Now Back To The End Of Our Adventure
We had been in town three months. Attempts to get gainful employment seemed to stay just out of our reach. Yet, Sunday after Sunday we were visible before the church while God examined the situation. My heart was crushed so many times by the callousness of people’s hearts and attitudes. It is quite easy to look back today and see what God was doing, but at the time we were so broken and disappointed.
We had been at Jim and Bonnie’s for a total of two months. Bonnie was so patient, but we knew that something had to open for us to allow us to get on our own.
The Olive Branch had proved itself unwilling to provide even our basic of needs over the several months we had been attending. But after the die was cast, “no help,” God began opening doors in other places, making provision for us.
Janie’s Thoughts…
I had not even considered getting a job during the many weeks we had already been in town because of Kellie and the kids. Then one morning I got up and everyone was gone or asleep. I had a strange desire to read the paper and especially to look in the employment ads. I saw a job opening for a radio advertising salesperson. I was hesitant to tell Jim, but finally I did. He agreed reluctantly that maybe it was the LORD’s leading since it was the first time I had thought to look at the want ads, and usually these jobs are rarely posted. I had about 25 years of radio advertising sales experience, so I was confident in my ability to do the job. I arranged for an interview, and I was not surprised to hear that it was very unusual for them to have job openings. Not only had it been a long time since the last opening at the station, but also it was the first day the ad had run. Wow!!
Jim’s Thoughts…
A local Kansas Funeral home offered me a position as Manager, but Kansas would not reciprocate my Mississippi embalming and funeral director’s license without my returning back to school full-time for a Kansas certification. This was an illogical concept since I passed the funeral director’s national bar exam after college; never the less there was nothing I could do. In February Janie received a call from the local radio station she had interviewed with the month before. The sales manager told her he did not want to hire her, because she was a Christian. One of their stations played hard rock music for the college kids, and he did not feel she could represent the station properly. After several interviews and some intense discussion, he hired her. Later we found out from Janie’s previous partner in the radio business on the Gulf Coast that he had received a call from the radio station sales manager in Lawson. He told Janie, that the sales manager tried to ask him three questions about Janie’s sales qualifications, and his only response to each question was, “hire her.”
Janie’s Thoughts…
I really prayed about whether to accept a job at this radio station. The LORD gave me the answer. God says that we are in the world, not of this world. God showed me he wanted to plant a Christian right in the middle of the station as a witness to certain people there. The blessing worked both ways. God also used the owners of this station to bring more blessings in our lives. For although these owners had a rock-formatted radio station as one of their two stations, and were therefore criticized by many local “Christians,” these men demonstrated greater Christian virtues than the church we attended. The owners were active members of a traditional church in downtown Lawson.
The following story illustrates their virtues:
I had been working for the radio station for only one month when Jim and I felt that God’s grace was subsiding at Jim and Bonnie’s home, and we knew it was time to leave. That week, on a Monday, Jim commented that he thought we should stay no more than one more week. The next Friday nothing was presenting itself. I was certainly feeling pressed, and it was hard to make sales calls. I decided to go to the office in the middle of the afternoon-something that was never done. I was praying at my desk when the owner came in, which was also unusual for the mid-afternoon. He asked me if everything was okay. I told him we were trying to get an apartment, and I asked if perhaps I could borrow a small apartment deposit from my future check. He said he had an idea and to call him later that day. When I called him late that afternoon, he said he would arrange a free apartment that we could use for a few months to help us get on our feet. What a miracle! He was leaving town but said to call him early on Saturday. And yes, he did just that. He made the arrangement for us to have a free apartment for several months as a trade for radio advertising, so it did not cost us one dime. Then at a later date when the radio station owner realized that we were struggling with only one vehicle, he also arranged a trade to give us a free car for a couple of months. What a saint. May God bless him and his family for the kindness he showed us. This man and his father, the radio station’s owners, were two of the nicest people that we met while in Lawson. These radio station owners were another example of people living a true Christian example while being criticized by some of the members of the local church, because they owned and operated a hard rock formatted radio station. They did not talk about the LORD at work or act super spiritual, but they certainly displayed God’s love in action. There is a tremendous gulf between “professing Christianity,” and “demonstrating Christianity!”