, until 3 months later he was made redundant again! This time he was out of work for 18 months, for the first year various insurance policies covered our bill payments, and then they stopped, we struggled on with the help of Christan friends.
Interestingly we both knew we were called into full-time work in the Church, White-Fields Trust was born, and in prayer and consultation with the Trustees we began to look for work within the Christian Sector. The job at Downham Market was almost perfect, as we would be able to continue working with White-Fields and find time to study, so we took the job on a share basis. It was also ideal because it came with housing, we had to sell or loose our home, it sold fairly quickly!
Through all of this we were gradually stripped of our reliance on a fat bank account, we knew that insurance policies were only a temporary solution, but that God has by various means continued to provide for our needs.
We are now both in the process of training for Methodist Ministry, it has not been an easy road, it is not easy balancing a tight budget, but this we know, God is good, and we are rich in ways we could not have possibly imagined. It took a change of focus, from the temporary to the eternal, from worldly to Godly security. At times we struggle, we probably always will...
Photograph: A new perspective.
