I was self-employed and married with five children. Work, which had once been easy to find, gradually dwindled and the bank, which had encouraged me to have a larger and larger business overdraft, demanded their money back. Also the Inland Revenue wanted settlement of my tax bill.
Although my wife had part-time work to provide as much as she could her income did not cover bills and we were very distressed. We prayed and shared our dilemma with Christian friends. At the same time we were forced to put our house on the market, hoping it would sell and appease the bank.
A lovely couple from our local Catholic church leant us enough to pay the entire tax bill until we could sell the house. Another couple gave us the money for six months mortgage payments. ‘Pay us back when you can,’ they said. The goodness of these friends was the only thing that prevented us from being homeless.
God reminded us that we should not worry about what we were to eat or what clothes we were to wear, so our priority was always to pay the bills, and we never went without.
At Christmas we were given a large hamper and £300, organised by our Parish Priest. In the midst of all that stress we still managed to celebrate a wonderful Christmas.
Praying all the time – there seemed little else we could do – we looked at many smaller houses. Eventually we found a suitable house in our price range and managed to exchange contracts and move in, and pay the bank all we owed.
It was only by prayer, trust in God’s good plan for our lives, and the great generosity of friends that we were able to survive the way we did.
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