An example of God's blessing

Back in 1997 my beloved and I were having struggles with the church we were going to. I will not go into detail but there were things we were seeing that we no longer felt comfortable raising our (at that time) two boys there. I searched out for local churches but ended up going to my first church over 50 miles away. Due to the distance the church discouraged us becoming members, and thus discouraged us from tithing. With no church home to speak of we were unsure of what to do about out tithe. I am sure there were better things to do but we ended up taking the 10% and putting it into a company stock purchase plan. For about eighteen months we were dropping the money into this account. Fast forward to mid-1999 and a move later we became members of the church we were attending. With that movc we stopped the employee stock purchases and began tithing to our church, and we left the money in the ESPP account. We were not sure what to do about it. Later in '99 our church (Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, MD) entered into a new phase of their building project. Perfectly normal for a church that is healthy and growing. :) Anyway, both my beloved and I felt an impression from the Lord that we should take the money we "tithed" into the ESPP account for this endeavor. It is important to note that this account had been multiplied immensly (I can't remember the specifics, but it was in the realm of 2x to 3x). Although my beloved and I differed on what we should actually give...one version was the original ammount that was deposited, the other was the full current value. After praying about it for a few weeks God brought us into agreement and we donated the full value of the account. We felt such a peace and a joy that it was litterally a relief. Remember this is 10% of our income for eighteen months - that has been multiplied significantly. It was a real test of our faith in what God was doing. Here is where God reveals his plan. The church does not hold onto stocks so once the shares were transfered to their account the sold them to convert it into liquid assets at a much lower risk. This was about December of 2000. Within two months the tech bubble burst. What was once in the realm of $40 to $50 a share became worth less than $5! If my beloved and I had held back anything from what we felt like God was leading us to give it would not have remained valuable. It would have been like a whisp of wind! God took our unconventional tithe plan... multiplied it... then asked us to give it in faith... it was used to bless a local church that does much for the community and the church body as a whole (as a member of Sovereign Grace Ministries)... and then in His mercy (in my opinion) showed us the folly of "building bigger barns". Verse for today: Matthew 6:19-21, ESV “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust [5] destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.