“Our lives changed overnight. Five girls—Emily, Katie, Alexa, Ciara and Serena—were a handful. Our silent house wasn’t quiet any longer. Like all siblings, they fight and have issues. We had obstacles to overcome but they’re worth it. Over the years, we’ve kept them in private schools.”
Meanwhile, the man Kevin worked for owned two funeral homes 45 minutes apart. One was located in Valley Bend, W.Va. The other was in Parsons. In 2015, the owner decided to sell and asked Kevin if he wanted to buy them.
Kevin and Joan prayed about it and then in September of that year, they bought them. If adopting five little girls hadn’t made their lives busy enough, owning two businesses created more challenges.
Reconciliation of Accounts
The new accountant Kevin hired for the business sternly questioned him. “What is this you’re giving to Kenneth Copeland Ministries?”
“It’s a tithe,” Kevin explained. “Joan and I are Partners personally, and I made the businesses Partners as well. We give 10% of everything we make to them.”
“OK, but that’s quite a bit of money. Do you think you could cut that down so we can better position ourselves?”
“No.”
“I can’t talk you out of this?”
“No. No, you can’t.”
Over the next year, the accountant watched as the business prospered. One day he said, “You know the money you pay me each month?”
“Your salary, yes.”
“Could you take what you would pay me this month and put it into that ministry?”
When Kevin and Joan discovered VICTORY Channel™, KCM’s 24-hour Christian network, the TV stayed on it. Each time a commercial came on advertising the Southwest Believers’ Convention, Joan had an odd reaction. She started sobbing. One day she told Kevin what was happening.
“I feel an urgency that we need to attend the Southwest Believers’ Convention in 2016,” she said. They started praying about it and setting aside money for the trip.
“Katie, our second oldest, was scheduled to do something else, so we rented a van and drove four of the girls to Fort Worth,” Kevin remembers. “The whole thing looked like it was a setup for a miserable week. Getting all the girls up early, dressed, fed and to the convention center was challenging. Then we sat through services all day and walked back to the hotel late each night. I knew it had to be God because we went through the week without any trouble. Even Emily and Alexa, who fight a lot, didn’t have any conflict. We received so much of the Word that we came back full of faith.
Faith for the Right Response
“Six months later, we took another big hit. That’s when I knew how imperative it was that we had attended SWBC. If we hadn’t gone, I don’t think I would have made the right decisions when faced with this ordeal. The wrong decision would have been devastating. That’s why we rely so heavily on VICTORY Channel. Even if I’ve heard a message before, I keep listening, because I know I’m going to need it.
20 : BVOV
