Help from America's Heartland
If you’ve never milked a cow and worked on a dairy farm, you don’t know what work really is.
Long-time 700 Club partners Russell and Vickie Hiatt of Anderson, Indiana, take pride in farming America’s heartland. And they’ve learned that hard work cannot always be measured in dollar signs.
“[Back in the early 1980's], our income was not great,” says Russell. “We farmed, made approximately $10,000 per year. We didn’t have anything to spend. If we got to go to McDonald’s, that was a treat.”
Despite their low income, the Hiatts were careful to tithe to their local church. And God always met their financial needs.
“We even went six months one time without drawing a paycheck from the farm,” remembers Vickie. “Our bills never got behind, our tithe never went unpaid, money would just show up, from a rebate or something we overpaid or, we never knew. We never knew! But it always showed up.”
But even with their generous giving principles firmly in place, one day their 12-year-old son Rusty caught Vickie off guard with an unusual request:
“We were watching The 700 Club, that was a regular thing in our house,” says Vickie, “and Rusty said, ‘Mom, God wants us to sponsor The 700 Club.’ And I kind of ignored him because we did not have very much money.”
But when Rusty persisted, Vickie finally came to a creative solution. She explains, “I said ‘Well, Rusty, if that’s what you think we ought to do, why don’t you do it?’ So he got up and went and called and made a pledge. I think he was 12 then and he paid it every month. I never had to remind him, I never had to say anything. It was paid like clockwork until the day he moved out of our home.”
Eventually Rusty married and moved away. So Russell and Vickie decided to continue their son’s pledge and even increase it.
And God made it possible for them to sell the farm, and for Russell to land a great job as a supervisor for state-run prison farms. Prisoners work the fields to grow much of their own produce.
Says Russell, “God got me this job at the prison. It had to be Him, it couldn’t be anybody else. And I love it! I have a good time -- I enjoy it. God will blessus. If we’re good stewards, He will bless our finances.”
“He has blessed us so much and He has increased our life so much,” adds Vickie. “When we sold out of farming we thought we were going to die. But we didn’t. God gave us life and He has made it so wonderful for us.
Russell and Vickie continue to give generously. They recently increased to a 700 Club Gold membership. And giving continues to give them joy.
“We can’t be missionaries, we can’t go everyplace, we can’t drill wells, we can’t give people jobs, but we can work here and we can give the money to you,” says Vickie. “And you can do those things. And we watch you do that every day and that blesses us.”
Join The 700 Club and be a part of a ministry that is making a difference in people’s lives everyday. For as little as 65 cents a day, you will help broadcast a message of hope and truth around the world, will help provide food and clothing to children in need, and will provide medical care to those who are in desperate need. Join today!
