Welcome to the God's goodness podcast where our mission is to encourage as well as highlight
God's goodness and modern-day miracles.
We are your hosts, Josh and Shelley Hankins.
Today we have with us a very special couple.
We are honored to have Pastor Pete, Giacalone and his wife Elaine.
Pastor Pete is the head pastor at our church of South Hills Assembly of God and we are
just honored to have him with us finally on this podcast and we'll let them open our
episode with an opening prayer.
Father, it's more than just a cliche when it's declared God is good.
So Father, we pray that for those who are listening today, Lord, Father, we pray a right
word in due season.
Thank you for Shelley.
Thank you for Josh.
And Father, we just commit these next moments, Father, dependent upon the person of your
Holy Spirit to speak words of life, to speak words of encouragement, to speak words of
healing, to speak words of comfort.
We thank you for your amazing anointing in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Thank you for that.
You're welcome.
So where would you like to start?
Well, you know, when you asked some time ago about doing this podcast, God's Goodness
podcast, I thought to myself, the theme of my life and not only as far as the theme of
my life with God, but this all started with Elaine and that's the reason why it was so
good.
So if I can take you back from the moment I got saved, I always had devotions.
Devotions were very important to me.
I was told get in the book, read the book, study the book, know the book.
And then what happened is when I started dating, I vowed that my dating life would always evolve
around the word of God.
So no matter who I was dating, if they couldn't be part of the word, then they weren't going
to be part of my life.
Fair enough.
Yeah.
So when Elaine and I started dating, we had devotions.
That was this, we prayed before every day, the moment we got in the car, Lord, thank
you, direct this guide is be with us.
And we started reading the word together.
And one day we were reading the word and we happened to be in Matthew chapter six.
For me, Matthew chapter six is the father heartbeat of God, the fatherhood of God.
And we were wrapping up chapter six and then in verse 33, it seemed like the words just
jumped right off the page.
And it says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things
will be added unto you.
And we knew there was going to be a future with each other.
I just didn't know how God was going to provide for our lives.
But the very moment I read that verse, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and things, all these things will be added unto you.
So immediately at that moment in time, I thought, I'm not going to be chasing anything, but
I'm going to walk and seek God.
And from that day, now we've been married 47 years from that day to this time, I can
boast not about my faith, but I can boast in the faithfulness of God.
There's a difference.
My boast isn't in what my faith.
My boast is in his faithfulness to me because the Bible even when we are faithless, he is
still faithful.
So if we get this started, everything I've always needed, everything Elaine has always
needed, God has always provided.
Amen.
Yeah, I know that's right.
We know him as Jaira.
Jehovah Jaira.
Very much.
So we had 27 months and one week of no discernible income.
We didn't lose utilities, we didn't lose the house, nothing.
And people were like, what are you doing?
And we were sure to tie it on everything, any money we got.
And they're like, why are you tithing that?
You need it.
And it's like, well, if we don't tie it, then we run out of stuff.
So that's a big deal.
So we know the God of provision for sure as well.
Amen.
Yes, that is our motto or our scripture for our marriage.
Remember at Bible School in Missouri, we would pray over the map of the United States because
we didn't know where we would go.
But we were open to anywhere in America.
So we'd be praying.
And when I think back to all of that today, he has been so faithful in so many a gazillion
ways of not only just providing but healings and connections with other people.
You know what I mean?
And just leading and guiding our footsteps.
I mean, he always will until we pass on.
But we came, we had heard that Pastor Owen wanted to mother a church.
And I had come to this church after I got saved.
I lived right down the road.
So I tried it out, fell in love with this place.
Not only did God change me, but this church changed me all the more because of the love
of the people and acceptance.
So we came home for Christmas, his senior year of Bible College.
And he approached Pastor Owen.
You know, I hear down there, you're going to start a church someday.
He goes, oh, Peter.
Yeah, aye, aye.
But not now.
And he said, but I do know two other churches that need a youth pastor.
And we thought, well, maybe that's the direction.
Because at Bible school, professors were saying to him, go be a preacher.
Go be the lead pastor or the senior pastor.
You know what I mean?
And I'm like, oh.
Because I wasn't brought up in assemblies either, was he?
I'm kind of scary then.
And well, anyway, we did get interviewed by these two pastors.
One was in Houston and one was in the north side.
And well, anyway, it worked out that the Lord opened our door to the north side church.
