Navigating the Business World—God’s Way

Isaac and Lucy Gallardo bought a car detailing shop in Riverside, California.

“The initial experience of owning the detail shop, was not so great. I think our first month we got a truck stolen,” says Isaac.  “We had no insurance. It was our biggest account, so I wanted to throw the towel first month. I was done, I was like ok, this might not be for us.”

“There were times that we’d do really really good and there was times that it was just so slow that we did not know how to pay the rent,” says Lucy. “We did not know how we were gonna meet payroll. So, the dream and the vision that we had, became more like a nightmare.”
 
The financial burden and stress of the detail business had them thinking about closing up the shop, but then Lucy went to a Bible study with a friend.

“I felt that the Pastor, everything he was saying, was ministering to me. I remember just having an experience with the Lord and I just fell in love with Him and I left there just wanting to know more about God. I started going to church. I became a born-again Christian. I just started having a moment where I became more hungry for the things of God, than hungry for growing my business.”

“I mean she was so excited, but I had no idea what she was talking about, like I’d never experienced something like that,” says Isaac.

Lucy’s newfound faith confused Isaac at first, but later he too accepted Christ. During one church service, Lucy learned about sacrificial giving.

“I see a Bible in the bench, and I picked it up and it had this Scripture of the rich man,” says Lucy. “He approaches Jesus and tells Him, ‘what do I need to do to be in eternal life?’ And He says, ‘give everything you have give your riches up and follow me.” And when I read that passage, I was like, ‘no.’ I had saved money to buy a house. I was holding on to it so dearly, without even telling my husband, without telling anybody. I felt that I had to give that money up, almost like an idol.”

Lucy had saved over ten thousand dollars, and she gave it all to her church. She began praying for God’s protection and provision for her family.

“My business just started growing and growing and growing and growing,” says Lucy. “We were growing so fast that we didn’t have the equipment or the staff.”

“What followed after and how God provided for the next six months, seven months…it just did something to me where I realized just the power of giving,” says Isaac. “We just knew, that anything that came into the business, it was God’s business.”

They hired more staff and quickly met the demands of the growing business. They were now able to buy the home lucy had always dreamed of.

“I can’t imagine living my life without following the tithing and the giving, because I’ve seen the Hand of God over my life, over my business, over my home, over my marriage, and over my children,” says Lucy.

As the Lord blessed them, they looked for opportunities to share that blessing and to help spread the gospel.

“I started seeing these stories of The 700 Club and every time I would see a testimonial, oh my goodness, I would just tear up and I thought, ‘if it ministers to me that I already know the Lord, I can only imagine what it can do to other people that don’t know the Lord,’” says Lucy. “And that’s when I thought, ‘I need to give to this ministry because they’re reaching out to even more areas that I know that I could never reach out to.’ I feel that it almost was, like in the Parable, one of them just hides it and does nothing with it, it just becomes dead, there’s nothing there, but when you give it or you sow it into a ministry that’s growing for God, that’s when you’re able to see God’s Hand move.”