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How a Business Roadblock Became a Bridge to Success

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Steve and Lucy love spending time with their grandchildren. They have been married for over 40 years and from the early days of their marriage, they learned about the importance of giving.

 “What we learned was out of Malachi, that ‘Bring your tithe to the storehouse to make sure that there would be provision there’. But that wasn't the-the reason we gave. We gave out of an obedience in our heart,” says Lucy.

“Initially your thought process is ‘This is crazy, you know?  What are we doing here giving money away?’ And then you go to the word and you say that it shows you specifically, this is a tenth of what you're to give. This is God's,” adds Steve.

In 1981, the Newtons became CBN partners.

 “We saw CBN, particularly, as a significant ministry and a place where we could put our resources and felt very good about it. I knew that the resources that we put into CBN was good ground, the soil was good ground, and we always put our seed there," says Steve. And we saw the increase, we saw the growth, uh we saw that they were reaching millions and millions of people for Christ."

Lucy was a hairdresser and Steve worked in sales. Though they were paid on commission, they never wavered in their tithe and began to see god’s blessing.

 “I tithed. I tithed on the commission and I also tithed on my gratuities," Lucy remembers.  "Everything was income. So I tithed on everything that I got. God showed His faithfulness in providing the clients. They came. And it grew."

 “Every month I was at the very top of the sales list, like month after month after month after month," shares Steve. "And people were asking me. What’s going on? How do you do this? You hadn’t had this background before. And it was one of those situations were all I could say is just ‘God.'"

In 1995, Steve started a media production company and for a while things were running smoothly…until his biggest client cancelled all of their contracts.

Says Steve,  “It was several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of media that they were placing with us. It would have been mayhem. I would have had to let staff go. I would have had to cut back. It would have been very, very difficult to make things work without that large client."

Steve and Lucy only saw one way out. To continue to trust God and remain faithful in their giving.

 “It was like if God was good to me back here when things were going well and God will still be good to you here in this situation in the valley, then why stop?" Steve explains.  "And so we never did. The scripture that says God will never leave you and God will never forsake you, and he never had."

Two weeks later, Steve got another call.

"The phone call says, "Would you be interested in brokering some time on a station, big station in New York City?" Steve remembers.  "And this station was an hour a day, Monday through Friday, and it was $10,000 per half hour. $20,000 for the hour, $100,000 for the entire week. And when he asked me that question I said, ‘Would I?’  Absolutely! And God, you know, it was amazing."

As Steve and Lucy’s business grew, so did their tithe. Today they continue to partner with CBN.

“When you give, you see that God blesses that gift," Steve says.  "And then in return he's blessing us in many different ways, not only just financially but in other ways as well, opportunities come that never were there, deals happen that weren't there before.  Sometimes it's mind-blowing to see."

“We all have this heart for caring for people and caring for what God wants to do in bringing his kingdom into reality here and into the lives of people.  Well, this is how we can do it, by making it possible for a ministry such as CBN to work it, to do it, to present it to so many, not just locally, but around the world,” Lucy adds.

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About The Author

Shawn Brown
Shawn
Brown

As Sports Director, Shawn has had the privilege of leading a team in the research, writing, and production of television and social media programing. In the last decade, he has been able to broaden the reach of CBN through the creation of CBN Sports, the sports division of the Christian Broadcasting Network. By networking with public relations representatives, college athletic directors, and media directors of professional sports franchises, Shawn has been able to ensure timely and relevant content to continually broaden CBN’s target audience. Shawn has also partnered with several book