So that's where we started out here in Pittsburgh.
We've been in Pittsburgh all these 47 years.
The north side of Pittsburgh, we've been here at South Hills 42 years ago.
And then we went to West Mifflin and then McKeesport.
Oh, that's a rough neighborhood.
Yes.
And heard many a gunshot.
And helicopters.
And here we are, full circle.
Whoever knew that we would be back here.
Because when we left 42 years ago, you normally don't go back to a church that you've been
at ever.
And so I was kind of bittersweet.
I was excited about on a grove or West Mifflin, but I knew I'd never come back because that's
how it is.
I'm not big in the history of this church because, you know, long time listener, first
time caller, but not I haven't really been here a lot.
And I mean, I've been here a lot, but not often or long.
Just take yours.
So what brought you back to South Hills?
Josh, we were fully retired.
And then again, this goes back to the provision of God.
I fully retired that summer and I was going to start up a traveling churches again and
just maybe do two or three churches a month or maybe just really just two churches a month.
And I was in Michigan preaching for a friend of mine in Flint, Michigan by the name of Tommy
Matuzzo, Flint Riverside Tabernacle.
And I got a phone call from one of the board members here that the pastor had resigned and
he said, Pete, will you just come and be an interim pastor for us?
I said, sure.
And again, I had such a free schedule.
Things were opening.
I was going to preach a couple more Sundays and then we were going to go through the holidays
and then I was going to book up for the following year.
But we felt the peace about saying yes to come be interim.
And so we were most we were only going to be here was maybe six months.
And during that time, the folks gathered around us and said, hey, would you stay?
Will you put your name in?
Will you stay indefinitely?
So I said, well, there's procedure that you have to go through.
So they voted.
We contacted the district office, district office of the assembly of God here in what's
known as the Pendel district.
I wanted their blessings.
And they said, yeah, Pete, we're in this.
We think that your giftings, your talents, we believe that you can go in there and really
help the church out at this particular time.
So they voted on us.
We got a unanimous vote, which, you know, it just blew us both out of the saddle.
But again, it goes back to God's provision.
Again, a man's step, a righteous man's steps are ordered of the Lord.
That means that's the same for every born again believer.
That doesn't mean that I have more righteousness than somebody else, but a righteous man's
steps are ordered of the Lord.
So again, going back, if I can tie this in together a little bit, when we were at the
school, we never had enough money.
But as you said, Shelley, just a moment ago, the provision of God, when I graduated from
college, I graduated completely debt free.
And it was just nothing but, again, the hand of God, God's provision.
I was guaranteed as a teen by my dad that any college in the land, any college he would
pay for my father had money, he would pay for it.
But when I came and told him that I wanted to be a Pentecostal, now remember, I'm born
raised in a Sicilian home.
And first of all, me getting saved, that just set everybody off.
So I was completely disowned from the moment I gave my life to Christ.
So when I gave my life to Christ, everything was, you know, it was a game changer, a game
breaker.
So my dad turned me says, you're on your own.
So at age 17.
Now, at this time, I was at one of the finest all boy private Catholic high schools in Detroit.
It was called Austin Catholic Prep run by the Augustinian friars and monks.
So it was one of the best Catholic church schools in the Detroit area.
But I just knew that I knew God's call, and I knew that I knew that he would provide.
So we're going back and forth, you know, from 17 to 69.
That's how old I am now.
17 to 69.
But throughout all of those years, my theme has been Jehovah Jireh, the God that provides.
We weren't looking to come here at South Hills.
It was an open door.
We thought, okay, let's take that open door.
So we've been here now three years.
And we just started our fourth year as the lead pastor here at South Hills Assembly.
So when you finally told your father you were saved, knowing that that was going to be a
familial hardship, how hard was that to get that out and say, Hey, dad, I guess I'm going
to tell you knowing how he felt right in an Italian home.
Yeah, yeah.
All Sicilian now.
Now, so you have to see, remember, and you may not know this, but my grandfather on my
mother's side, they ran and controlled all of St. Louis, Missouri.
So my mother's from Missouri.
My dad's from Detroit.
My mom's from St. Louis.
So my grandfather, during the days of Al Capone, they ran and controlled all of St. Louis,
Missouri.
My fact, my grandfather worked under Capone for a time and then went back to St. Louis
to work with his brother and another guy.
So they had ties.
They were the general.
