Young Couple Survives a Rocky Start

David was a teacher getting ready to marry his college sweetheart, Megan.  But shortly before his wedding, his school told him they were making budget cuts and they couldn’t afford to bring David back the next year.

“That was one of the darkest times of my young adult life,” says David.  “It just left me questioning things and feeling like a failure.”

“Getting pink slipped was very scary,” Megan recalls. “And we weren't sure what we were going to do exactly.”

David and Megan went forward with their wedding and immediately had some big financial decisions to make.

“I applied for any and every position that I was certified for and didn’t have a whole lot of luck,” David said.  “The only income I had was a small trickle of unemployment checks.”

“There wasn’t a job that was too low for David. He walked dogs, he cleaned up dog poop.  He was a telemarketer,” says Megan.

The couple were tithers and they continued to give off what little they earned.

“I want to be careful to not try and sugar coat it,” says David.  “It was very difficult to continue to tithe and trust that God would provide.”

According to Megan, “Giving has always been part of our plan. Something that God has called us to do and that we are going to do even if it’s hard.”

Several months passed.  David still couldn’t find a fulltime job.

“I distinctly remember feeling very defeated, wondering what I was going to do,” David recalled.

The Cahills believed because of their tithing God would reward them for their faithfulness.  Then one day, just before the school year started, David received a phone call.

“It was from the Director of Human Resources welcoming me back to the position I had been pink slipped from,” says David.

“David getting a job, the same job back was almost unheard of,” says Megan.  “I think that was definitely the hand of God, hands down.”

A few weeks later, Megan received a job offer as well.

“First interview of my entire life, I got the job teaching at a middle school,” Megan recalls.  Everything that has happened to us as a gift from the Lord.”

With their new jobs, the couple were able to start saving.  A few years later, David was promoted to Assistant Principal and their income quadrupled what it had been.  That’s when the Cahills decided to pay off their $18,000 in student loans debt.

“So we cut back on virtually everything in our budget,” says David. “When we finally buckled down and decided to live on a scorched earth budget and put every available dollar and penny into paying that off as quickly as we could, it’s was just a huge sense of relief and-and gratitude.”

And in less than two months, every penny was paid off.  Just in time for Megan to give birth to their son.

“God had supplied the means necessary to pay off that debt so quickly we would never have to make another student loan payment again as long as we lived,” says David.

The national media took notice of how quickly they paid off their debt.  Soon, David started a financial blog, where he teaches people how to manage their money. One lesson he’s sure to stress…give and trust God to do the rest.

“We’ve always encouraged our readers to give in some way. I absolutely believe that God rewards and blesses the cheerful faithful giver,” says David.  “We’ve seen that in our lives from starting out as poor newlyweds who barely had $100 in our bank account, to now he has quadrupled that initial income. “It’s been an abundant harvest ever since.”