I went back to school to get the degree I needed to be ordained.  I was 26 when I went back to school, and Louise and I had one child with another on the way.  I went back to school at a ‘low time’ for government grants.  In fact, no grants were available, only loans.  I worked part time as well as studied full time.  Louise took in kids.  I worked in the summer.  We still graduated with a heavy student loan debt and I was ordained into a Diocese  which, at the time, had quite low starting salaries.  To top matters off, when I graduated the government did not have any debt relief for low income individuals or families.  The full payments began six months after I graduated —  and the payments were very hard.  We were poor for a long time.

I used to be a pretty negative person.  I should rephrase this. I could be negative, and it wasn’t pretty. Paradoxically, it was as the Lord started to break me  - as hard things happened to me - that I began to be healed of my pessimism and realize my need for more godly attitudes.  I jokingly refer to myself as a Marshwiggle [friends of the excellent Narnia Chronicles will know the reference].  It is probably more accurate to say that I am in ‘recovery’  -  I am a recovering pessimist.