Christianity Oasis Forum

[Guest]

I lost my job back in Nov of 2008 and I have yet to find any work. I had some money, enough to keep paying rent and bills until January. But now I don't have anything to pay for February, and that month is only three weeks away.

Please pray and beseech God on my behalf to allow me to find work full time (I am looking for work as a designer) so that I can continue to pay for my rent and bills and not be homeless.

"...that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you, that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and that you may lack nothing." (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12 NKJV)


I thank any who do pray for me, and God bless you.

[goldieluvs]

joining u in prayer..... God's will be done.

[dema]

Ah, Honey, sometimes in my own situation, I feel that the world out there really isn't as bad as it feels. And then I read about you and your situation and others like you.

Can you calm down enough to hear God? Try to get calm enough spiritually to hear Him.

He keeps telling me that he has it covered. That he knows my needs and that he knew all about this recession before it all began. That he uses the hard times to grow us more than in the other times. But, that I need to believe, and show it in my thoughts and words and actions, for him to be able to help me. If I am in a panic, then I really step on the hose, and slow down or stop the spiritual refreshment. And the flow of opportunities.

God forgives us for the past unbelief, but you need to get on the faith wagon. Every time a bad thought comes in - picture how you want your life to be - but give it to God. Maybe he wants to change your life. Maybe he's opened a door that you aren't even seeing in your panic.

I see God's work in all this - I really do. And most of the moments of the day, I'm on the faith wagon. But, I tell you, my legs and arms are pretty black and blue from falling off of it. Just got to keep climbing on and praising God.

Praising God - lift your arms and praise God whenever you get the panic attacks. It shoots the devil, gives him bad ouchies. Real bad.

God is in control. It's in Malachi - God made everything, so he made the materials that made the weapons that are being used against you. God is soooo in control - if we can praise and not panic. For longer than seems at all reasonable. Patience .... ohhhh I hate that patience requirement. I really, really do. But, I see how I am changing for the better. I see how God has used this time to give me victory over anger. To get me to let go. To get me to realize that I was taking obligations onto myself that were not mine. To lead me to this site - if I had been fully employed, I never would have come here. God has used this recession to work miracles in me that will go with me into the next life. The money won't. The house won't. But, my patience, my shift in priorities, my faith ... those are permanent.

If you will trade panic for praise - your heart will be okay no matter what happens. And, according to the Psalms and Proverbs, you won't be begging bread. It is your heart that matters. Not your pride. Not your bank account. Your heart.

That's the lesson than I'm still being taught. And like I said, I am so bruised and battered from falling off that faith wagon - I can't even tell you. And I've been on it 90% of the time. Man, the hurts and pain I would have saved myself if I could have skipped a few times of falling off.

[sbennett]

I will keep you in my prayers. I pray you find peace and dont worry so much. Worry really can be a huge bummer!.

[Purpose]

How r things looking ....up?

[Guest]

God bless all of you for your prayers. It is comforting to know that some are praying for me.

The situation is still the same, but I am firmly standing on the belief that God will not allow me to be homeless. He has always been there for me in the past. When I lost my job He gave me unemployment, and when I lost my home before He allowed me to move back in with my folks for a time.

This time I have no such options, so I am plugging away every day sending out letters and resumes to every local design business I can find in the hopes that someone somewhere will have some work for me. Lord willing maybe even full time work, or at least a nice flow of regular clients.

Every morning I get up I look around my apartment and I simply can't imagine myself not being here. It just wouldn't make any sense. God allowed me to have my previous job (I was a night auditor at a local hotel), which I had for almost eight years. That was the longest I ever worked anywhere in my life. Before I had been lazy and irresponsible and basically lived off people. But this time I buckled down and went to work every day and paid my bills and thanked God for allowing me to have this chance. Then in November of 2008 I lost that job, but this time the fault was not mine. My boss arranged to get me canned. I still do not know why.

After that I prayed and trusted God once again to provide for me, which He did by allowing me to have unemployment. Now after two years the unemployment is gone and I am left scratching my head, wondering what is going on. To me it seems that even though I worked hard and paid my own way I still didn't make any headway. I still do not know what to make of it. I have asked God many times to please let me know what's going on, but I haven't received anything.

