Damon’s Story
God has blessed our family tremendously through Compassion Christian Church. While we have not always been faithful in our giving, He has always been faithful in His provision.
My wife and I contributed very little to the Relentless Campaign. We had made some very bad financial decisions that affected our willingness to give. We were struggling financially and facing foreclosure. We pledged a mere few dollars per week on top of our weekly giving, which can’t really be called a tithe as it was far less than 10% of our income. However, when faced with the challenges of paying bills and buying groceries we often found reasons not to give the small amount we had pledged.
Although our financial problems were caused by our own poor decisions, we knew we were taking away from the ministry of the church by not giving our pledge. Finally my wife and I decided that we needed to honor the commitment we had made to the Relentless Campaign and give the total amount we had pledged, including the larger sum built up from the weeks we hadn’t been giving.
God blessed this sacrifice, even though we were not yet giving 10% of our income as our tithe. Over the next two years we watched our two oldest daughters get baptized and grow in their faith. One is now in Elevate and the other in Blitz. These ministries for elementary and middle school students have developed our girls’ faith and understanding, and have had an immediate as well as an eternal impact on their lives. We have been able to see firsthand the power of God working through Compassion Christian Church.
Last year my company eliminated my position in Savannah, and I was laid off. Again facing a monumental financial challenge, my wife and I decided it was time to stop relying on ourselves for financial security. We chose to rely on God to provide for us. We committed ourselves to tithing one tenth of our income. We created a budget and have remained faithful in our tithing. The next few months proved to be extremely challenging, but God provided everything we needed.
After four months of being unemployed, God provided a job for me so we adjusted our tithe to reflect the new income. It was a demotion from my previous position and paid much less, but it was a job. The work was not enjoyable and the hours were long. Despite this, I felt blessed to have a job and to be able to provide for my family.
Three months later I was approached with an opportunity that would be far more enjoyable with better hours and better pay. In fact, it paid exactly the same salary as my original position! I took it and we again adjusted our tithe to reflect the new income.
As we entered the One Campaign we felt blessed. Our budget was tight, but we wanted to give. We decided on an amount that we were comfortable pledging and then found a way to adjust our budget and double it. Our budget became even tighter, but we would be able to meet all our needs.
Just after we made this commitment we received some devastating financial news. We incurred an additional several hundred dollars of expenses each month for the next few years. This news came the Monday before the First Fruits offering. Our initial reaction was to cut some things from our budget, including our One Campaign pledge. But as we were sitting in church on Sunday, God began to soften both of our hearts. We looked at each other and began discussing other things we could cut from the budget that would enable us to uphold our commitment to the One Campaign. In fact, at the end of the service we even wrote a check for the First Fruits offering, which we hadn’t originally intended to do.
God immediately blessed this gift beyond all measure. Our daunting financial circumstances didn’t change, but we were blessed in a different way. My wife and I have a shared One. This is someone extremely important to us, and we have been praying for his salvation for many years. Seven days after our decision not to cut our pledge, he was baptized into Christ! God answered our prayers and led our One to begin his personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I am looking forward to seeing people experience the love of Christ through the One Campaign. I pray that each person’s One will come to have a life-changing connection with Jesus Christ. I am excited to know that others will feel the same great sense of joy, relief and elation when they see their One come to know Christ that I did. I look forward to many years from now when we will see fruit come from the sacrifices we made for the One Campaign, not just when our One comes to Christ, but also when that person leads others to Christ. The compounded effect of the One Campaign will dramatically and positively change the population in heaven.
Share This
Do you have a story about how God has changed your life, please Share it with us.