A Vantastic Testimony - A Sheryl York Story
Back in 2004, I was pregnant with a promise that was actually given to me in 2000. We originally lived in California, and we felt the Lord was calling us to move to Texas (the Corpus Christi area) so with blessings from our church and another couple and their children joining us we started making the plans necessary to move states away. It was terrifying to leave everything we knew and the people that we loved behind but at the same time it was also exciting to ‘go to a place that the Lord would show us and get away from thy country and thy kindred as well.’ I can still to this day remember exactly what I was doing when the Lord clearly spoke to me saying, ‘You will have another child in Texas.’ At this point, Jerry and I had been married for 10 years and we’d already had 3 children (2 daughters and 1 son) There I was staring out the window doing the dishes in the kitchen thinking about this huge move. Leaving family, friends, our church, and of course even Jerry’s job. It was a huge move for our family.
Once we moved to Texas the excitement wore off pretty quickly. I’d been pretty naive not realizing that the weather would change dramatically from California to Texas. Our Electric bill went from $30 or $40 a month to almost $400 during the summer months in Texas because of the humidity. In fact, one time it was almost $500, and our new landlord gave us a bit off the rent because we were not expecting this increase at all. Another thing I’d been naive about was bugs. I guess you just get used to them wherever you live because all of a sudden we had flying roaches that I literally had to use a broom like a baseball bat to go after not to mention the fire ants that turned our backyard into a place that wasn’t as much fun as we’d hoped for our kids.
The highlight of the move was that within only 6 months of moving to Texas, the Lord supernaturally blessed us and took us from renters to homeowners. Even before we’d decided to move, we had been looking for a house to purchase in California but just never found anything that seemed to fit our family or finances. It was literally a brand-new home on a large corner lot and to be honest one I couldn’t have ever thought I’d be living in. In fact, the Realtor kept taking me to older homes because of the size of the backyard that I wanted for my children and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms I felt we needed. Going house shopping also got old quickly because our budget wouldn’t really allow for anything that we liked but one day while driving by this particular house that I was dreamy-eyed about, I felt I had to call the Realtor and at least inquire. Surprisingly it wasn’t that much more than the ones she’d been showing me and so she met me there and I fell in love.
This is all way back in my Christian walk when the Lord was really working on showing me His goodness and teaching me how to trust Him and not my situation or circumstances. One blessing after another came as the loan was approved, a family member helped us with a very large down payment, and we were set to close. I remember calling the Realtor almost daily feeling like the shoe was going to drop and they were going to tell me they’d made a mistake or the loan was rejected. It’s still hard to believe that that was even me but I’m just sharing honestly. The Realtor could tell that I was very uneasy and expecting the worst and so she set my mind at ease. "It’s all a done deal. You got the house. You move in on such and such a date. There is nothing to worry about.” To God be the glory. It wasn’t our finances. We didn’t have a great credit score, and it wasn’t even our own large savings account. The entire thing was totally supernatural, and we lived in and loved that house for almost 8 years before the Lord moved us to Arkansas.
Just like other families we still struggled especially once we had a mortgage, taxes, repairs, and insurance, etc... Just as God had said to me in my kitchen in 2000, I found that I was pregnant in 2004, and the new issue had become adding a vehicle to our family that would fit all the kids. Every vehicle we’d ever had only sat 5 and with car seats that was an even tighter fit at times. For months we prayed about what we were going to do about this vehicle situation. With a mortgage, I did not feel we could afford another car payment as we were already paying off a brand-new Saturn at the time. As the months passed several things happened with our ministry and we found ourselves alone in Texas after years of living there. Our own families never lived there we’d gone on our own. Some friends moved away, and some walked away but for the first time, we were definitely alone. As the baby's due date got closer, I was faced with having her by myself. My mother and grandmother lived in Arkansas, my sister lived in California and Jerry’s entire family lived in California too. We’d moved away from everyone, and things hadn’t gone exactly how we’d expected with the ministry. We hadn’t been able to get any of our family members to fly out and stay with us. They all worked and couldn’t just take time off when you don’t know exactly when the baby will be born. You are given a due date but rarely do you go into labor on that date to be able to plan like that.
