FROM THE DESK OF
Pastor Faye Whetstone
SENIOR PASTOR & CO-FOUNDER OF
VICTORY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Hi everyone!
This long testimony is from me, Pastor Faye Whetstone, the co-founder and senior Pastor of Victory Christian Fellowship in New Castle, Delaware. I love each one of you and want you to receive this as part of my family. It’s what I have taught our own children over the years. So, I hope you enjoy reading this and are encouraged by it.
On Sunday, September 22nd, 2024, Pastor Gary alluded to a word from the Lord that God gave him while we were in our early 20’s, probably around 1976. To us it seems like it was just yesterday, but when you put it into perspective, it was almost 50 years ago. The Lord showed Gary that God would give us a beautiful home by the water. Then, 30 years ago, in 1994, God fulfilled this vision and gave us a dream home that was on the Chesapeake Bay, where every night we would get to see amazing sunsets, and every day we would see ships and boats out of every one of our windows.
Over the years many looked at it wondering, how did we ever get this home? Some people judged us because we were Christians and Pastors, thinking that the money to build it came from the ministry. Well, wealth did not come to us from ministry, but until now, I have never taken the time to share how it came about. Every detail of our testimony will give you fresh insights about how this blessing came about.
This part of our story began in the early 1970’s. Like most young families, we struggled to make ends meet. We first lived in an apartment, and then moved into a mobile home with loan and car payments; we were overwhelmed by debt. Gary began tithing as soon as he got spirit-filled and understood that tithing was 10% of our gross income before everything else. He took God literally at His Word in Malachi 3:10 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. v11 – And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.” Remember we were sinking in debt and could not afford to give God 10%. Sounds familiar right? Well, it gets worse; yes, much worse.
In late 1975, we were separated going through a divorce. I wasn’t saved yet and was very mean to Gary. I took as much as I could from him, including our best car, leaving him with all of the payments. Gary went back on the assembly line to study God’s Word from his position as an industrial engineer. Financially he had enough to eat canned stew for dinner and drive a beat-up Volkswagen that broke down more than it worked.
Remember the promise, that when we give God 10%, He would rebuke the devourer! Well, God did it!
In 1976, God put our marriage back together again. Although finances were still very tight, Gary continued to tithe and taught me about it. This would become our life-long commitment through good times and lean times. We never stopped; God would always receive 10% of all gross income.
In 1977 Gary’s mother died, and then suddenly in 1978, Gary’s father died and left us to raise Gary’s younger brother along with our two small children. Gary and his brothers each inherited $50,000, but his brothers squandered their portions through a lifestyle of partying. However, we were able to help his younger brother purchase a home with a little he still had left. Gary and I first tithed our $5,000 off of the $50,000 that we inherited. That was a huge deal to us. We had never given that much to God before. I’m sure you can imagine the temptation to buy a new car, etc. After the tithe, we bought out the other two brothers of their share of the family home and with under $5,000 began a small business, or so we thought. This little business was a wood/coal stove and kerosene heater business. We started it just before the energy crisis that began in the late 70’s through the early 80’s. Our business grew very rapidly from a small retail business to a wholesale company and then a manufacturer’s representative company for several products. Gary won several sales contests and one of them sent us on an all-expense trip paid to Hawaii, our first trip among many.
We continued tithing faithfully, and during that time also went through our kitchen cabinets and clothing closets and gave away at least 10% of those items twice a year.
In 1983, Gary was the nation’s largest selling representative for Sanyo, a kerosene heater company. They would fly him by helicopter to fancy lunches around New York City. God was opening the windows of heaven at last, giving him a pretty fancy lifestyle for a former line worker at Chrysler! He continued to write some big checks but he was not released to give them.
Unfortunately, at the same time, we were very unsettled with our local church that preached sin consciousness, which stopped me from growing in the Lord. Upon finally finding a good church, Gary was released and the next week presented checks that totaled over $10,000. Boy, was that pastor happy to see us! Remember that was in 1983! Can you imagine what that would be worth now?
