Journey of Faith

Below is a story shared by Peggy Ann Garver. I had heard that she had a testimony that others might find encouraging as they consider their campaign commitments. When I asked her to share it, she was gracious enough to provide this post. I’m so glad I was encouraged to find out her story, it truly is comforting and inspirational to know that God is working through all details of the campaign and our lives as we consider what our commitment to the campaign will be.

I have a long history at Tenth Church. When I was a little girl, friends of my parents took me to Tenth to hear Dr. Barnhouse. We arrived early and I was delighted and amazed at the building structure. Philadelphia, itself was always a wonderful place to visit. I never dreamed that one day I would be a resident! Years later after our son became a member of Tenth, we visited off and on especially for Christmas Eve services and during our summer vacations. Several years back my husband had the privilege of marrying our son and daughter-in-law in the Tenth sanctuary. We certainly enjoyed the ministry of Dr. Boice and now of Dr. Ryken and the other fine men who are a part of Tenth Church.

Last year we had planned to give to a church my IRA money which was required to be withdrawn. This was not a difficulty for us since we had planned on giving this as a charitable gift since the government at that time allowed for this to be tax-free income! We felt that this was just good stewardship. Many things happened in our lives and we felt drawn to Tenth Church where we found worship in the true sense of the word. After a few months I joined the membership class and last August became a member of Tenth. When it came time to withdraw those IRA monies Tenth was the choice and that was our mutual decision.

My husband and I have been home missionaries for over thirty-eight years and we felt that the gift we were able to give to the Capital Campaign last year was, in fact, not enough. We should do more. We began to pray and so many infinite details came to us that we could hardly believe what was happening. First, we looked at annuities that would benefit us and the church, but after further observation and talking with our financial person, etc. we decided that this would not benefit our church in the way we would want. Two groupings of monies were coming to us in late January and early February. These monies were to be invested in the event we need some day to go to a retirement facility. The financial market was far from good and our financial person gave us the rates he had obtained and both of us had done computer lookups to see the best rates for CD’s in the US. This money was definitely in the CD portion of our finances. The credit union in my hometown was offering the best long-term rate of any place, however, we did not have the money just yet to invest. Time went on and it got near the time I would be having money to invest so I talked with one of the people at the bank. They in turn talked with someone higher up and decided they would hold that rate for us for a time. The first CD matured and was moved to a money market and then electronically to my checking account. It was a day late in arriving and we got a phone message that they could not hold the rate longer since the market was down and to give them a call. This was a Friday but the rates did not change and on Saturday the money was in our account. They seemed to indicate they would hold the rate. The following Monday the bottom dropped out of those CD rates! When we were going to bed my husband said that the Lord would give us the rate he wanted us to have. Even with some money in our account it was not nearly enough to get the rate we had asked for. However, God had a plan – the second CD was coming from a bank in another state and they did not have a system that would wire the money. They did agree to send it FED-X. The money arrived on the very day needed and we drove to the credit union window and deposited our check. The man at the credit union knew that we wanted to give a portion of this money to our church. Later that day both accounts were put into one CD with the best rate in the US. I had never ever heard of a bank holding a rate for a customer for such an extended period of time. Once the monies were reinvested and all the paperwork cleared we wrote a check for the Capital Campaign. That all these rather small pieces came together shows God’s protection and care for us. This very day another bank called and asked what they could do to get our business back and since they called me I did tell them about the providence of our Great God in giving us such a good rate, etc. The woman on the other end agreed they could not match that story.

We not only are blessed in being able to teach in Tenth’s Bible School, but we are truly enjoying the worship of our great God in the fellowship of believers. It is something new and special to me to Enjoy God! I feel certain that there will be many more stories to tell by our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God which is exactly what Tenth Church looks like to us. This is our journey of faith.