This is Scott writing. Someone from my work heard our latest episode on "The Journey" on "A Place Missionaries Call Home." We knew it was going to happen eventually and we trusted that God would handle whatever came out of it. We decided not to initially share what was happening in our lives regarding our mission call with my employer. I really do need to retain my job and one just never knows what the reaction will be when you tell your employer you are thinking of leaving at some point, no matter how far in the future that might be.
I committed to God that I would never lie about what was going on in our lives so when this Christian brother asked me today "What's your wifes name? Is it Cindy?" I knew what was going on and I fessed up to him. He was very understanding about what is going on in our lives. He asked what the process was like and I explained about Send Int., the selection process and how we are now in the process of raising our funding. He understood what that was all about and told me about the missionaries that his church supports.
I thank God for his faithfullness and protection in all things. It doesn't matter how big or how small, he is looking out for us. He guards our steps as long as we remain in his will.
Just as a word of encouragement, your worst case scenario is almost exactly what happened to me. My boss knew about my plans to go to Japan, and that I'd be leaving in a year or two. And when the department budget got cut, he had to make some tough decisions, one of which was cutting my hours in half, which also cut my benefits. Due to the hiring freeze that was in place it was the only sensible thing to do, since they'd be losing me eventually. This happened three weeks before my wedding. And since Tomo was still in the process of getting a green card, she wouldn't be able to even start looking for a job for about 6 months.
ReplyDeleteAnd the remarkable thing is, it's been almost a year, and I'm still only working 20 hours a week, Tomo still doesn't have a job, and we haven't missed paying a single bill, or had to go without food. We've still been able to tithe, and support two missionaries. God always seemed to provide some extra income from somewhere. Sure we've had to cut back and times have been hard, and it's not the way I would have chosen to do things, but it's been one of the biggest faith building experiences to see God provide so clearly and miraculously for such an extended period of time. In fact because of the hours cut, we've had more time to devote to support raising than we would have if I had been working full time.