| The Lord Provides
Maria Hall, shares how when she became a lone parent, the Lord became her husband and provider and helped her bring up her two children
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In due course my parents retired to the Isle of Wight and it was at this time that they began to speak about finding God. They began to read the Scriptures every day and joined a prayer group. It was their excitement about the Holy Spirit that really touched me, however, and led me in my turn to a Life in the Spirit seminar and “finding God” myself. I now knew that God was real and my relationship with Him began in a conscious way. At the same time as this precious relationship with God was developing I had to face a huge crisis in my life when my marriage broke up. My husband had become very involved in New Age and the upshot of this was that he felt he needed to find himself and left the family home. Thus I found myself suddenly a lone parent to two children aged 7 years and 14 months old. All my security was suddenly gone. Having been used to a prosperous income I now found myself on income support Many women in my circumstances faced with this situation feel compelled to go out to work, and I suppose people were expecting me to do the same but I felt I couldn’t. I had had my children quite late on in life and I felt that whatever financial hardships it might entail, I wanted to continue to stay at home and be a full time mother. And it was hard. Having been used to a prosperous income, I now found myself on income support of £62 a week. But somehow I knew deep down that God would look after us and I was doing the right thing for all of us. From that day on showers of reassurance came through the scriptures. The children and I would pray fervently each day. We would praise God in song and our way of life became more and more Christ centred. Over and over again we found we were given what we needed when we needed it. I couldn’t afford anything except carefully planned food, but each week we experienced the principle of the feeding of the 5000 and God blessed and multiplied the resources we had, so there was always more than enough. My children and I learned to trust God as our loving Father who knew all our circumstances and provided generously for them. There were all kinds of little touches. Friends involved in opera, ballet and classical music came into our lives and they would give us courtesy tickets so my children weren’t deprived even culturally. In these and many other ways I found our dignity as a family was preserved and our prayers answered in ways I wouldn’t have imagined possible had I not experienced them myself. “I prayed about everything” The parish, especially my charismatic friends became my extended family with prayer support virtually on tap. I prayed about everything - simple things like stepping out in faith to give my children music lessons which I really could not afford. Somehow, however, God always seemed to be there to help using people and circumstances. My children, for example, won places in prized schools, which in my downwardly mobile condition I would not have had the courage to apply for. No doubt it was hard for them at times, not having the designer clothes and computer ware that most of their contemporaries had, but they understood our situation and were very good about it. Every year we managed to get to the New Dawn conference at Walsingham although each time I wondered how we would do it. Sometimes the money would come through the letterbox the day before. Those who have to live on a low income know how stressful everyday things can be. How to afford Christmas, birthdays and all the other occasions that make up family life. I have never known how we would manage to pay the bills, keep the car on the road, but somehow we always have. You can sometimes feel the judgement of the world on your situation which can be difficult to bear but I knew that God knew the truth and He was with us through it all. In a sense, I was thrown in the deep end with God’s love. “There you are”, he seemed to say, “lean on me and watch how I love you.” “Life has quite simply been a miracle” I decided I’d better act for myself and I prepared to go to court to meet the bizarrely named Miss Demon, the Building Society Solicitor. (I really love God’s sense of fun). I wasn’t looking forward to this encounter and wondered if there was some way to sort this situation out without going to court. My friends and I tried everything to try and get in touch with someone who had authority in the building society, but we couldn’t. Almost resigned to going into the court the next day I decided to have a final attempt to get through to someone at the top. I went to a friend’s house to make the call, and with her sitting on the stairs praying madly I made one last phone call. Amazingly this time I got through. It was a woman. I had to negotiate really hard. I told her that my church was praying for a successful outcome for our family and as if in exasperation she said, “Mrs Hall what do you want?” “I want the dignity and freedom to sell my own home if and when I choose. I want the court case called off and I want a letter from you confirming all of this,” I said. I held my breath. This woman had told me six times in the course of the conversation that she had no power to call the court case off, but she agreed and I never heard from them again. Six months later I put my house up for sale to get rid of the mortgage. From my calculations I would be left with £5000. I had no idea what we would do then so we all just prayed. Again another Godincidence happened. We were right at the beginning of the property boom and within the space of a month my house doubled in value. Not only did I clear the mortgage but I now had enough to buy a smaller house for cash. I sold this on seven months later and was able to move back into our home area, this time across the road from our church. We couldn’t afford a house but we managed to buy a fl at in a small block where we could be back with our community. “Jesus became my husband” I never imagined life turning out the way it has – the bad or the good. No way would I have chosen to have my marriage break up. I know how valuable it is to have a husband’s support and my life in many ways has been diminished by not having a partner. But it has not been destroyed because Jesus has transformed the situation for me. He became my husband instead and this has enriched my life in a very special way. Through my own experience I have discovered the reality of life as a child of God, living in and for his kingdom. I’m His child and I know His love for me, and for each one of us, is eternal. This is the cause of my joy. This is the Father that I love and the King that I worship.
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One
of four children I was born into a devout Irish Catholic family. My
parents came to live in England when I was very small and so I was
educated here in England in a Dominican convent school. I had a very
rich childhood culturally and greatly benefited from my Celtic heritage.
I went to art college and then worked for several years as a freelance
designer where I worked for all kinds of interesting people. I even
spent some time as an air hostess travelling the world before getting
married and settling down. We had two children. My husband had a good
job and everything seemed very rosy.
When
I look back on it all life has quite simply been a miracle. God has
looked mercifully on all our weaknesses and has transformed them into
strengths. My children have learnt perhaps in a way they wouldn’t
if they had been economically comfortable that God is real and is
there for them, and this has served them well in a world where many
of their peers don’t believe and has made them very strong in
their faith. One of the biggest crises I had to face was when, seven
years into lone parenthood, the Building Society sent me a repossession
notice for our home. The Government had only been paying the interest
on my mortgage and the building societies at the time were repossessing
properties left, right and centre. I knew we had a sizeable equity
in the house but, not understanding the ins and outs of legal aid,
I naively hired a really expensive solicitor thinking it would be
free to me because of my economic circumstances. I thus got a terrible
shock months later when I received a large bill. There was no way
I could pay so I negotiated repayment at £5 a month. God had
mercy on me, however, and a short time later the solicitor wrote to
me to say that a benevolent well-wisher had paid the bill.