I mean, they were not only ties, they ran St. Louis for, and those regimes weren't that
long.
The last name was Giannola.
Giovanni Giannola.
You know, him and his brother, and they literally ran all of St. Louis for a time.
So now I'm in this all, and I was really the first one ever to marry out of the Sicilian
family.
So and that was a no, no, two, because you can see Elaine's not Sicilian.
I really, I mean, he's a very Sicilian, maybe Northern Italian.
Shelley and Josh would happen was my life, again, I was always running with the wrong
people, always doing the wrong things, always in trouble.
So my life radically changed when I gave my life to Christ, the drink, I never did drugs,
but the drinking immediately left and running with the wrong people that immediately left.
So my life was like overnight from always trouble to what's happened to you and my family couldn't
understand it.
I remember one time my mom even turned to me, she said, Peter, look, put that Bible down
and I'll throw the wildest party you could ever drink.
I'll pay for all the booze.
I'll pay for everything.
We just don't want you walk around with that Bible anymore.
So the answer to your question, Josh, the only way my dad thought he could get to me was
take away everything that was promised.
But what he didn't realize when he did that, that forced me to trust the Lord, count it
all joy when you go through all.
That was a trial, a trial of God's provision.
But like I said, from that day to this day, God has always provided.
And Elaine can attest to this, that every church we've always went to, when we left here at
South Hills in 1981, we didn't have money to start a church.
We had 12 people, 12 people and a dream and a passion.
And within a short period of time, that turned into a church of 300.
I had 43 people on staff.
And when we left the church, we had about 100 and so.
It was 28,000 square feet, nine acres of property.
And none of that was guaranteed.
All of it was debt free.
And it's all again.
It goes back to Bible college.
It goes back to when we had nothing, when he provided, when we had nothing, we knew
he would provide.
And here we are age 69.
Here we are 47 years later.
19 for the 50th time.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
Elaine was clowning around saying she's 39 again.
You know, whatever, same thing.
When I look back, like I said before, it was like a bittersweet.
But you know, all the churches that we've been in, we've always known that it was God's
will.
It was actually eight years ago that we were asked to put our names in at this church after
Jack's step left after 25 years.
And we were not looking to come here at all.
But we thought, all right, we'll test the waters just for the heck of it.
You know what I mean?
We just thought, anyway.
And they searched for a pastor for what, eight months.
They had a hundred applicants.
And we came in second.
And the guy that was here was voted in first.
And we were not accepted because we were old.
Oh my goodness.
At 39, that's incredible.
You know, when I look back, it just wasn't.
You know, and that was OK because we weren't looking.
Right.
And it wasn't the right season.
It wasn't time.
And then we got that phone call three years ago.
It was like, what?
Because if you were too old back then and you're older now, how does that make any sense?
Like, oh, now you're good enough.
Like a fine wine.
You're just getting better with each.
When I think of Moses, he was, what, 80 when he started?
So anyway.
So, you know, as we look back again, it's in our relationship with Jesus Christ that
counts Shelley.
It's not a position.
It's not a place.
It's again, seeking first the kingdom of God.
My world, our world did not fall apart.
We were going to just stay the course.
So, so for those who are listening right now that, you know, maybe they didn't get that
dream job.
Maybe they didn't get that amount of money that they wanted the need.
I would say to them, seek first God.
Keep God first.
If you keep on keeping on, stay faithful.
Stay faithful to him because he's definitely going to be remained faithful to you.
Keep seek first the kingdom of God and all these things.
Don't go chasing.
You know, when we got married, I told Elaine everything that I could never provide because
I knew what a youth pastor was going to make in the assemblies of God and it wasn't a whole
lot of money.
Now we always lived debt free.
In other words, I never allowed my credit cards.
I never, I just refused to go into debt.
We graduated college debt free and just being a good steward.
If I didn't have money for certain things, we didn't need it.
That was my motto.
If we didn't have the money, we didn't need it.
We'll wait till we get the money.
And God has always honored that as far as, now pledges to missions and giving to people.
That was never a problem for us.
I remember for the, oh, probably the first 20, 25 years of my marriage, every time I
saved up enough money because it was suits in those days.
Every time I saved up enough money to buy a suit, God would lay in my heart to give it
to missions or give it to a missionary or give it to somebody who didn't have as much
money as we had.
And I would.
And then within the very same week, someone would come up to me and say, you know, pastor,
God laid it on my heart to buy you a brand new suit.
