Written by Mary Moorefield, Volunteer Writer

When Summit members think of extravagant generosity, perhaps they think of examples from Pastor JD’s sermons, like making their tithe their largest “expense” every month or giving proceeds from retirement accounts or from the sale of large items like a house or a boat. No doubt those are big commitments. But have you heard of someone giving their WHOLE paycheck?

That’s what recent veterinary school graduate Trey did. He took the first part of “first and best” literally — Trey gave his first month's wages to the Lord.

Trey landed his dream job as his first job out of vet school – working with a veterinary practice that works with dairy cows in California. As he was interviewing to begin his career, he felt the prompting of the Lord that he needed to give and to serve in the context of the local church, more so than he had been when he was in school. This led him to the idea to be generous with the first salary he would make.

“First fruits are such an important concept in Scripture,” he said. “I was reading in Leviticus and Numbers as I was thinking about giving. ‘First fruits’ means first and best, so that was the Lord and I came up with.”

Even though the idea was a scary one, it stuck in Trey’s head, so he knew that’s what God wanted him to do.

“Generosity is something that hurts a little bit,” he said. “If it’s comfortable, I have a hard time calling that generosity.”

“It’s also a gratitude thing,” he added. “God has been so good to me over the years, and giving is an active reminder that God alone is my true provider.”

When it came time to make the gift, it wasn’t that hard.

“I had done the hard part, done the praying, done the fighting, it was an obedience thing,” he said. “And there is definitely a joy to be able to give like that.”

Trey noted that he was excited to be able to give for the first time and go above and beyond.

“It’s all evidence of God’s grace, that’s for sure,” he said. “There’s no way I would have ever come up with that idea on my own.”

“I’m so grateful that the Lord gave me the grace to go for it.”