God's Steadfast Faithfulness

Ah yes, the silent one has returned. A quick overview of what the last six months have held.

I came back from school this last summer after loosing my co-op job and attempted a job of selling Kirby vacuums. I stretched myself a bit and learned that I am not a salesman. Not long after quitting this job, a friend of mine who got a new co-op give her manager my resume and I got an interview in MI. Hoping for the best, I pack and move to the parsonage of the church I attend down there. I end up not getting the job and decide that since it is now practically September, to just stay at the parsonage and help out at the church and such. I, and another guy that lives there spent a week getting, filling out, and returning job applications for local businesses in hopes of landing some type of job. He was able to later on get one but I didn't. I went home Labor Day weekend to visit family. Upon returning to MI, I am offered a temporary job with the music pastor at the church who, with another local, decided to start up a Crepe cart business. This involved initially getting up at 3am to go setup. I actually kinda enjoyed being around downtown, observing the sights and sounds and meeting the locals of the area. It was also fun making such delicious treats. School term then started up and rolled right along without any major problems. Thanksgiving weekend I joined my family in Kentucky at the Creation Museum. That was a blast, as was driving to Dayton Ohio afterward to see the Air Force Museum. :) I then finished school and went home, celebrated Christmas, went to the Campus Crusade Christmas conference in IN, and then got my new co-op at ITW.

That is the summary. So what about the faithfulness of God through all of this? Well first of all, He blessed me financially. After not getting hired at the MI co-op, I was facing the reality of not having enough money for that coming school term. A wonderful friend gave me some but I was still short. Before going home Labor Day weekend, I visited the financial aid office at Kettering and found out I could try filing a Special Consideration Financial Aid form. The job opportunity with the Crepe Cart also was a wonderful blessing from God to keep me busy and help make ends meet. Later, after school started, I learned that amazingly enough, I now qualified for a Pell Grant from the government because of my special consideration form being accepted! During a time where many people are not getting much aid or loosing what they currently have, I am gifted with more. This made my tuition bill payable. Needless to say, imagine my surprise when I went in to find out what my exact bill was to learn that the school OWED me over $1600 d0llars! On top of the Pell Grant, I got a National Smart Grant for last term. God be praised!

In the final weeks of school, my car steering started feeling strange. One Sunday, on the way home from church, I was starting to accelerate from a stop sign when I was greeted by a loud noise and my engine started sounding louder. Upon further investigation, I also found that I didn't have steering and that my engine cradle had basically all but fallen out of the bottom of my car, engine in tow. It took 2-3 hours but my schoolmates and I were finally able to push and shove the car back to my house. Where is God's hand in all of this you might ask? Well for one it happened, very close to my house so I didn't have to hire a tow truck to move my car. Second it happened at very low speeds so i was in no danger of loosing control and crashing. Third, I had looked at an alumni's car in the area earlier in the term that he was selling for $700. An '85 Fiero to be exact. It ran with a few problems and my hope had been to sell the Buick for more then the Fiero, buy the Fiero, fix it and have effectively liquidated some assets. This was not God's exact plan but I knew immediately what car I was going to buy, from a trusted source and in my very limited price range. Also, one of my roommates who has a trailer and heated garage at home, bought my Buick for $200, sparing me the time of trying to sell it or junk it.

Just recently the Fiero was backed into and God once again was there. The people who damaged it stopped and are paying for the repairs. I am also blessed with the ability of using my parents Aveo for my new co-op while it is in the shop.

Other small ways God has blessed me are helping me find cheaper car insurance, and blessing me with a friend who allowed me to borrow the much more expensive school books I needed for last term, leaving me only to having to buy my Shakespeare books.

Over all, the last six months have been a time of testing and trial. I had nothing to lean on except God. Many times, I really did not know what the future held but He was faithful to provide all my needs and then some.

In my next post I'll talk more about what I have been grappling with and what He has been teaching me.

Till next time!
Corey