Or you know, pastor, we got a couple extra suits here and those suits that were given
to me, we're looking at $1,000 suits.
I mean, these were just suits that I never could have paid for, never could afford.
So again, and it wasn't like I gave to get, I gave because I felt other people's needs
were greater than my needs.
So going back when, when that door was shut, it didn't bother me.
It really did not bother me because I knew who I belonged to and God had proven to that
point in time in my life that he was my father.
See that's what Matthew chapter six is all about.
It's the Lord's prayer.
It's right in the middle of the sermon amount.
See the sermon amount starts in chapter five and ends at the beginning of chapter eight.
So we got chapter five, chapter six and chapter seven.
Jesus sermon on the mountain, but wrapped in the middle there in chapter six.
They talk about the Lord's prayers.
It's not really the Lord's prayer.
It's the disciples prayer.
He's teaching the people there to serve him out.
This is how to pray.
And in chapter six, he's talking about how much more show your heavenly father.
See that's the reason why chapter six is the father heartbeat of God.
And when we really have that heartbeat and we know that we know that we know that he
sees our every move, knowing that he will provide.
And it's just been amazing Shelly and Josh, the fact that he has always provided.
Every church we started, we have seen God wonderfully and gloriously pay it off.
The first church debt free.
I think we left it with 175,000 in savings and churches don't have savings account, but
we did and we had 43 people on staff with the school, the daycare, the pregnancy center,
the food bank, pastoral staff.
God was good.
People said, did you know what you were doing?
No, every day that we were there for 16 years and God again, gloriously provided.
And he's really good about that.
So you've been here three years showing I've been here or two.
So you've been here the entire time I've been here.
Do you, being that you had already retired once have plans and trying to re-retire?
Or are you like your heartbeat is in it for the moment, for the season, for however long
that is?
I'll let Elaine give hers and then I'll share mine.
Okay?
Well, this is going to be different.
Yeah, we're here for a time.
We always knew that it would be for a time, but we are, since we've been here, because
we were here 40 some years ago, and I had seen old friends and just reconnecting again.
But the majority of the churches, I don't know everybody, obviously, still learning.
But there's a lot of people to learn.
There's a lot of people to learn.
I know.
But yeah, first season and God's, I'm not even worried whenever that time comes.
I'm not because I feel I'm confident in him.
But I'm not worried about the next step because after serving him all these years, and he
has proven, not that he had to prove it to me, but he's always been faithful, that I
know that I know that whatever the next step is, it will be his will.
It's got a good track record.
Yeah.
But Josh, now going back to what your question was, I really believe it all in my heart that
the church has to continue to grow.
I come to realization of my age, and I'm not saying my age discredits me, but I do believe
with all of my heart, and this would be a little hook.
There's going to be a whole lot of great transitions coming in 2024.
Again, we came here for one in ten.
It was a church that was having some difficulties, and many people said, come stop the bleeding.
So we believe God has helped us to come stop the bleeding.
It has grown.
He's an amazing staff.
I am so proud of Luke.
I'm so proud of Brie.
I'm so proud of Kayla, Pat, Doris, and Debbie, Anthony.
I'm proud of all of them, and we're seeing a hand of God.
We're seeing a transition.
So we'll be here as long as the people want us to be here, and as long as it's God's will
for us to be here.
But we're smart enough to know that we have to be very, very sensitive to him, to his
presence, to his purpose, his calling.
So I'm excited for South Hills.
There's some exciting things that we're going to be presenting very first of the year.
So that's not that many weeks away.
No, it's right around the corner.
It's right around the corner.
So stay tuned for that one.
I think the people are going to be excited.
I'm happy for the team, and I see it as a team.
I don't think any church should ever be built around one man.
Jesus.
There you go.
You'll always be built, if he's Lord of all, then you've got a good winning combination.
But going back to the provision, so here we are.
We left that church.
We're at Walnut Grove for 16 years, money in the bank for the church.
I really didn't have a savings in those days, and God spoke to my heart and said, I want
you to go into the evangelistic field.
And Elaine turns to me and says, what do you know about being an evangelist?
I said, I really, nothing.
I said, what?
And I turned to her.
I said, what did we know about pastoring?
We pioneered.
We had 12 people, and that church became a church within three months time.
Within three months time, we were running 100 people, three months time.
