Just one semester before my husband, Dave, was supposed to graduate from college, it looked as though he would have to drop out instead. He had been laid off from his job on the night shift at the auto factory, and if he didn’t find a new position by the time his unemployment benefits ran out we wouldn’t be able to pay for his tuition. Dave was studying to become a teacher.
“Maybe I can find a temporary job until June,” I said.
That wouldn’t be easy, though. Our 14-month-old daughter, Kristy, had bad asthma. We couldn’t trust a babysitter to take care of her during an attack.
When Dave was working the night shift it was easy to make sure that one of us was always with her. But how could I find a job that allowed me to work around his class schedule?
We applied for every job we could find, but times were tough. Few factories were hiring. Offices only seemed to want full-time workers. Dave and I kept applying—and we kept praying.
“We’ve got three days until my unemployment runs out,” Dave said one morning. As if I hadn’t been counting the days too. “I may just have to give up on the idea of becoming a teacher.”
Later that day I got a call from a Mr. Ford at a company called Allied Alarm Systems. I didn’t remember seeing any jobs listed there.
“Oh, you haven’t applied here,” Mr. Ford said. “I heard that you were looking for temporary part-time work with flexible hours. I’ve got just the job for you.”
I jumped at the chance, and ended up working at Allied until Dave’s graduation. It was only on my last day that I thought to ask a coworker how it happened that I had been offered a job I’d never applied for.
“I thought you knew,” she said. “A stranger at church told Mr. Ford about you.”
I never found out who the mysterious stranger was. I only know he was an answer to my prayer.
