Our story is simple, we are two people who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ who have been blessed beyond our imagination. By the grace of God, we just paid off the last of our debts, our house, at 31 and 30 years old. We are creating this semi-anonymous blog to share the stories of how we got where we were, thoughts about finances today, and our testimony of freely giving to ministries across the globe and to the people around us.
Cast of Characters:
Erik
is a software engineer who works out of Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. One of his main spiritual gifts is giving. He can be contacted via giver at freelygiving dot org.
Heather
is a stay at home mother of two beautiful girls. Amongst her main spiritual gifts are faith and hospitality. She can be contacted via faith at freelygiving dot org.
More about us
Our family lives in Raleigh, NC and our plan is to try to live as Jesus calls us to in Matthew 10:8-10, where He says
Freely you have received, freely give. Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
We need to know that that journey ends in Heaven and there is no need for money and clothing in Heaven. We desire to share our journey with you. Giving isn’t just about money, its about giving the gifts you have been given. You may have heard churches declare that you should tithe your time, talents, and treasures. We believe the verse above is about giving the spiritual gifts and talents as well as the money and time you have been given freely and using them.
Now, many people may wonder if this blog isn’t just a way to boast about our position. To answer that, I will quote from Randy Alcorn’s book, The Treasure Principle
Scripture tells us not to give in order to be seen by men (Matthew 6:1). Certainly we should be careful to avoid pride. But Jesus also said, “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). Through an unfortunate misinterpretation of biblical teaching, we’ve hidden giving under a basket. As a result, we’re not teaching Christians to give. And they’re lacking joy and purpose because of it.
We are doing this semi-anonymously not because we are afraid of people finding out what we are doing but because we don’t want this “unfortunate misinterpretation” to cause people to misunderstand our purpose. Our deeds are to serve and further the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and we have no doubt that those who truly know our hearts will know the truth. That is why we are being semi-anonymous. Our friends may know who we are and we are glad they are sharing in our journey with us. Those who we don’t know, we hope you also enjoy sharing our journey and through this blog we are able to get to know you.
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