Lay Off Timing
When we were married, I was working as a corporate pilot for a real estate company that dealt in vacant commercial property, and when I wasn’t away on a trip I would help them in the office. They did very well for several years—so well that we upgraded from a non-pressurized light twin engine airplane, to a pressurized cabin class airplane that even had a toilet. I had received several raises to the point that we could consider buying a home. We found a house we liked and started the paperwork to complete the purchase, with the non-refundable down payment due the following week when we signed the papers. In the meantime, unbeknownst to me, the company was not doing well. I was laid off just one hour before our appointment to complete the paperwork and pay the down payment. If I had been laid off after we returned from signing the papers, we would have lost a substantial amount of money, but because I was laid off before that happened, we did not lose anything.
No Money for Rent
After I got laid off, I decided to get my real estate license so I could continue in that line of work. Then interest rates rose to 20%, so people were still looking, but no one was buying, giving us very little income to support our large family. It got so bad that one month we didn’t have enough money to pay the rent. I said a prayer for God to please help us, and then went ahead and mailed the check, even though I knew it would bounce.
The next day I went to the mailbox and found a single envelope from church that had no stamp, so it had been dropped off rather than mailed. Inside was a check for exactly what we needed to cover the rent. Like most Christians, we were too proud to tell people about our dire financial straits, so we had not discussed our situation with anyone. I thought it must be a mistake, but decided to go ahead and quickly deposit the check so the rent check wouldn’t bounce, and then straighten things out later. It turned out that God had inspired our Sunday School group to provide us with just what we needed, exactly when we needed it!
Praying for a Car
Our kids were growing up, and we needed a car for one of our teenage daughters so she could get a job. There was no way we could afford even an inexpensive used car, but I read a story about a man who prayed for sox and got a free pair, so I decided to pray for a car. My family was less than supportive, saying things like, “You can’t pray for a car!” and “God’s not going to give us a car!” However, I went ahead and said a simple prayer about how God knew we needed a car for our daughter but couldn’t afford one, and that I trusted that He would help us. That was it—one prayer in complete trust.
A couple of weeks later we were visiting a young couple we knew. During the course of the conversation the husband asked me if I knew anyone who needed a car. I said that, as a matter of fact, we needed one. He said they had an old Mustang Grande that wasn't running, and if I could get it to work, it was ours. All it needed was a $10 starter solenoid!
“I Need a Job”
During this time when I was making almost no money from my work in real estate, my wife and I were helping with the junior high Sunday School class. Everything was going well and we really enjoyed working with the kids, but then I started to get the sense that we were supposed to go back to our own adult Sunday School class. This did not make any sense, as we were helping the church and enjoyed what we were doing. This went on for several weeks, until finally I got an unmistakable command from God—"quit today!” I told the person in charge of the class that we were sorry, but we felt we needed to go back to our own adult class.
During the Sunday School session the next Sunday, we were asked if we had any prayer requests. I said yes, I needed a job. They asked what I did, and I told them I was a pilot, not expecting anyone in a small group like that to have any idea about how I could get a job. However, one person spoke up and said there was an ad in the paper that day for a pilot at Learjet. I had never flown a jet in my life, so there was no chance Learjet would hire me, but I went ahead and bought the paper.
It turned out the ad was from FlightSafety International for an instructor to train Learjet pilots in a simulator. I had all my instructor ratings, and a jet simulator instructor was not required to have experience flying a jet, so my chances of being hired went from zero to maybe five percent. I went to the airport, filled out an application and dropped off my resume, never expecting to hear back from them, so I was more than a little surprised when I got a call a few days later asking me to come in for an interview with the Chief Instructor. At that interview I gradually realized he was hiring me on the spot! It turned out that all of their instructors were retired military pilots who had lots of jet time but no experience with corporate flying, so he was excited to have someone who could relate to the kind of flying their clients did.
Before he hired me, he wanted to make sure I could fly the simulator. They operate 24 hours a day, so I ended up going in at 2 am during an open slot. You can imagine my excitement sitting in the captain’s seat in a $10 million dollar simulator, flying a Learjet on a simulated trip from Wichita to Salina, Kansas. That trip went much faster in the Learjet than in the much slower airplanes I had been flying, and we had only been flying a few minutes when it was time to descend for the landing in Salina. I started my training to be a Learjet simulator instructor a few days later.
