Blessed to Be a Blessing!

As a girl growing up in El Salvador, Patricia Tomlinson saw giving modelled at home by her parents. “I would always see them like, you know, having a portion of their income aside to bless these different ministries that would come and stay at the house,” she says. “Because I didn't understand the concept of giving back then. But it was later on that everything made sense.”

Tithing and giving became an important part of her life through the years, so much so that she wanted to discuss it with her now-husband Jeff—on their second date. “I didn’t understand even then the aspects of actually tithing ten percent. I thought I was doing a lot by giving twenty dollars,” Jeff said. 

“I said, ‘No, that’s not how it is.’ And I showed him scripture, right?” Patricia recalls. “You have to take your amount of what you are getting, and you put aside the ten percent. You are left with the 90 percent.” 

Although Jeff was a new believer, it didn’t take him long to get on board. “I really started looking at it as something I needed to do,” Jeff says. “And before we got married, we both decided that we would tithe our 10%. And she started to explain the importance of the offerings, which is different from the tithe.”

In 2020, the couple became 700 Club partners after consistently watching The 700 Club.    

“We would watch the show. And he said, ‘You know, I like to do something more, you know. We are so blessed. God has given us so much. He said, ‘What do you think? Should we become partners?' And I said, 'Go for it,’” Patricia recalled.

Jeff says, “Operation Blessing that goes around, especially right after a disaster happens, it makes me feel good that I'm doing something for God and His kingdom.” 

“I like it because you are able to bless others even as far as Israel. You can, you know, bless those families that are in need of having a home,” Patricia says. “People that have been, you know, victims of hurricanes and things like that; the orphanages and all these places where there's so much need for kids that don't have any parents.”

As they give to God’s work around the world, the Tomlinsons have always seen God provide for them-- above and beyond their needs. “Give with a cheerful heart,” Jeff says. “God doesn’t want anything from you that you don’t want to give. Unbelievably, it just comes back, ten-fold.”  
 
“When you are faithful to Him, He's faithful to you,” Patricia adds. “He says, ‘If you give, I'll give you: good measure, pressed down, shaken, running over.’ What is little in your hands is a lot in God's hands. It’s an act of faith.”