Because of our study of Christian Science, my husband and I were able to survive three years of unemployment. 

My husband is a petroleum exploration geologist, and at the time, we were living in Houston, where the oil industry was the major employer. Oil prices were so low that oil companies could not drill new prospects, especially when the success rate of finding one that was viable was about one in ten. Many related companies were going under. The one my husband worked for closed in March of that year, and he got three months of severance pay.

We had been in our house for eight years and had two young daughters. We had some money saved, but after a year, all of our savings had been spent. My husband had been looking for work and was doing odd jobs. My employment as soloist for a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, brought in a little extra income, and after a while, he stayed home with our girls while I did office work for a company owned by a friend. But with all our savings gone, we had to sell our home.