When we were married, I was working as a corporate pilot for a real estate company that dealt in vacant commercial property, and when I wasn’t away on a trip I would help them in the office. They did very well for several years—so well that we upgraded from a non-pressurized light twin engine airplane, to a pressurized cabin class airplane that even had a toilet. I had received several raises to the point that we could consider buying a home. We found a house we liked and started the paperwork to complete the purchase, with the non-refundable down payment due the following week when we signed the papers. In the meantime, unbeknownst to me, the company was not doing well. I was laid off just one hour before our appointment to complete the paperwork and pay the down payment. If I had been laid off after we returned from signing the papers, we would have lost a substantial amount of money, but because I was laid off before that happened, we did not lose anything.
No Money for Rent
After I got laid off, I decided to get my real estate license so I could continue in that line of work. Then interest rates rose to 20%, so people were still looking, but no one was buying, giving us very little income to support our large family. It got so bad that one month we didn’t have enough money to pay the rent. I said a prayer for God to please help us, and then went ahead and mailed the check, even though I knew it would bounce.
The next day I went to the mailbox and found a single envelope from church that had no stamp, so it had been dropped off rather than mailed. Inside was a check for exactly what we needed to cover the rent. Like most Christians, we were too proud to tell people about our dire financial straits, so we had not discussed our situation with anyone. I thought it must be a mistake, but decided to go ahead and quickly deposit the check so the rent check wouldn’t bounce, and then straighten things out later. It turned out that God had inspired our Sunday School group to provide us with just what we needed, exactly when we needed it!
Praying for a Car
Our kids were growing up, and we needed a car for one of our teenage daughters so she could get a job. There was no way we could afford even an inexpensive used car, but I read a story about a man who prayed for sox and got a free pair, so I decided to pray for a car. My family was less than supportive, saying things like, “You can’t pray for a car!” and “God’s not going to give us a car!” However, I went ahead and said a simple prayer about how God knew we needed a car for our daughter but couldn’t afford one, and that I trusted that He would help us. That was it—one prayer in complete trust.
A couple of weeks later we were visiting a young couple we knew. During the course of the conversation the husband asked me if I knew anyone who needed a car. I said that, as a matter of fact, we needed one. He said they had an old Mustang Grande that wasn't running, and if I could get it to work, it was ours. All it needed was a $10 starter solenoid!
“I Need a Job”
During this time when I was making almost no money from my work in real estate, my wife and I were helping with the junior high Sunday School class. Everything was going well and we really enjoyed working with the kids, but then I started to get the sense that we were supposed to go back to our own adult Sunday School class. This did not make any sense, as we were helping the church and enjoyed what we were doing. This went on for several weeks, until finally I got an unmistakable command from God—"quit today!” I told the person in charge of the class that we were sorry, but we felt we needed to go back to our own adult class.
During the Sunday School session the next Sunday, we were asked if we had any prayer requests. I said yes, I needed a job. They asked what I did, and I told them I was a pilot, not expecting anyone in a small group like that to have any idea about how I could get a job. However, one person spoke up and said there was an ad in the paper that day for a pilot at Learjet. I had never flown a jet in my life, so there was no chance Learjet would hire me, but I went ahead and bought the paper.
It turned out the ad was from FlightSafety International for an instructor to train Learjet pilots in a simulator. I had all my instructor ratings, and a jet simulator instructor was not required to have experience flying a jet, so my chances of being hired went from zero to maybe five percent. I went to the airport, filled out an application and dropped off my resume, never expecting to hear back from them, so I was more than a little surprised when I got a call a few days later asking me to come in for an interview with the Chief Instructor. At that interview I gradually realized he was hiring me on the spot! It turned out that all of their instructors were retired military pilots who had lots of jet time but no experience with corporate flying, so he was excited to have someone who could relate to the kind of flying their clients did.
Before he hired me, he wanted to make sure I could fly the simulator. They operate 24 hours a day, so I ended up going in at 2 am during an open slot. You can imagine my excitement sitting in the captain’s seat in a $10 million dollar simulator, flying a Learjet on a simulated trip from Wichita to Salina, Kansas. That trip went much faster in the Learjet than in the much slower airplanes I had been flying, and we had only been flying a few minutes when it was time to descend for the landing in Salina. I started my training to be a Learjet simulator instructor a few days later.