So all I can do now is believe that (once again) God will come to my rescue as I continue to send out letters and resumes in hopes of finding some work to support myself. I must believe as I did when I was fired and in all the times when I needed help but had no idea how He was going to do it. He has always come through for me, just as His word says....

"For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy." - Psalm 59:16-17

Amen.

[dema]

All honorable work is honorable. You may have certain pictures of what you will and won't do. Those may need to change.

Also, right now there are jobs going empty that have been empty for several years. These jobs are in technical factory work. Maintaining robots, modifying the program. If you were a designer, then you may know AutoCad. If you know AutoCad, then you may be able to brush up on your math skills and find factory work on the factory floor changing cam specifications in the program and other such things. Technically, it should be about the same as AutoCad except that I think you have to do some fractions and simple algebra.

They may be willing to train you if you can pass an aptitude test. Nationwide there are over 200,000 of these jobs available - and many have been available since 2008.

Maybe God wants you to change horses. But, you'll have to learn to ride.

God bless.

[Guest]

All honorable work is honorable. You may have certain pictures of what you will and won't do. Those may need to change. Maybe God wants you to change horses. But, you'll have to learn to ride.

There are no pictures involved. I'm a realist and I know what I can and can't do. Just an FYI - because of my handicaps and my back I can't do just anything anymore, especially factory work.

[dema]

JUst FYI, what I am talking about is sitting in a chair on the factory floor and programming machines. There are a number of jobs like this. This isn't assembly type work. It still may be too strenuous for you - the chair may not be good, may actually be a stool, probably requires walking around to see the progress made to know when to modify the program, hot in summer, cold in winter. But it also isn't being on an assembly line. And it may be that they have handicapped requirements and may be willing to work with you - provide a lower desk or a chair with a footrest or something. I have found that many places will do that kind of thing.

It is just a thought - my real suggestion is to think outside of whatever parameters you currently have. Get on the net, go to tech school advisor - they have had local programs of less than a year with financial aid to train people in similar work. The one was to train people how to make the cams. They sat at a computerized machine, programmed the machine, fed in the material, got the next order and did it again. Again, the complexity was about AutoCad + simple algebra.

I know of this kind of work because I am an engineer. There may be other things that a tech school advisor could tell you about.

More possibilities - higher probability of solution.

[Guest]

I understand what you are saying, but you also do not know anything about me or my situation. Besides my handicaps I do not have a car, so my options are extremely limited. I looked hard at this situation and decided since I have a computer, and I have a talent for illustration and graphic design, I would focus on sending out as many letters/inquiries/resumes as I can to design companies in every region of Michigan, starting with my own town. I am also sending out "cold call" letters offering my services to people with web sites that look like they could use it.

To me this is the best thing I can do right now - the computer is right in front of me, it can reach farther than I can, and it doesn't require a car.

[dema]

In case anyone who is looking for work is interested - what I picture these jobs to be is:

Someone brings you a drawing or even a part. If it is a part, then you have to create the drawing. Then you have to tell robot one what diameter to make the metal. And robot two how wide to make the slice, and robot three how to notch the slice. And robot four how to smooth she part.

Then you walk over and get the first part and measure it and see if it is within tolerance. It it is, then you run 20 or so and you check them out. And then you modify as necessary. And then you run the whole run, checking every hundredth part or so.

If one of the robots is going too slow, you have to speed him up or slow down all the other ones so stuff doesn't pile up.

And then, when that run is complete and checked, you start all over with a different part.

That's what I think the jobs are like and there are gobs and gobs of them available all over the country. It is sitting and thinking and punching in numbers and measuring and walking and observing. No bending or lifting involved.

In my area, there was a totally free training program. And there is also financial aid. So it is possible that the financial aid could get you through until you got this job. The average pay nationally is over $40K a year.

In Indiana, probably 8 years ago Ivy Tech was in charge of the program. I have read about recent programs in the paper, but haven't followed through on who is administering them currently.

If the shoe fits.... could be a great opportunity. Should be able to get into an actual job in less than a year, maybe a few months - but you have to be able to pass a math aptitude test. Might need to find a way to do that. I think you would need geometry of shapes and the basic trig - understanding the hypoteneuse vs. the legs of a triangle - that kind of thing. A good tech school probably has math classes geared just for that. And probably financial aide to go with.

[living4Him]

I will be praying for you that God will intervene in your situation in the way that He sees fit. God bless you for your faith in Him!