A Suit & Tie Testimony - A Jerry & Sheryl York Story
Preface...
Jerry and I have both been previously married. I did not marry Jerry until after I was 30 years old. He had one daughter with his previous wife, but she wasn't in his life at that time, and I had no biological children when we married. Because of both of our pasts (Jerry being abused and me being molested), we decided that when we began having children, we would never allow them to be babysat, not even by family. This one decision became a commitment and a huge sacrifice as well, because only one of us could work at a time, so the other would always be home, and our income would reflect this. But the Lord gave me a dream that eventually changed things for us for many years.
Our Story...
I was an Advertising Manager for a Newspaper in Cambria, California, when my husband and I first met and married. He was working 2 jobs himself. 1 full-time and 1 part-time to make ends meet. We had our first child just over nine months after we got married. The decision that we made that day challenged us pretty quickly. Were we going to stay with it or bow the knee to mammon? We again confirmed our commitment to raising our children without babysitters. We were never going to put our children in danger with family or friends, as both of us had been. Many, I’m sure, think this was extreme. We wouldn’t even allow family to babysit them? No, there was too much of a risk as I had been molested by several men as a child, including by babysitters, family members, and even in my own home by my stepfather from about 14 to the age of 16.
When you understand that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers (Ephesians 6:12), you understand that we were in no way standing against people. We loved our families, but we lived through some difficult things as children and youth, and we then realized that even good people can be used by Satan to try to destroy children at a young age. I stayed home for a little while, of course, on paid Pregnancy leave, but then I had to go back to work. But I very quickly found my heart was no longer in it. I had loved my job so much before having my daughter, and now all of a sudden, I really didn’t want to be there at all. I just wanted to be home with her. My husband and I made the decision that even though I had been making more than him because I was a manager, he would be the one to work full-time time and I would stay home. From that point on in our marriage, and then of course having three more kids, there was always only one of us working.
You Did What?...
Times got pretty tough, no matter what job my husband had, and we were literally taken care of and provided for supernaturally by the Lord. The Bible says He will open up the windows of Heaven (Malachi 3:10), and we believe the windows are His people whom He moves on to give. Family helped, friends helped, groceries arrived on our doorstep time and time again, and checks showed up in the mail or cash was handed to us in church by precious people. I’ve always been a dreamer, and God often spoke to me through dreams. Many have come to pass in my life, and this story is one of them. We were struggling more than usual because my husband was having a tough time with a job that he actually liked. He ended up with a supervisor who hated him because he was a Christian and treated him badly, always trying to get him fired. It was obvious to us that it was persecution, so we prayed through it and kept believing that God was working in it, and he endured because we needed money as a family. However, there was an end to the rope eventually, and he’d finally gotten there when one night, as he was working as a Security Officer in a highly classified building, he was being told that he wasn’t doing things he was supposed to do.
Let Me Explain
He had an hourly round, he had to walk to check rooms that were off limits in this building to people without certain security clearances, and each time he checked a room he was to call that same supervisor and tell him whether the room was clear or inhabited, and because it was night time who was there. This was definitely not the first time this had happened. He’d accused my husband of not checking all the rooms before, and at first, it caused confusion. He began questioning himself on whether he had called in, so he really started paying attention because he didn't want to lose this job. All night long, he’d been checking and calling in, and towards the end of the night, the supervisor jumped all over him, saying that he hadn’t called any rooms in when he knew he had and had in fact just talked to him minutes before from a room.
Needless to say, it was the last straw for my husband, and he did something we never thought was possible. He threw the keys across the room and told the guy he was done. He wasn’t going to be treated this way any longer, and he wasn’t going to be lied about to his superiors when the guy knew full well he’d just done everything as he was supposed to. My husband knew it was his word against a supervisor, and he felt he might lose, but he couldn't do it anymore. It was a tough hour-long drive home to tell me that he no longer had a job, and on top of that, he’d probably never work in security again because you NEVER walk off a site before you are done with your shift in security, let alone throw the keys across the room. We’d always lived paycheck to paycheck, so this was obviously devastating news to me, but I couldn’t be angry with him. I agreed with him, and had it been me might not have even been able to continue working through it all with this supervisor as long as he’d endured it. God was teaching me love, forgiveness, and faith for sure.
The Dreamer Cometh...