Needless to say, when I went into labor Jerry had to take me to the Emergency Room and drop me off. Yes, you read that right. My husband had to take our other 3 children home and take care of them because we hadn’t been able to find a sitter and to be honest, we didn’t trust sitters anyway. This would be my first child born without my husband there, without my mother, my sister, and with no friends there supporting me either. Another issue was that Hospitals usually only allowed you to stay for a day or so and we’d gone in on a Friday. How was Jerry even going to pick me and the new baby up having to add not only another child but an infant car seat as well? Thankfully in the end all the worry was for nothing as they didn’t release me until Monday and so my 2 oldest girls were in preschool, so everything had to be planned perfectly to get the new baby home before it was time for them to come home.
Once home we still had no clue what we were going to do. We would not be able to go anywhere as a family unit. One of us (either Jerry or myself) would always have to stay home. ‘BUT GOD’... I have a younger brother who I’ve never met before, and he’d just recently found me and written to me. He lived in Arizona (which is where I was originally born) and he was married and had his own children. We were happy to find each other but he wasn’t much of a talker. However, his wife contacted me to congratulate me on having the new baby and I did mention the struggle our family now faced of not being able to even go places together because our Saturn was simply too small. Amazingly they had just bought a newer vehicle and so they had a Van that they hadn’t traded in, and she didn’t even know why but they were more than willing to give it to us. I was so blown away. GIVE IT TO US? Wow! As awesome as that was there came a new set of issues but all of this I have to say is how God teaches a person to fully trust His love and goodness for them. She talked to my brother, and he said it was a great idea, that must be why they didn’t trade it in when they bought their new vehicle so now it was just a matter of getting it to us.
They both worked so they couldn’t drive it to Texas from Arizona to bring it to us. Jerry worked full time, and I now had 4 kids to take care of so I couldn’t drive all the way to Arizona either. We were on cloud 9 as you can imagine but that old devil of doubt constantly tries to tell you, that God doesn’t care and isn’t going to do a thing to help you. Having this van would allow us to travel or go places as a family and of course, would provide us with 2 vehicles rather than 1 which would greatly help me when Jerry was off to work in the Saturn. The only way this would work was to have it delivered to us somehow, but I didn’t even know if this was possible back then and I could just imagine what the cost for that from Arizona to Texas would be. I didn’t want to borrow money because as I shared previously the payments for the mortgage and the Saturn were already strapping us. I had no idea what to do.
Then I heard the Lord say, take it out of your Tax Return. I thought that was a bit crazy as I hadn’t even done our taxes yet and we’d never gotten that much back in a Tax Return, which was why I hadn’t thought of it but I called a Tax preparer, and they said they’d get back to me once they checked on a few things. By the next day, they called me back and told me that because of a new law and being able to claim our children our return would be approximately so much, and it was actually hundreds more than the year before. To save us money I’d always done our taxes but on God’s word I contacted a Tax person, and they knew the newest laws, so I’d have probably really missed out had all of this not happened. Although doing our taxes hadn’t been a priority, I got all the right paperwork to the Tax Lady, and it was very different back then. You actually had to send your taxes in and wait, but because I was having them done, I was also able to get my return almost immediately. God truly worked ALL THINGS TOGETHER FOR OUR GOOD and in less than a week’s time a truck was delivering our new van. It was actually used but to us, it was NEW and wonderful. Another blessing was Jerry’s mother came to visit us for a few weeks to help with the new baby and the vehicle was so roomy that even she fit in the new Van, so we had my family of 6 with several car seats and his mother still fit in the Van as well. Amazing!
In the end we not only paid for the delivery of the Van, but we still had a little money left over as well. At that point, it had been one of the largest Tax Returns we’d received, and it was absolutely perfect timing. The reality is there are so many things that we are all given to worry about in a day, and for a time I fell for it about many things but when you see God show up time after time after time you finally realize that the devil is a liar and you cast your care and completely trust in God’s goodness and love to and for you. God has walked me through so much that all these years later I can truly say He is faithful, and I will close by sharing a scripture in Matthew.
Matthew 6:34
Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
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