My husband and I were missionaries when we met in 1999. We spent one year on the mission field in Haiti as a married couple before moving back to the States in 2001. You’d think we had the least amount of money as missionaries, but this last year was our worst financially.

We lived on about $1000/mo. Crazy, huh? Our mortgage was $1150 so that tells you we have some “credit issues” now. We almost lost our house, but (praise God) we didn’t and were able to sell and get out of most of our debts.

(My husband is an artist. We were trying to make it while he was self-employed. Now he’s one of three combat artists for the USMC — God has TRULY rewarded us for our patience with his career!)

I had our second and third children on Medicaid. We were also on food stamps. I think we survived by God’s grace and the love He sent us through an AMAZING group of people (mostly our church/Bible study friends, but also some family). We have almost paid all of these personal debts off now — hopefully by Christmas!

Now we pay cash for things — no more payments. We even went and bought a used minivan, cash! It was SO freeing.

I learned something. . . . everytime I said, “It can’t get worse than this.” It DID! There were times I was adding water to the milk for my first two children (crying as I did it), just to make it last a little longer. There were times when I would open the cabinets and just cry because I knew I had to feed them beans and rice again. I also learned to add water to the liquid soap, and so many other money saving tips. (I actually may write a book!)

Thankfully you haven’t experienced that yet, but you ARE aware that it can get bad. I’m pleased to see the spiritual maturity in your posts.

I learned to be content with each moment. I learned that God is there in the good times AND the bad. I learned that owning “things” doesn’t matter. And I learned to just live for God, not man.

Does that mean I’m perfect now? I wish! ha ha! I’m still a human who messes up every day. I can be defensive (as evidenced by another post to a different blog). I can covet other people’s things. etc. etc.

I hope you know that there are people like me praying for you to succeed in this new life.

All the years I was in school–even college–I regarded school, and school work, and homework as a tax–a tax on my time, exacted by the adults who had power over me. My goal, like any taxpayer, was to minimize the tax. The sooner I got my schoolwork done, the more time I had left for my own purposes.

When I left school and started working, I found–somewhat to my surprise–that I had a totally different attitude about work. I spent more time on the job than I ever did in school, and I had bosses who told me what to do, but I was totally cool with it, because…(wait for it)…I was *getting paid*.

And because I was getting paid, it wasn’t a tax. Instead, it was a deal: I do this stuff for them, and they give me money. And I’ve kept that attitude pretty much to this day.

lately, God’s been convicting my wife and i concerning how we spend our money. it seems, lol, you don’t have to be wealthy in order for God to change how we spend. who knew? (chuckling here). so ya, no more daily eating out, no more ‘first to have the high tech’ equipment, no more a lot of things. instead now, we’re trying to figure out how we can use the extra money to help out others in need.

donny, you’re bright and creative. you’ve already got a future which will provide for you, you just don’t know the details yet. my confidence is in you and in God. we’ll keep praying for guidance, direction, and love that continues to grow for God.

brad