Winning at Wal-Mart

Lee and Linda Davis of St. Petersburg, Florida never expected that financial struggles would tarnish their golden years.

“We were having financial problems big time and Lee was handling the bills and he just couldn’t understand why things weren’t going according to his plan,” says Linda.

The couple relocated to Florida in 1999 to be near family and to make a late in life career change. Lee began working as a sales clerk at the local Wal-mart.

“He was doing everything he could to try to make ends meet and God was taking care of us, but there was never any left over, we were really struggling,” says Linda. “And so I asked him one day let me try, let me see what I can do.”

“Burdened with the job I had and all that was going on, I was glad to say, ‘Yes, please! You take them over. It’s one less thing I’ve got to worry about,’” says Lee.

Linda had a plan she was eager to implement -- a plan she had learned from The 700 Club. The couple had always given to their church even though Lee struggled to understand the concept.

“I couldn’t understand how when you have all these bills piled up and not enough money to pay them, how are you going to tithe, too?” says Lee.

But Linda also knew through watching The 700 Club that there was another level to giving.

From watching The 700 Club and from reading, I knew that we had to be doing more
Linda felt that “something more” should be to join The 700 Club.

It wasn’t long before the couple noticed a remarkable change in their finances

“Our bills were totally paid, there was always, for some reason, there was always money in the account,” says Linda.

So she decided to take another step of faith and increased their pledge. What followed was hard for even Linda to believe.

“I called the 700 club and I upped the pledge to $40 and I didn’t tell Lee about it yet and he called me the next day from work. He says, ‘Linda you are not going to believe this, I got $400 a paycheck increase in pay.’ I was so excited,” says Linda, “I said, ‘The reason you got the $400 increase was because I just upped the $40 to The 700 Club and it was just God’s blessing

And I’m going wow, okay, I didn’t really understand that either at the time

One year after Lee’s promotion to department manager, he was promoted again.

“They felt I was ready to go to the next level to become a co-manager which was also a nice pay increase I wasn’t expecting,” says Lee. “I’ve sort of gone along for the ride and reaped a blessing because of all she did.”

“Point blank it just plain flat works,” he says. “I’ve seen it work; I’ve seen the increase in our lives. I would say, you just have to try it, it’s in the word, and God said, the only time He said, try me, test me, see if I don’t do what I say I will do. It’s just so exciting to do it to see the blessings that come out of it. It’s just unbelievable. God provides and blesses when you do what He asks you to do.”