Fear tried to overtake me. How would we pay our bills? How could we have enough food? Would he be able to find another job in security? One of us had to work. Was God telling me that it was time for me to go back to work? A lot of questions and some tears as I prayed, but God gave me peace, and then He reminded me of a dream He’d given me months prior. I had told my husband about it and written it down as I always did, and even though by this time God had already proven to me that He speaks through dreams, I hate to admit that it seemed pretty impossible, so I brushed it off a bit because in our situation it seemed wonderful but also CRAZY... lol
Today I do not remember the entire dream, but I do remember that I woke up with a knowing inside of me that God had just told me that He was somehow going to give my husband a $4.00 an hour raise. This was literally unheard of in the line of work he’d chosen. He’d already been working in a position of making pretty decent money, and he wasn’t even a supervisor, but a $4.00 an hour increase? Wow! It was definitely a DREAM... lol
Right away, my husband got out there and started applying to other places. He had a family and knew he had to find another job, so it was never put back on my shoulders. He’d left the job, and I think in some ways condemnation kind of sets in because you think you did something so wrong, maybe God won’t help you, and even He will discipline you for this, but he had to go and find a job to provide for his family. He applied at several security companies and was called in for an interview, and called me on the phone saying he’d be home soon, but had to wait to receive his uniform and fill out some paperwork. The wage was even less than he’d been making at the previous job, but he felt he had to take it so we wouldn’t get too far behind or even go without. I was, of course, happy that he’d found another job so quickly, but my mind couldn’t help but question that dream. ‘Lord, this doesn’t make any sense to me. You told me that Jerry was going to get a $4.00 an hour raise, and now he has left that job and is taking one that pays even less. I don’t understand what is happening, I said.’
This, of course, was in the early years when God was still teaching me not only that He spoke to me through dreams but that I had to come to a place where I was given a dream and then fully trusted and believed Him over any and all circumstances. Kind of like the three dreams I had about my sister and me being pregnant at the same time. I would call and tell her the dream, and she would say No, I’m not pregnant. It wasn’t until after I had my first baby that I found out that my sister was pregnant and actually was for at least a month or so while I was. We were pregnant at the same time. My point is, I was still learning to trust that God spoke to me through dreams and that they could come to pass and weren’t just pizza dreams.
I was in the kitchen cooking dinner when Jerry walked in with his new uniforms in hand. (Realize here that it's probably only been about 2 days since he quit.) Before he could even say hello or give me a kiss, our phone (landline) was ringing. He put his new uniforms down and answered it, and I COULDN’T BELIEVE WHAT I WAS HEARING. Woo Hoo! God came through as it was his former Superior Supervisor. He somehow found out what was happening and why my husband quit the way that he did, and he actually apologized to him for what he’d gone through. He told him that the other Supervisor had been demoted, and he wanted to offer him a completely different job. No more working the night shift and checking rooms. He wanted to give him a position where he would work Monday through Friday, day shift, sitting at a desk all day, and he would be wearing a suit and not a uniform at all. He wanted to know if he was interested, and of course, my husband said yes. After telling him all the information, when he would start, etc... he told him what his new wage would be, and it was ALMOST $4.00 an hour more than he’d been making. I think, to be exact, it was $3.75 an hour. You might be thinking, ‘wait a minute, the Lord told you $4.00 an hour more. ’ Well, I’m not done yet. He was also given what is called a stipend (which I’d never even heard of at the time) to help my husband keep up his suits through dry cleaning weekly, which added up to a few hundred dollars more a month in a separate check. In the end, it was well over $4.00 an hour more than he’d been making in the previous position.
Setting a Table...
As Believers, we know that God’s word says that He will set a table before us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23:5). Because of the additional income at least once or twice a week, my husband was now able to go out to lunch rather than just take a lunch. There was an Asian Restaurant near the office that he loved, so it became a weekly thing, and wouldn’t you know it, God set that table. The former Supervisor, who had given him so much trouble and tried to get him fired with lies until he pushed so hard that he finally just quit, saw him in this new blessing. That same guy who had been demoted for what he’d been doing still worked in the same area and was now either walking by my husbands new place office where he could clearly see him sitting at that desk through the window, or even better was running into him eating at the Asian Buffet sometimes a few times a week and now he saw him all dressed up in a suit and tie. Now he wasn’t looking at the guy he'd bullied and lied about. He was looking at a guy who’d been promoted and was not wearing that same old security outfit but was working for the same company in a brand-new job, eating out and enjoying life like he hadn’t been before because of financial hardships and working on a night shift with a nasty supervisor. The tables were turned. God promoted my husband & demoted that Supervisor. Pride truly does come before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall (Proverbs 16:18). Praise be to God!!!
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