Come rejoice with me!

The Lord is very careful to show me just what I can and cannot share. He has told me time and again not to share some of my circumstances until the right time--when there would be a testimony to encourage and build up the faith of others.

That time of fruition is now.

My dear husband worked as the administrator of a denomination in a regional office covering seven states for over ten years and six months. When the regional superintendent stepped down, he also stepped down. That was over 22 months ago.

Except for a few hours a month volunteering for a church plant, he has been unemployed all this time. He has applied to thousands of jobs--literally--with only a handful of interviews. He has a very unique background and training and needed a very special job.

So we have spent the last two years living on faith. We didn't even receive any unemployment insurance. At first we had 6 months worth of savings, but that didn't last the whole time. God would tell my husband just what to do each month--how to juggle, rearrange, etc. I could go through a long list of miracles--but it would take volumes. Let's just say that the amount of income we had minus the amount of bills we had leaves an equation whose numbers do not fit into the laws of mathematics!

It was God's divine providence that we have had this time. We learned so many things--I especially learned so much. We grew together as a couple and as a family--and our dependence on Him for our daily bread was so pronounced. Save maybe a handful of days, God's peace kept us through it all.

As a wife I grew by leaps and bounds. At first it was difficult for me to have my husband home all day--I didn't realize how territorial and independent I really was! But God was so gracious to burn that all out of me. I have found myself loving all of the precious time we have had together, and so much more relaxed and trusting about so many of the silly things I used to be concerned with.

This past month was the hardest--the Brook Cherith was drying up, and we had run out of things to do. We felt abandoned at times, tempted to fear for our future and the future of our children. In the natural, we were just a breath away from losing everything--our house, our cars. I wish I could say I sailed through with flying colors--but I felt spent, like a woman lifting her hands in surrender, with the wind blowing through the holes throughout her body.

It was God's crucible, and, even though it was excruciatingly painful, I embraced it--I loved what He was doing. It was a time when I had a chance to trust Him without seeing, when I was totally blind and unable to make a move to help myself, even without the ability to see through the eyes of faith.

Then it happened--after so many months without so much as an interview, God brought the perfect job right into my husband's lap. The organization he will be working for has James 1:27 in it's charter--to care for the orphan and the widow. He will be part of a group that goes around the world helping the poor and needy, but in sustainable ways, helping indigenous peoples to help themselves! How wonderful is that?

But besides this, he will not be paid the typical low wages of a non-profit. This group is supported by a for-profit business, so his salary will concur with the for-profit market, meaning he will be making $14,000 more a year than the job he left--hallelujah!

It was during this time of gross under-employment I became pregnant with our 15th child. Some would have chided us for being so foolish. But we trusted, and just two months before she is due to make her entrance, her home is secure.

So I have the next few months to prepare for our new baby, and to readjust to a life without Daddy--I know I will be pining away for him, as will our children, especially the little ones. Our youngest have never known what it is like to have Daddy gone during the day, since he had been working from home since 2005.

We used to think we were serving God; we used to think we trusted. But we know now we had only been scratching the surface. We have grown in sanctity and faith. We have been changed and molded and humbled. We never want to go back.

If you have been under siege with the news of the economy, etc. and you are still trusting God--His economy is not of this world. He can make a way when there is no way--streams in the desert.

"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.

Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate." (Psalm 127)