And we did it the old fashioned way, prayer, fasting, knocking on doors, and we were sovereign.
We were sovereign.
It's unheard of.
We were a sovereign church in three months time.
I had an associate pastor.
I had a youth director.
I had a board three months time.
That is really moving.
And I have to give all the glory and the credit to God.
Matter of fact, our theme of that church was we declare the glory of God.
We kept declaring God.
So now here we are 16 years later, time to go with no guarantee of money, no guarantee
of anything, but the faithful promises of God, the faithful promises of God.
I had missionaries come to me saying, are you out of your mind?
You're at the best place in the world in your life.
I was in my 40s and finish out here.
We thought we were going to retire there.
Stay here, finish here, finish strong.
But you know when you know when you hear God's voice and God said, it's over.
Now I had to wait for Elaine for a year.
So that happened in the 15th year.
But I told her and I told the board, I said, this is my last year.
I just want to let you know this is my last year.
And you know, we went on to the Elaine Tournament.
She said, how can we go on?
Who even knows you as an evangelist?
Because he had told me when it was, yes, he did wait for me.
Thank goodness, because I didn't want to go.
But within that year's time, I saw the handwriting on the walls.
I knew it was time.
But I was like, who knows you?
How are you going to do this?
And he goes, I already have the year booked.
I was like, what?
And then I was like, OK, God, if he already has a year booked, I'm not going to fight
you.
I'm not, this is your will.
And it was amazing because close friends said, yeah, come preach.
And then it was booked the following year.
But I remember the very first church we went to, I mean, we booked 50 out of 52 weeks.
We tried to keep Christmas free and usually Easter free and then try to have some kind
of vacation time.
But I remember the very first church we went to was Easter Sunday morning.
I'll never forget it.
The pastor forgot the love offering.
So I mean, we're going to start living on this now.
And we're driving home.
The kids were with us.
I preached the morning, the evening.
And as we're headed home, Elaine turns and she goes, well, how did we do today?
Meaning, what did we make?
What came in?
You know, when I pastored, I had a set salary.
And I prayed a quick prayer.
I said, God, help me.
Because again, I said, well, not too good.
I said, let's wait and see what comes in tomorrow in the mailbox.
And she whispered to me, she said, I don't know if I can live like this.
But you know what?
From that day to the day we left the evangelistic field, the provision of God was just absolutely
amazing.
And yes, checks did come in that week in the mail.
People that, you know, hey, Pete, God laid you on my heart.
So again, seek first.
You know, some people say, when I have enough money, I'll get started.
I say, if you got God, that's enough to get started.
Yeah, I can attest to that.
We had that same phrase for tithing.
Okay.
You know, when people say, I don't have the money to tithe.
If you don't have the money to tithe, you'll never have the money to tithe.
You tithe now in faith and he provides.
And the first time we'd tithe, the first time we'd gone to church, I don't know how many
years and we didn't tithe.
The money was tithe.
And then I remember telling her, I think we should start tithing.
And I was really nervous to tell her that because we'd never talked about giving money
away before.
I thought this is not going to go over well.
And I didn't know that God had already talked to her because as soon as they brought it
up, she was like, okay, no fight back, no pushback, no conversation, just okay.
I was like, that was the easiest fight I ever had.
Like God fought it for me before I even got there.
And you know, how long was it before I got laid off?
Like right after that, I got laid off from work.
Shortly after we started tithing, I was like, oh man, I was always tithed on the unemployment.
Only to find out that I was laid off incorrectly.
And they paid me back for, what was it, two months worth of work?
And how much was it again?
The take home was over $6,000.
Wow.
And so we tithed on that.
And I had a very clear message from God on that, basically saying thank you for tithing.
And I will give back 10 to 100 fold.
So he also made it very clear that this was not an everyday thing, just because I tithed.
He's not going to keep doing this everyday.
This is just his way of saying, I see you, I hear you, I know you, and this is acceptable.
And that's his way of giving back to me in the very beginning to make it so that there's
no way we'll miss tithing.
We don't care.
You know, Josh, again, like I talked about suits and I really didn't make that great
of money.
We made money that we could live in a home.
We could have a car.
We could always provide it.
As a matter of fact, our second or third year of marriage, we had a home built.
Again, because our credit was so good and we brought a brand new car, but again, those
were on credit.
The bank and us owned the house.
The bank and us owned the car.
But God always provided, always provided.
I remember one time Elaine was praying for a second car.