In the spring of 1983, we were on an amazing vacation in Acapulco, Mexico. Our businesses continued to grow and grossed more than $10 million in sales annually. I was going to the beach on our vacation and Gary said he had to stay back and pray. Oh boy, when he did that, things would change!
From that prayer time Gary proclaimed that we were going to sell our business, and we were both to go to Bible school, and we would live on the mission field. I didn’t understand at that time that there were many different types of mission fields. Because of what I had been taught, I didn’t agree with the idea of women going into the ministry, but I was an obedient wife and agreed to do it, all the while internally planning that I would go to work and support the family. Remember, we were only about 30 years old.
Upon returning from our vacation, we were amazed that our business sold within one week. Gary was so convicted that he had walked away from business; he even refused to fly to NYC and pick up an $86,000 personal commission check so that he would not miss two days of Bible School. “There is a price to obey God,” Gary said.
We decided to keep a small commercial house on a major highway; little did we know that it would come in handy later. While continuing to tithe along the way, we lived on the resources from the sale of our business for the next year or more, and also had our expenses of traveling with our two children to Indonesia for nine weeks covered as well. We were additionally enabled to sow finances into other missionaries and churches already doing the work of the ministry there.
All along, we knew we were going to be founding pastors of a church in our hometown. As soon as we returned from Indonesia, at 29 and 30 years old, we held Victory’s first meeting on August 15, 1984, in our home in Hockessin, Delaware. By late 1984, the finances from the sale of our business were starting to run low and needed to be strictly budgeted to enable Victory to continue.
Yes, it was from our finances that we could do the things that we did. Victory’s members at that time could not cover the rent of the building or sound equipment, etc. needed to begin a small church. One thing we still had left was a converted van, which we had used to travel across the United States. By selling it and buying a cheap little car, we had enough to eat and to pay for our children to attend a private Christian school, which was very important to us. Supplementing our food supply, you’ve often heard the story about us eating a lot of zucchinis, because my mother was dating a farmer at the time. We ate baskets of zucchini every way you could think of it being prepared. We always used our finances wisely, and always tithed from whatever we had. The proceeds from the van and the income from renting the small property we owned helped us to sustain the church.
We have never been afraid to jump in and sow our finances into God’s dreams and visions, but we quickly learned that any vision that’s from God, you cannot finance it yourself. It took us a long time before we gave people a chance to help us with the vision and see that God finances His visions. Since we had depleted all the finances from the sale of our business, in order to support our family and the lifestyle I liked to live, we had to find ways to bring money in. I like nice things like comfort, etc. although actually for a few years we did without. I wanted a nice home, etc.
Gary began to use his business mind, which was a gift from God. We still had our commercial property and our Hockessin home. The commercial property, which we had tried to sell for a couple of years, finally sold. We began to invest in distressed properties, renovated them, and then resold them at a profit, but always at the going market price. Gary was extremely motivated. He bought and sold over 150 houses in 3 years.
Finally, from the proceeds of 27 houses, we built the property on the Chesapeake Bay. The duration of time from the vision of the promise of our dream house to fulfillment was 18 years of tithing and obeying God’s Word, and 12 years of being very good investors and stewards of the finances and resources given to us.
I Love you very much and pray that this little testimony shows that God does what He promises when we are faithful. What He says will always come to pass, far beyond what we think is possible, but never happens in our timetables, and sometimes it takes many years. However, if you’re patient, it will come to pass! Trust him with the plans he has for you; they are far better than yours. We have now been in our amazing home on the water that Gary saw in a vision for 30 years!! Only God!!!
Tithing consistently through good times and bad times really does have a harvest attached to it. So, I encourage you to continue to tithe, or if you have never tithed, then it’s time to start. And remember, it is 10% of your gross income from every source. That is your wages, settlements, and even inheritances. We’ve proven it and it works!
In His Service,
Pastor Faye Whetstone