PERSPECTIVE

BEYOUND MEASURE!

When I think of how good God has been to me, I shudder because I could not even have imagined the possibility of a life like this. I remember, as a little girl, saving my lunch money to give extra for Sabbath School offering. I liked the way it made me feel when I helped. I was following my parents' example. They loved to help wherever it was needed. When family members or neighbors needed help with their children, or they did not have enough food, they came to live with us. Our home was their home. That was just the way things were.   My family was very poor. Dad drove unlicensed taxi cabs (called robot cars) and mom did laundry for foreign missionaries. My parents never owned a home and the rent could not always be paid, so we moved often. But the one constant in our lives was that both my parents loved Jesus and were totally dependent on Him.   As a youth, I went through college and completed a rigorous full-time nursing program while also working full time. I paid my own tuition because I made more money than my parents. Through it all, I had no doubt that God carried me. As an adult, I thought I knew how good God was to me because of all the miracles He had performed in my life, but I had no idea what He had planned for me. Leviticus 27:30 “Every tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the LORD’s; it is holy to the Lord.”  

One Sabbath, a visiting pastor challenged us to double our usual tithe, and see how God would provide. I took the challenge."

Lois

In 1986, I opened my first pediatric home care agency. At the time, I had no business acumen—just an idea that I could do anything with God's help. I returned my tithe only when I thought I had extra money. The Lord still blessed me tremendously. One Sabbath, a visiting pastor challenged us to double our usual tithe, and see how God would provide. I took the challenge. The following week I received a check from a client who had not paid in almost a year. Before long, we received yet another larger check. Needless to say, I was convinced.

In 1994, I realized our business was in trouble. My friends and family were praying and as I stood crying in my office, thinking we would have to close because of the millions of outstanding dollars owed to us, the phone rang. The caller said she wanted to take me to lunch because she was going to buy my company. I was told companies are normally sold for 3 to 5 times the net income. Based on what was owed to us, that would be three million dollars. I told her the selling price and was shocked when she accepted. Caught off guard, I told her I had to check with someone before making a decision. I had to check with Jesus. At home, my husband and I got on our knees. We wanted an Adventist owner who shared our beliefs. God clearly said, "No, sell to this woman for three million.” The new owners bought the company and hired me to run it. I was paid well and the company was very successful. After five years, however, a turn of events in the business, saw me running the operation again under a new company started by me, just after the “do not compete” clause had expired. God’s ways are unbelievable. Tithing is no longer an option for me. The money is God's even before I return it. He uses what is left, to do more than I could ever think of doing with 100 percent. During our five year absence from pediatric home care, my husband and I opened several senior assisted living homes. Today we use the income from one of those homes for our philanthropic activities. And I am still the owner and president of the very company God told me to sell all those years ago. Very recently, I offered a giving faith-challenge to my couples' group, sat back, and marvelled at the way God can never be out-given. Sometimes the Lord just 'shows off' on us. He makes it look like we had something to do with our successes, when in reality “it's all Him.” He is just "God like that." In Genesis 12:1-3, God says, “I will bless you…and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Lois Peters
Lois Peters RN, graduated from Atlantic Union College in 1975. She and her husband Leroy have spent their lives making a difference in the lives of the young people they come in contact with around the world. Lois and Leroy have three children and four grandchildren. "My Jesus," is her Mantra.

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