Mom able to quit weekend job thanks to Samaritan membership

"We're really feeling extremely grateful and affirmed that we are following Him in the right way."

Samaritan member, Fran

Fran, a West Virginia wife and mom, has been able to quit her weekend job—taken solely to provide health insurance for her family—and spend more time with her children thanks to Samaritan Ministries membership.

Fran’s husband, Brian, is self-employed so the family had to buy their health insurance on the market. When the premium became unaffordable, Fran, who had been a stay-at-home mom for 20 years, took a weekend job for the health care benefits, working two 16-hour shifts at a group home for developmentally disabled people.

What the family considered pretty good benefits started changing “drastically” after the Affordable Care Act was passed. Coverage was cut, deductibles went up. In addition, working that many hours on the weekend was taking a toll on their family life and kids homeschooling. Fran also realized that, by paying into the health insurance system, she was “probably paying for abortion for other people.”

“I was really struggling a lot,” she said. “We prayed for many, many months, and felt God revealed this to us, to look at Samaritan Ministries in particular.”

Brian and Fran studied Samaritan and other health care sharing ministries, and decided to join SMI last summer. They felt that confirmation of the right choice came quickly at a church meeting featuring their family doctor talking about the ACA and its impact on Christians.

“We went to the meeting and found out that he is in Samaritan Ministries with his own family and he really verbally supported it, advocating it to people very openly,” Fran said. “My husband and I felt that was just a wonderful affirmation from God that we had made a wise decision. It felt like a big leap of faith to trust God, but God really blesses things when you do that. I started to realize how easily things got distorted for me, that you started to find security in a system of health care rather than in God the provider.”

Being more responsible for their health care choices has led Brian and Fran, who are in their 50s, to try to live a healthier lifestyle by “de-stressing,” increasing exercise, and eating better.

Samaritan membership has helped them be more generous, Fran said. For instance, they didn’t give much thought to the Special Prayer Need on their first share slip, but noticed it on their second and gave to it. Fran felt so compelled to help out that she called the Samaritan office to recover the name and address of the SPN from their first month so they could give to that as well. She said she felt “joy” in giving to the SPN.

Membership also has expanded their family’s prayer time. Fran said she puts Samaritan prayer needs on the table for everyone to pray over during dinnertime prayer.

Dropping her job and joining Samaritan has meant a financial swing of about $1,200 a month, she said. But little things keep reassuring Fran and Brian that God is taking care of them.

“We’re really feeling extremely grateful and affirmed that we are following Him in the right way,” she said.