The past few years, the interest on the account was almost nil. The economy tanked and money was tight. At times, our church sent very little to foreign missionaries because, after all, charity starts at home, right? "God wants us to take care of our own first" -- although we didn't say this, we sure practiced it in our budgetary decisions. Two years ago we made a decision. We were going to tithe to missions, that is, give away at least 10% of our income to ministries outside of our walls. If times were tight, we would tighten our own belt and not starve our missionaries on the field. This was not an easy decision as we were planning to embark on a $1.5 million building project, but we took the step of faith and proceeded as God led. Guess what happened. 2007 became our greatest financial year EVER. Not only that, when the recession hit in 2008, our offerings only increased. We decided not to participate in the recession. We have added more members in 2008 and 2009 than in the previous 5 years combined! People got excited about giving and we have completed our building project, 100% paid for in CASH. But the story doesn't stop there. This past summer we received a number of letters from missionaries stating how giving was down and their need was greater than ever before. A retired Southern Baptist missionary told us of an immediate need in Africa or the ministry would be shut down.

What could we do?

We took a hard look in the mirror. We had the Terry Mission money sitting in an account, drawing almost no interest, while overseas seminaries were preparing to shut their doors. Prayerfully, we decided to release the entire $50,000 because someday, we surmised, Jesus was going to come back and there would sit $50,000 in the bank. Those missionaries needed it now and we believed the Terrys would have wanted to provide a BAILOUT of their own. We made that decision on a Sunday. The very next day, our church got a call from Hollywood, CA. Their film crew was coming to Huntington and had read online about our food and exercise ministries. We told them we wanted to finish our building project so the community could come as families and cook dinner and exercise together. Over the last few months they continued to film in our area and decided to adopt our project. Due to their hard work, and the Lord's good blessings, their people finishing up much of our building project. In total, they have provided nearly $200,000 in goods and services to First Baptist Kenova. Now what would inspire a secular TV company to feature a gospel-preaching church on national television and at the same time help fund their building project? My friends, it is clearly the Lord's way of rewarding us for stepping up our commitment to missions. Bless others and don't miss out on the blessings God has for you. He may have something special stored away for your congregation, but the key to His storage building is a thing called generosity.

Good Morning America where pastor Steve is interviewed.