On the last Monday in June I was still looking for a summer job. I was to start at Cornell University in the fall as an engineering major, and I had hoped to find work in a related field. But after weeks of searching, I was desperate. I needed something—anything!—to help me meet expenses.
That evening, after a fruitless day of job hunting, I slumped disconsolately at the kitchen table. “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Mom,” I said. “I’ve tried everything.” Mom gave me a worried look and said nothing.
Later that night, after her weekly Bible study group, Mom came by my room. “I hope you don’t mind, Karolyn, but I told the group about your problem and we all prayed for you.”
No, I didn’t mind. In fact, before going to bed that night I prayed too. Until then I hadn’t really tried praying. I’d been too busy looking.
The next day, my mother telephoned from her secretarial job. Her boss, Richard Hoffman, had stopped by her desk. He’d been thinking about hiring summer help to catalog the firm’s library of some 6,000 books, and when he awoke that morning my name popped into his head.
And, you know what? Mr. Hoffman is a metallurgist, so those were scientific volumes—a perfect summer job for an aspiring engineer.
