She Tripled Her Income!
As a widow, Stella had her hands full raising two kids and working as a hairdresser. She had noticed that one of the other hairdressers, a Christian, tucked 10 percent of each day’s earnings away in her Bible. Stella asked her why.
“She says, ‘I’m giving this back to God. He’s been too good to me, baby.’ Imagine that! Giving your money away,” Stella explains.
Her friend shared a promise from the Bible with her: Test Me and try Me and I will open the windows of heaven for you.
“That would be so neat for God to open the heavens for us,” says Stella. She hadn’t been taught to tithe, but Stella decided to give it a try.
“It got to where I counted my haircuts daily, my perms and my colors, and at the end of the week, I would count my total. I would tithe 10 percent from that,” explains Stella.
Before long, Stella saw her clientele triple!
“I think the more I gave, the more business I got; the more business I got, the more I gave. It just kept up, like a snowball effect, and it became fun,” she says.
One of Stella’s clients introduced her to her son, Larry, and the two married in 2005. Stella’s dedication to tithing was foreign to her new husband.
“You’re going out, and you’re like working for a living. You’re thinking, ‘Man, I need all this money,’” says Larry. “I mean, I worked hard for that money – and that’s my money.”
Larry became a Christian after he married Stella and followed her example of tithing. He immediately got a $1,000 raise in his paycheck! Larry and Stella decided to give more, and they joined the 700 Club.
“Just watching the little children get their cleft lips fixed and watching the water wells being built…” recalls Stella. “We decided that that was where we wanted to send our money.”
Since the Hoopers began to give, Larry has received two big bonuses and a company car. They were even able to build their dream home.
“I would like to encourage [others] not to be afraid – that if you had that little, still voice in you telling you to give, that’s God,” says Stella. “The devil’s not going to tell you to give to the 700 Club. In fact, he’s going to tell you not to and he’s going to put doubt in you. The Word says: Test Me and try Me and see that I will open the heavens for you.”
