When Unemployment Lasts a Long Time

CBN.com - When Jody Frey lost his job a decade ago, he thought it would be easy to find another. He was wrong. He remained unemployed for one year. That taxed the family emotionally and financially.

“It was tough, and there was just no place to go with it,” remembers Jody. “Our children were young and we just bought a house,” his wife Vicki adds. “And so there was this immense pressure of ‘now what do we do?’”

So when Jody got not one but two job offers he took both. The family’s finances started to rebound but they were all paying a price for his long hours.

“It became normal that I wasn’t going be around for dinner,” Jody says. “I’d leave about five o’clock in the morning, get home roughly seven o’clock at night and then go downstairs and work. Every time I heard that “it’s ok dad that you can’t be there” it just tore me up.”
But the family just couldn’t seem to make it work financially on one salary so Jody kept working and missing time with his family.

“On the morning train ride in I would actually sleep a lot because I didn’t sleep much at night,” shares Jody. “Most of my lunches were working lunches for the other job. Then as soon as I hit the train to come back home, II would be on the phone making phone calls. My vacations were all spent doing sales calls.”

After years of working at that pace, Jody was exhausted. He quit is full time job to focus on sales. At the same time he started to watch The 700 Club.

“I heard Pat (Robertson) talking about bringing God the tithes, and that He would just pour out his blessings on you, that’s what really started opening my eyes,” he says.

Jody and Vicki began to tithe and gave to CBN. Over the next two years Jody says his sales of business equipment soared. Looking back he realizes he was making more money, working half the hours he’d previously worked doing two jobs.

“Factually there’s been a 70% increase in my sales volume working less time,” he points out. “When I start to think about that I’m like, there’s no way that I could have set the stage for that. That’s just God saying ‘hey you’re starting to pay attention to me.’”

Today the Frey’s are members of CBN's Chairman’s Circle. Jody says he no longer misses meals with the family and he loves the time he’s able to spend with his teenagers.

“I’ve got 50 percent more time to be a husband and a dad and I’ve got 70 percent more income coming in, and it looks like its growing,” Jody beams. “I would definitely encourage people to tithe, to watch The 700 Club if they don’t understand the principle and what that means to them. And really the challenge would be, what are you waiting for?”

Being obedient to God's truth made an incredible difference for Jody and Vicki. They made themselves available for God's love to flow through them to others, and they are reaping a blessing themselves as well. Join them in partnering with CBN. You will make a difference in lives around the world, through medical missions, food and clothing programs, humanitarian outreaches and so much—all in the name of Jesus. Please join today.