As incredible as it is to see God answer our prayers, how awesome it is when we can see that God is using us (or in this case, my husband) to be the answer to the prayers of others.

A little over a year ago my older son was in a short film at Milligan called A Thousand Events.  The idea behind the story is that it takes a number of small events for the right circumstances to fall into place for a big thing to happen.  I have always said that for Christians there are no coincidences. 

We had been driving nearly an hour to church for nearly 4 years, when God provided the means for us to move closer.  He blessed us with a great house in a fantastic location.  We moved last September.   (Though our old house still needs to sell.)

A few months ago the new president of Johnson Bible College had a meeting with my husband about the possibility of joining the Appalachain College Association (which is my husband's employeer) and asked him if he would consider teaching some classes as an adjunct.  My husband told him that he was unable to as long as he worked for the ACA.  He could not work for any of the member colleges as long as he was an employee of the ACA.

In mid-May, my husband was asked to take early retirement from his job, effective June 30.   It had been a stressful situation for nearly 2 years, and his health was suffering (his blood pressure was too high).  For him, it was a relief.  He told a friend yesterday that it was something that needed to happen, but he would never have quit.   God had previously provided the means to have enough money to live on (especially once the old house sells) except for health insurance.  We will be able to continue to have health insurance, but I was concerned about how to pay for it.   It was obvious that my husband would need to find a job, though he could not begin to look until July 2, because of fulfilling his obligations to his current job.

My husband is a librarian, and there is an annual conference for Christian librarians.  We had all planned to go this year, and the children and I would do vacation type things while he was in meetings Tuesday - Thursday, but on Monday he would play the tourist with us.   Monday afternoon he got a call from someone at JBC, asking him to come in to talk with her when he got back home.   She is the coordinator of the graduate ed program.    He went to see her Tuesday afternoon. She gave him a schedule of the classes in the program and discussed various of them with him. He noticed that 3 of the classes were "crossed out". (One for fall, one for spring and one for summer semester). One class a semester might be enough to pay for health insurance, and if our old house sells quickly, then we should be OK for other living expenses.

He told her that he was interested in the possibility of working with her, but the 3 classes he was most comfortable with, qualified for, and interested in were the 3 that she had marked out. She went on to explain that the dean (who goes to our church) had asked her to cut down her teaching load, and those were the 3 classes she was not going to be teaching, and needed someone else to teach them.   She, and others at JBC, have been praying that someone qualified would become available to teach those classes.

The dean told him that the coordinator wanted to retire a few years ago, but unable to find someone qualified to lead it, the program was in danger of being closed. She didn't want it to be closed down, so she said she would continue to teach for a while.  My husband is qualified to be the coordinator because  while his master's degree is a library science degree, his Ph.D is in educational technology.  When he has been in the classroom over the years, it has been in the education department.   So he is qualified to teach in that department, even though his primary job for the last 30 some years has been as director of a library.

If we had not moved in September, the drive from Jefferson City to JBC would have become a burden (especially with the current price of gas).  Now, however, we live within minutes of JBC.  Another "little" provision God made in preparation of this.   So, I say again, it is incredible to see the hand of God at work in our lives, but how awesome is it to know that we can also be the answer to the prayers of others!

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