What Do You Have In Your House?
by Donna Every

My Story

Having just finished building our house and being in the most debt that we’d ever been in, in our lives, I thought I’d better start looking for a job to get some income to add to my husband’s. As a qualified accountant with a first degree in Maths and an MBA, I figured that it shouldn’t be that difficult for me to find a job.

I remember looking through the newspapers and thinking, Oh, good, someone wants a financial controller—I can do that! Wait a minute, it’s a hotel, and they want someone with experience in the hotel industry, which I don’t have. Here’s another one, a non-governmental organization wants someone with an MBA. I have an MBA—oh, but I have no experience in gender development.

This went on for several weeks. I would see a job in the newspaper that on the surface I had the qualifications for but not the experience. That’s one of the drawbacks of working as a consultant—you work with all different types of businesses, but you don’t become an expert in any!

I was beginning to get seriously depressed! I really wanted to help my husband with our debts so that he would not be under so much pressure. Our house wasn’t even completely finished, although we had moved in. There was still stuff to be done.

I began to wonder how other people were coping. Those people who didn’t even have any qualifications or experience. How did they find jobs? Even if they did have a job, how did they deal with their financial crises?

Then one day, after looking through the newspapers again, one of my favorite Bible stories dropped into my mind. Right away I went and looked it up and read through it again. It was called “The Widow’s Oil” ….