Stranger in a strange land (with apologies to Heinlein)

I find myself in a very strange place just now. First, let me give you some background on my situation. Through a combination of forces including my sometimes overly forceful personality, poor choices and bad breaks, I find myself almost completely destitute. Yet I am very hopeful and I have a great deal of faith that things are about to turn around. So now I wonder, do I have any right to be optimistic or do I just not see the financial shark rapidly closing in from below me?

Little things mean so much in circumstances like ours. For instance, I recently started attending again at the church where I was an associate pastor in 2000 - 2002. Last Sunday, they asked for prayer requests and I put mine in for increased sales since we are almost broke. This week I did not get any sales commissions. However, I got a mentor from SCORE who was in the insurance business for over 30 years and he advised me to get a part-time job until I can build my clientele.

The very next day I called my boss at the guard company where I had been working until September 30 when we lost that contract. He had told me to check back with him for a letter of reference. He told me he was on his way back to the office from signing the contract on a new job that paid $11 per hour instead of the $8.25 I had been making before. He asked if I was interested and told me he still had not done my separation paperwork after the other contract. I asked him when he would be in the office so I could pick up some new shirts. So now I have an even easier part-time job, with more hours (36 instead of 32) and better pay.

On the insurance front, my boss has teamed us up with some ladies who are cold calling to get appointments for us. This removes one of the major headaches of insurance sales and allows me to have something resembling a life. My caller is getting more and more confident and setting more and better appointments for me. I went on one of those appointments on Wednesday with my boss and she is very confident that we are going to close that sale on Monday. I also went to drop-off some info at a local union hall and was invited to call again after the election to write some health business on the secretary of the head man there.

Then there is the money issue. God just keeps working it out somehow. For instance, I was distraught because I did not know where I was going to get the money to pay our phone bills. We have two. Our landline includes the internet service I must have for business and my wife and middle son must have for college. The other bill is our cellular phone service which is vital to my business and our communication and coordination as a family. The landline is about $70 each month and the cellular is a bit over $100. I double checked my checking account and found that I had about $180. I also found that, due to a credit we had from a previous service change, the cellular bill was only a little over $30.

So God worked it out for me to pay the phone bills and have a little left over! Praise God! Jehovah jireh, our Lord provider has come through again! I am becoming increasingly confident that everything is going to be okay. Maybe I'm naive, but I know one thing. I serve a great God and He is able and willing to take care of me if I will only ask.

Just a dollar or two to help me keep writing would be appreciated!