Article April 19, 2010 Issue

A spiritual investment in our life savings

When a husband and wife lose their nest egg, they turn to God and find their needs met in unexpected ways.

BY DOUG AND ANN C. BROWN

In the spring of 2008, my wife and I grew suspicious about the validity of a business we had invested in. By fall, the FBI had arrested the head of the company, and it became evident that our investment would not be returned. We had put virtually all of our "nest egg" into this investment, and all of our savings were lost. It was a sobering time. We immediately began doing all we could to cut expenses and to avoid going into debt. I didn't know it then, but within a couple of months, my job in sales would be terminated.

From the beginning, my wife and I prayed. Having semiretired years earlier, we depended on the invested money to cover a majority of our day-to-day expenses. Without that pool of money available to draw from, we were unsure how bills would be paid. We immediately stopped all unnecessary expenditures and figured out ways to cut or reduce the fixed expenses in our budget.

Three small signs represented God's care for us and quickly gave us something to be grateful for. First, we received an unexpected payout from this corrupt investment, which covered almost the exact amount of a larger-than-expected tax bill. Then, a catalog company gave my wife a modest credit on a purchase. Finally, we found a bike at a yard sale selling for $25.00, which we got for free because it needed about $20 worth of repairs. When I asked a neighbor to lend me some tools to repair the bike, he offered to do the repairs for free.

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