Now it just was not in the budget.
She was praying and praying and praying.
She said, can we have a second car?
I said, well, the greatest cop out.
Let's pray about it.
It sounds like the greatest cop out, but it really is not.
It is the greatest asset any Christian has in his arsenal.
There you go.
So I said, let's pray about it so I can buy time because I knew I didn't have the money.
I really didn't.
And she did.
She started praying like a prayer warrior and out of the blue, a dear friend comes up
to me and says, hey, I want to give you a car.
You want to give me a car?
He goes, I want to give you a car.
His name was Rocco.
Oh, Rocco, dear, dear friend.
And it was a five speed Honda.
So I knew Elaine couldn't drive that.
She's not getting the manual.
Yeah, no, no.
So she got the family car, all right, which was a nice minivan.
That was the days of minivans.
And as time was going on, you know, I had, we got the title transfer and that weekend
I'm driving around.
So I've only had the car two days now.
Nice sharp car, fast.
It was a lot of fun to drive.
Monday morning, I'm pulling into Walnut Grove.
We're at Walnut Grove at the time.
Pulled in, the building was over 100 feet long, 100 yards long.
It was a football field long.
Pulled up around the circle, parked.
And as I'm getting out of my car, I noticed that my daycare director, who was a single
mom at the time, her and her son was getting off public transportation.
And that was only a 50 foot walk from my car to the front of the door to get into the church
facility.
As I was walking to the door, I said, God, I'll give her the car today, today.
But to make sure it was God, I went into the sanctuary and I prayed for a solid hour.
And here I am.
I've only had the car two days and I'm going to give away my wife's car.
You understand?
I better make sure I heard from God on this one.
So I thought, you know, God's just, he's just testing me.
That's all.
It's just a test.
She can't drive a stick.
And so again, it was a 100 yard walk down the hallway and I'm going to the daycare area.
And her name was Marge.
I said, Marge, can you drive a stick and thinking she's going to say no?
And God's just testing me to see if I'm faithful.
She goes, oh, pastor, I love sticks.
I thought, well, there you go.
How would you like a car?
And she started crying immediately.
And that night, you know, we used to have family devotions.
And that night I waited till after dinner before I announced to Elaine that I gave away the
car that we've only had for two days.
And I'll never forget it.
As we have family devotions, I thought, great, she won't kill me in front of the kids.
So as we're closing in prayer, I said, kids, guess what?
We get to give away our car and the car we just prayed for.
And we get to give it to Miss Marge.
And I looked over at Elaine and thought, uh-oh.
And Elaine felt how?
I was not happy.
The kids were happy.
And my husband goes, let's go around the circle and pray and let's just thank God that we
could do this for her.
And we did.
And as the kids were praying, now they were very young at that time.
And they were so joyous and so happy for her.
And I'm like, I felt terrible.
Quite about me.
Yeah.
But I didn't have that joy.
I mean, yeah, I prayed for that.
But she took a bus all the time, everywhere.
And here I am boo-hooing.
You know what I mean?
I felt bad that I wasn't like my children as a child, excited and happy.
And I had to repent and ask God to forgive me because I was happy for her.
You know?
And shortly thereafter, maybe a month after, we, a lady had asked my husband to come to
the hospital to see her.
And she was in her mid-80s.
And she had shingles, but they put her in Alzheimer's ward.
And she goes, I got to get out of here.
It's like, get me out of here.
Well, he did.
He got her out because she was fine mentally, you know?
And, well, anyway.
And she had said to him, you know, I have a car that I can't really drive anymore.
She goes, could you drive it for me?
Like out of the blue?
And he's like, you go ahead.
You tell her.
How the story goes is, it was, truthfully, I don't mean to correct Elaine on the air,
but it was really just about a week or two later.
It wasn't really a month.
It was about a week or two later.
I'm making hospital visits and I'm visiting this lady.
And she was an amazing lady.
She had no family really.
And she told me, she says, I'll make you a deal.
If Elaine, and Elaine was brought into this right away, if Elaine takes me grocery shopping
and Elaine takes me to the doctors and yada, yada.
And she knew she did not know I gave a car away.
She didn't know we were needing a car.
So she said, would you help me out?
We said, I said, sure, Anna.
So you should see, and this car, her car, was a brand new Chrysler Fifth Avenue, New
Yorker.
It was a solid black car.
