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Psalms 3:23-24 “23 Then you will walk in your way securely. And your food will not stumble. 24 When you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet….”

In my blog last week, I talked about my “dream job” and the fact that God was preparing something better for me than I could ever dream.  I wanted to also show how God also protected me by the timing of the layoff from my dream job.

When I worked for the charity, I was responsible for audits at our international locations. One of our locations was in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. I spent a week in the office in Haiti performing an audit early in my tenure with the company. It was wonderful to meet the office staff and get to know them. I was also starting to plan another visit to the Haiti office before the layoff occurred. That trip never happened for me by God’s grace.

It was 2010 and I had recently been hired into my current position and life was moving along well once again.  I was at work one day when I got the news about the massive earthquake that hit Haiti. The destruction was enormous from the reports we were hearing. I said a quick prayer for those affected by the earthquake.

Later in the day I received an email from a friend that also had worked at the charity. She told me that one of our former co-workers had gone on the trip that I was supposed to take to Haiti and there was no word from him after the quake hit the area. I poured over the news to see if I could find any information about my co-worker. During this time we also learned that the hotel he was staying in had collapsed and many were dead. News also filtered out that several missionaries were staying at the same hotel and had lost their lives. I prayed and prayed for the entire situation and then it occurred to me that I was supposed to be on that trip. That thought stopped me dead in my tracks. Once again, I realized at that moment that God had a bigger purpose in my life that allowing me to stay in my dream job. He saved my life with the lay off from my dream job. I cried and cried. So many emotions raced through my mind, but especially fear for this co-worker.

Psalms 91:14 “Because he loves me, says the Lord. I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.”

I knew this co-worker well enough to know that he was a Christian so I trusted God for his protection. Word finally arrived that he was alive and making his way to the Dominic Republic to try to get a plane home. I rejoiced in that news and praised the Lord. It took him the better part of a week but he finally got home safely. I emailed him a few days later to check on him. We wrote back and forth for a while that day as he shared the harrowing experiences he had been through. This man is a healthily, young man in his 30s which helped him endure some of the trek to get out of Haiti. He also explained that the night before the earthquake he was experiencing chest pains. It scared him enough that he decided to go to the hospital. As a precaution, the hospital decided to keep him overnight for observation and because of this he was not in the hotel when it collapsed. God was protecting him even though I know that was not his first thought when the chest pains started. He lost everything in the hotel except his passport. He took his passport with him to the hospital as his id. I am sure that was another prompting by the Lord because his passport allowed him to get into the Dominic Republic and to be rescued. Oh, and he has never had any heart issues since that day either.

Psalms 66:3 “Say to God, How awesome are your deeds? Your enemies cringe before your mighty power.”

We serve an awesome God. As we look back over events in our lives, I am always amazed to see how God’s hand protected us from so many situations.  The next time you are questioning the circumstances of your life remember that God knows His plans for you and His are the best plans. Praise God for the difficult times of our lives.

 Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”

God Bless you!