At the time you issued the 90 Day Dare, Ashley and I were regularly giving to the church through the automatic bank debit system. The amount we were giving was an estimated 10 percent of our income. I say estimated because I was working one part time job at a regular pay rate, and a second job with a base rate plus tips. Neither job had the exact same number of hours, making my income fluctuate from week to week. The amount of our auto-debit tithe was ten percent of an average of a few months. When the 90 Day Dare was issued, Ashley and I discussed it on the drive home from church and had come to the same conclusion. We knew we needed to diligently track all of our income, and write an extra check every pay period to bring us to a true ten percent. 

As part of our accepting the 90 Day Dare, we started tracking our finances more closely and tithing properly. Shortly thereafter, we started to witness the blessings promised in the scriptures. We received a check from our OB office for over payment on prenatal office visits. Less than a week later, we used all but $90 of that money to pay for emergency repairs on our car. 

A recruiter for Florida Hospital, who had (seemingly) randomly connected with me on LinkedIn a couple of weeks before, posted an ultrasound position at the Wesley Chapel location. I put in my application and was called by the recruiter a few days later to set up an interview. The interview went well, but I left unsure of whether or not I had a chance at the job. Within an hour of leaving the interview, I received a text message from the head of radiology asking if I could come back for a second interview. I left the second interview with an informal job offer. I received a phone call and a formal offer a few days later. 

During the hiring process at Florida Hospital, I attended the Christmas party for the urology department at USF (where I was already working in ultrasound). Another ultrasound tech, that I was talking to at the party, told me that Tampa General Hospital was always looking for sonographers. She told me that I could always get some hours here if I ever applied. To be realistic, I am not in the market for a third job, but the blessing was in knowing that I might have even more opportunities in my field than I ever thought. 

Needless to say, we have really been experiencing the opening of the floodgates! As a result of our diligence and proper tithing, we now have to reevaluate our income and increase our giving accordingly. 

-Cole & Ashley, Cypress Point members

2015 was a very hard year for Christian and I financially.  My appendix ruptured and I was in the hospital and doctor’s offices for the first two weeks of January, but I we had no insurance at the time.  We paid the hospital basically every cent we had and paid the rest to our rent that month, leaving us completely broke.  After a few months we began to feel the financial strain as we battled with my new insurance company and the hospital for coverage for of my procedure. Even though the money was extremely tight, we knew that we could not stop tithing, or giving to the Decade of Destiny. We were believing that if we remained faithful to our giving commitments, that God would be faithful with us.

About halfway through the year, it became particularly rough; we were facing some bills that we could not pay. When our friends asked how we were doing, we casually joked that it would be a “beans and rice” kind of month. But then close church friends invited us over for dinner just so we could have a nice meal out of the house.  That same week Christian received a cash gift from another church friend who had heard our story.  The next day after that, we received a check in the mail from my dad who wanted to bless his kids but who had no idea how tight our funds had been. We entered church on Sunday with a sense of God’s provision and protection, but we still had a few expenses left that were not yet paid. And when we walked into church we were met with benevolence gift from our Point family, which covered this last expense. This gift was a direct result of the Christmas Share offering.

Because of the generosity of others and the blessing from God, we could pay our bills and get our heads above water. The end of the story is that I was eventually covered completely by insurance and the hospital repaid all the money we spent at the beginning of the year! We were also able to eventually donate the full amount that was given to us to cover the medical expenses of a couple in Laos whose need we learned about through mutual contacts. The amount they needed was the exact amount that we had received. God is so good, and when our circumstances tested our faith, our church family was there to lift us up.

-Georgia & Christian, Cypress Point members