The Choice That Changed a Family’s Future

Heath and Louise Jarvis of Naples, Florida have been married nearly twenty-five years and have seen their share of highs and lows. In 2008, Heath, an award-winning songwriter and worship leader, lost the job he loved.

“They had decided they wanted to go a different direction in their praise and worship, and I totally understood that,” Heath says.

Five years before, Louise had left her well-paying job as a chemical engineer to be a full-time mom to their two children. It was a commitment she didn’t want to give up.

“Homeschooling was a priority,” says Louise. 

Over the next few months, as Heath searched for a job, his severance and their savings were depleted. “Nobody was hiring,” Heath declares, “The lowest point for me was the day that we went on food stamps.”

“We were literally hand-to-mouth; paycheck-to-paycheck,” Louise recalls. “It was really tough. We didn’t know what we were going to do.”

Then one morning, while Louise was reading her daily devotional, the scripture passage, Genesis 26, caught her attention. "Verse 1 says, ‘There was a famine in the land.’ And I thought, 'That’s us. We’re in famine. It’s a financial famine, but we’re in famine.' I got down to verse 12 where Isaac sowed and he reaped a hundredfold the same year. And I thought, ‘Wow, we don’t need just a little bit, we need a hundredfold.’”

“She shows me her Bible. And Louise said, ‘This is our answer. We need to give our way out.’ We decided, 'All right, we’re going to take God at his word and we’re going to sow our way out of this.’”

Louise agrees. "In Malachi chapter 3, it says, ‘Test me.’ And I thought, 'Lord, I’m going to test this. I’m going to let you prove to me that you are the provider that you say you are.”’

Louise had been volunteering as an accountant at a daycare, and also started substitute teaching there. Her first paycheck was $100, so she decided to give it as an offering.

“We knew that we had to let go in order to plant seed for a greater harvest,” says Heath. They took what jobs they could find and faithfully tithed off anything they received.

“Any opportunity for income that came in, the first check we wrote was the tithe check,” Louise declares.

“The Bible says that for a tither, God will rebuke the devourer. And so, we were determined we’re going to keep our finances, our provision protected,” Heath says.

They kept trusting God and Louise continued to track their finances. Within four months, the Jarvis’ saw their income grow by ten thousand dollars!

They were excited. "And we thought, ‘Great, we need to look for another opportunity to sow.’”

The Jarvis’ got off food stamps and continued to look for full-time work. Twice, they gave their first paychecks as offerings and saw a hundredfold return each time. In January of 2011, Louise’s former employer offered her a two-month contract that she could work on remotely.

"And I thought, ‘What a blessing! I can still be a homeschool mom, stay at home with my kids, and work from home,’” Louise acknowledges. 
 
Louise was soon offered more contracts. And that wasn’t all…

“We had sowed a seed of $2,040,” says Heath, “And by the end of 2011, we had brought in $204,000. That job, which was supposed to last two or three months, she ended up working for nine years.”

Six years later, God called them both into full-time ministry. Heath now pastors Faith Life Worship Center where he and Louise love sharing their experiences with God’s faithfulness.

“Sow the seed, see the results,” declares Louise. “God’s word works every time. It always comes back to ‘good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.’”

“You’ve got to trust God. You’ve got to trust His word and if you just put His word to work in your life, you’re going to reap the same result,” Heath agrees.