"He was lying," said his wife Faye. "The money wasn't
coming home. I didn't know what he was doing."
"I really didn't care about the bills," said Joe. "My
electric was cut off six or eight times in three years."
"I couldn't go on any longer," said Faye. "I was ready
to leave him if things didn't change. I couldn't live with the violence,
the anger, the lies."
"My marriage was near destruction," said Joe.
A picture of marriage in America today. Nearly one half of them are
in a situation like this or a similar one headed for divorce. For
Joe and Faye Cummings it was the end of the line. Their marriage was
in ruins because of Joe's lies and Faye's bouts with bi-polar illness.
Joe spent most of his paycheck on marijuana and little was left for
the family to live on. Faye stayed in bed most of the day depressed,
and when Joe came home from work, they'd argue over the same things
they had days earlier.
"I'd get up, I'd go to work, I'd come home," said Joe.
"I'd listen to my wife and kids gripe because I wasn't doing
the things I should be doing, and I'd go to bed and get up and repeat
it the next day. It was a vicious cycle."
And when it seemed the problems couldn't get any worse, Faye found
herself along with the rest of the nation shocked and heartbroken
over a tragic event that fateful September day.
"It got to a point where I didn't want to get out of bed anymore,"
said Faye. "And I was begging the Lord to please, 'Do something,
please move, do something, don't let me die like this. I want to live
for You. I want my life to change. I'm sick and tired of being tired.'"
But Faye was about to be lifted out of her despair through
a television show she frequently watched, The 700 Club.
And what she saw turned her life around. It was called, "50
Days of Faith."
"When Pat Robertson was talking about revival, I said Lord,
'Don't leave me out of this. This is my big chance,'" said Faye.
"'I want to be a part of it. I want my life to change.'
"I prayed faithfully myself," she said. "I laid
out flat on my living room floor, and I said, 'Lord this is
it.' I said, 'The whole nation is turning to You like they never
have before.' And The 700 Club had the faith level
that I needed personally. They helped me, they really did. That
was the breaking point."
Faye spent weeks in prayer, pleading with God to change her life and
"
'my marriage problems, the finances. Put my husband
on fire for you. Make our family come back together. Don't let the
children see what's happening.'"
Then Faye sat with her husband Joe in church a week before Thanksgiving
and watched Joe give his heart to Jesus Christ.
"He answered, He answered the prayer," said Faye.
"And it has, it's turned our life around so much," said
Joe. "My marriage is so much better, my kids are happier, my
wife is happier, I'm a happier person."
"We're honeymooners now," said Faye. "We went from
the pits of hate and hell to total revival, total change, total. The
Lord's just put us up so high. And showed us His love. He's poured
His love out on this family."
What about all those bills that were never paid? All that money that
went to Joe's pot smoking?
"Today, I'll bring my paycheck home," said Joe. "I'll
show her my check, the pay stub."
"No more lies," said Faye. "He's truthful. He's handing
me the paycheck now and the pay stub. There's no problem; the bills
are getting paid. The Lord has blessed us financially. We've had a
financial miracle."
By the way, they've become the talk of their small neighborhood in
Jacksonville, Florida. People want what they have, and the Cummings
are happy to tell them how.
"We went and reached out to some of the neighbors and told them
what happened to us," said Faye, "and some of the people
we knew needed miracles too. And they all started lining up at the
door."
"There's like six or seven cars parked in my parking lot and
in the street," said Joe. "And I come in, and there's all
these people and Faye says, 'We need to get a bus.' and I say, 'What
do you mean?' ' Well we're going to have a caravan going to church
with us this weekend.'"
Due to the commitment of a television ministry that helped turn America
back to God, not only was one family changed, but a neighborhood.
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.