“I grew up in church and knew about gifts and tithes, but didn't feel I could afford it. In March 2018, I made the decision to sponsor a child through Compassion International. My goal was to give $25 every pay, but my giving was sporadic. I just wasn't comfortable giving more of ‘my’ money to God and having less money to survive. In May 2018, Pastor Dan (LCBC Ephrata Campus Pastor) spoke of a 90-Day Tithing Challenge. I knew I would die of embarrassment before asking for my money back after the challenge, but I decided I would try it for the 90 days. If I didn't feel differently, I would just stop giving. I wanted so badly to see something big, but it wasn't there.
A few months after the challenge ended, I began to notice I hadn't overdrawn on my bank account since the challenge started. I had been tithing 10% of my income for almost 6 months and still had my bills paid! I was amazed. I had been living for years ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ and overdrawing on my account. Now, even with giving way more money than my budget said I could afford, I always had money left over.
When LCBC advertised Financial Peace University (FPU), I knew this was the next step for me. It was time for me to learn more about how to stay out of the financial mess I had been in for most of my adult life. I originally started FPU in fall 2018, but due to a family emergency I had to drop out. I was able to attend the first 3 sessions about having $1,000 in my emergency fund, snowballing debt, and having 3-6 months saved in an emergency fund. I returned to the winter 2019 session of FPU with my $1,000 emergency fund and credit card debt paid off. By the end of FPU, I was still working on paying off my car and student loans, but life looked and felt so different for me.
Since FPU has ended, I have signed up for the Care Meals Team and am able to buy extra food to help other families. I also had the money to expand my vegetable garden this year to bless others with the harvest. I started the 90-Day Tithing Challenge a little over a year ago and started my first FPU session almost a year ago. I never imagined that my life could look like this a year later. I have used my emergency fund on a few occasions in the last 9 months. It completely changed how I looked at a financial emergency because I knew that money was there.
One specific emergency happened this past April. Thursday morning my tire pressure light came on when I was driving to work. After work, I noticed the tire looked a little lower so I decided to drive to my dealership to have it checked. The mechanic asked me to come look at my tire while it was up on the lift. The threads were exposed and if I had hit a pothole my tire would've busted! He said my car was out of alignment and had worn down the inner side of all 4 tires. Because of FPU, I had the $700 to pay for a new set of tires that day! 6 months ago, this would've been impossible to pay for. God is so good!
I am still working on finishing step 2 before moving on to step 3, but I feel the impact of FPU in a big way. I have been able to see God's work in my life more clearly because I am not distracted by the stress of money anymore. I will be completing the FPU program again once I pay off my car. I believe I will benefit from going through the program at a different financial point in my life in order to stay motivated to work through the steps.”
Kayla Middleton
LCBC Ephrata