I mean, this was myriads over the car.
I mean, this other car couldn't even stand in the shadows of this car.
And it was automatic, right?
So she could actually drive it.
And it was sleek.
Spoke hubcap wheels.
I mean, this thing, there was not another thing you could do with this car, not another
bell, not another whistle.
It had it all.
So we hung on to it for a number of months.
And Elaine lived up to her bargain, took her to the grocery store.
And then one day I said, you know what?
We better take the car back.
So I pulled up in the driveway, and I'll never forget it.
She goes, she really got mad at me.
She said, Pastor, when I want that car back, I'll tell you.
I said, oh, OK.
And we hung on to that car for 15 years.
15 years.
And here's the amazing thing.
As we reached out to meet the need of a single mom.
See, Elaine never had a grandma.
So as we reached out to meet the needs of a single mom and gave away that we thought,
here's our last seed, we're going to give it away, God gave back not only another car,
but God gave Elaine the grandmother she never had.
And I was a daughter that she never had.
But who knew it?
You don't think about those until years later.
Years later, we're connecting really like a mother-daughter.
That was really nice.
The whole time you were telling the story, I could only hear God.
I could only hear what God was doing.
I knew where you were going.
I knew it was going to happen.
I knew that you can't out give God.
I mean, you absolutely cannot.
You want a car?
Here's a car.
Oh, look, she needs a car.
What are you going to do?
Okay.
Oh, you gave me that car.
Good, because I've got something even better for you.
Thank you.
You know, we hear so much about seed faith today.
I didn't give that car away to get a car.
I gave that away because I knew that I knew I heard from my father.
And it wasn't father, let's negotiate.
I knew I heard from my father.
And regardless, I knew he was going to provide.
And I knew this was one of those that we couldn't wait on.
You know, let's take a month and pray about it.
And I knew that immediate obedience was necessary.
And we never looked back.
Even when we were on the road, the evangelist would say to my husband, you need a table.
You need to sell books.
Do you have any books or singing tapes?
Okay.
No, we don't have any of that.
And so we made up a table.
We tried it for a while.
We would go to the Christian bookstore, buy up whatever was on sale, and go sell it at
these churches.
I hated it.
I hated it because, yeah, they didn't have these resources in the little towns.
But I hated standing there, like exchanging money.
I don't know.
I just...
It didn't last long.
That didn't last long.
We quit that.
And I even had my girlfriend make me Bible birdhouses.
No, those flew off the shelf.
A Bible birdhouse?
Very nice.
The size of it.
Very nice.
Anyway.
She was very creative.
She was a master carpenter.
Just couldn't do it because that wasn't us or me.
You know that we totally relied on the Lord the whole seven years.
And we were able to put two kids through college.
We even paid off our house.
It was just like...
And that's without the table.
That's without the tables.
You know.
It's like God is putting that on your heart that you are miserable because that's not
His plan for you.
And when you followed His plan, He provided.
But when you wanted to try to add income on your own vein, He's like, good luck.
Now we got 16 years behind us from Walnut Grove, seven years behind us on the evangelistic
field, and things were taking place at our home.
It's just too intricate to talk about.
So things were taking place.
And so it was Elaine turned to me and said, you know what?
I got to come off the evangelistic field.
So we started praying about it.
I'm on a golf course.
My day off.
I'm on the golf course.
I'm having fun.
And I get a phone call from Channel 40.
Dear, dear friend, Ron Hembery, who was president of Channel 40 at that time.
It was one of the gals.
His secretary said, Ron wants to talk to you.
Sure.
So I finished my round of golf.
And a matter of fact, I was asked to co-host a program that night.
It was a Monday night.
And then they said, not only do we want you to co-host tonight, we want you to co-host
every Monday night.
Sure.
Why not?
Never talked about money.
And then it was, would you come full time here at Cornerstone Television?
Sure.
Why not?
And again, I did not go looking for a position.
I didn't go looking for a job.
And this is so simplistic, Shelley.
This is, and Josh, it's so simplistic.
I believe it's God's word.
And I don't believe it's God's word just for Pete and Elaine.
I believe a righteous man steps or order the Lord.
That's for Joe Schmoe.
That's for Mary.
That's for Susie.
That's for Sally.
That's for Freedom McGillicuddy.
That's, you know, that's to whom so ever will.
And even again, I got to emphasize this.
Even when we are faithless, he is still faithful.
