How about a little back ground on Me. Jen and I have been married for six years. When we married the plan was for me to go to seminary. So I enrolled and started online while we prepared to move to Ky. At this point things got crazy. We had some debt and planned to be out before starting school but things kept coming up to keep us in debt and push us deeper. I couldn’t get the books for the classes that I signed up for, it was going to take 4 weeks to get the books for a 8 week class. When I tried to get different classes it was too late and I couldn’t drop the classes that I had with out being charged. So there I sat scared and confused, so I decided that I should drop out and get a real job. I knew I could get a good job and that I could take care of our finances. But the financial struggles continued and seemed to intensify. We had two good jobs and no kids but couldn’t seem to get ahead. Then Baby number one. We need a new SUV we need to renovate the house I need a new truck for my job yadda yadda yadda. So now we are sitting in a situation deep in debt and about to lose one income. Lots of pressure equals not a good marriage. We looked fine on the outside but we were dying on the inside more of an unhappy roommate situation than the loving marriage that we had dreamed of when we got married. We weren’t being frivolous just doing what everybody thought was the right thing to do financially and I had a good job making good money but we just couldn’t seem to get out of the pit. Insert Kid number two. More financial pressure and less time means marriage not getting better. In June 2006 I was reading in Jeremiah and God got my attention.

“Thus says the LORD of host, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die.” Jeremiah 42: 15-16

God used this passage to reveal that I had run in fear from my promised land to a “safer” place where I could take care of our financial needs. It was as if God was saying to me that my Egypt was a “real” job that would get us out of debt, and the sword and famine that followed us were financial and marital struggles. I would never be able to do in my own strength what only He can do and I needed to refocus and trust Him.

At this point, I ask my wife to spend a week seeking God’s direction for our life separate from me while I did the same. We planned to talk at the end of the week to share what God had revealed to each of us, hoping we would be on the same page. I had not shared what God had spoken to me about in Jeremiah at that time. When we talked, Jennifer said God revealed to her that we went astray when I quit pursuing ministry and took a job to meet our financial needs. I was overjoyed that God had confirmed what He had spoken to me. So, we agreed to submit our lives to His will and pursue ministry. Two months later I got laid off from My real job, scary but we were prepared for something to happen but not necessarily this. But in this time weird stuff was happening People would ask for me to help them on a project on there house and I started making extra money here and there and we just put that towards debt. I had a trim crew come to me and ask me to get them jobs for a percentage. A little here and a little there and debt is shrinking. We sold the New cars we “needed” and little by little we’ve paid off 80% of our debt with out a secure job. Then this past April I started working here at BBCC and this is an awesome environment. It hasn’t all magically worked out for us but God has definitely been faithful. We still have car trouble we still have unexpected problems. We still are not out of debt but hopefully in about a year we should be completely out of debt and we can call into the Dave Ramsey show on Friday and get to yell out We’re debt Free!!

This has done wonders for our marriage. We are finally getting to the place where we had hoped for when we tied the knot. Jen is awesome and she thinks I’m pretty great too. The weight of impending Bankruptcy is heavier than you realize when your in it. If your in this right now please know there is hope. There isn’t a magic do over make it easy button but there is hope.