So we went to work for Channel 40 for about two years.
And then what happened was there was, Channel 40 hit a real law and a number of us, about
30 of us had to be let go.
That's okay.
I still volunteered there.
I'm still doing a program there to this day.
And the amazing thing was we went to go to a church that my daughter was attending with
her daughter.
And the pastor came to me and said, hey, listen, I'm leaving.
How about being interim?
There's that interim again.
I said, sure, we stayed 16 years in McKeesport.
And that's where we retired from.
Yeah, we retired from.
And again, the church had some debt to it.
We sought God.
I turned to the board and said, hey, let's believe to be debt-free this year.
I didn't take any pledges.
I said, folks, would you pray and fast?
Within the year, we were debt-free.
It's just God.
It's just nothing.
If we will seek first the kingdom of God.
And the funny thing was on that one, on paying off of Rainbow Temple Assembly in McKeesport,
I was on vacation.
Elaine and I were on vacation enjoying a getaway.
While we were away, a business lady, God bless, turned her husband very, very well.
She had something happen in her home.
And she put the stipulations that she was going to give to an assembly god church.
It had to be assembly god church.
In McKeesport.
And she showed up at the church.
We were on vacation.
She wanted to know who the board was.
So after church, she wanted to just check them out.
And then she goes, oh, I'm just going to send a check.
You know, and great.
You know, and away she went.
And she did.
She sent a check and she paid off the church.
It was three times.
The stranger that had never been in our church before, that God told her it has to be in
McKeesport.
It has to be an assembly of god church.
And she paid it off.
And we had some left over to bank and we were just shocked.
And so we wanted to meet her.
We had to know who she was because we, and we did.
We got to meet her.
She was from New Mexico.
Yeah.
Her parents were from McKeesport.
They had passed away.
It was a very bad winter.
And they were elderly and they died of carbon monoxide in the house.
So she had to come up and take care of the affairs.
She grew up as assemblies and she loved the Lord.
And I don't know if this was her tie or what, but we met her.
We were just shocked by the amount that she had written.
And then we had a mortgage burning ceremony months later and we had her and her, she brought
one of her kids up with her, maybe two of her kids up from New Mexico to join the celebration
of that day.
It was really cool.
And Josh and Shelly, when I took Rainbow Temple, they can only pay me $150 a week.
So 150, that's not going to fly.
That's 2002, you know, $150 a week.
I got to make a few more dollars.
But you know what?
Elaine never complained.
I wish I would have kept a log.
How did he do it?
We never missed a car payment.
We never missed a house payment.
We lived the exact same way.
God knows how to take little and make much with it.
But God, but my God shall supply, but seek first the kingdom of God.
That's the reason why when Shelly asked us, I wanted that whole thing to be Matthew 633
because for 47 years, whether it's been shoes, whether it's been cars, home, suits,
dresses, salary, and I don't have a book to sell.
But I do have a book to promote.
Oh, amen.
And that's the Word of God.
You know, I'm sure someone's listening right now saying, do you think that can happen to
me?
I know it can because God is not a respecter of persons.
You know, we're coming to the end of our race.
Whether the end of our race is 10 years from now, 20 years from now, or maybe even 30
years from now.
We know we're coming in the last part of the race.
And that doesn't bother me.
But if I could take any other born-again believer, I would emphatically say, seek first the kingdom.
Because if you keep Him first, He'll keep you first.
I believe that.
Now, have we had heartaches?
Yes.
Have we had hardships?
Yes.
Yes, we've gone through all of that.
I remember one Christmas Eve.
I'm going to fill up my gas tank with gas.
And pop my, I mean, we're singing, we're having a wonderful time.
And my credit card's denied.
Denied?
My card's never been denied.
Never.
Never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never.
Somebody hacked into my credit card and that week they spent $15,000 on my credit card.
But you know what?
I just so happened to have another one and every bit of the money was restored.
Again, people say, do you expect me to believe that?
I really don't care if people believe it.
I know it's happened.
And I know Him as Jehovah Jireh.
And we get to know Him, Shelley and Josh.
It's not like it's in the highs that we get to know Him.
It's in the trench.
It's when you're only making $5.
It's when you're not meeting your bills and you decide to tithe.
Like you said just a moment ago, Josh, it's in the depths of despair we will see the glory
of God if we just remain obedient.
It's real easy to forget who Jesus is when everything is in abundance.
It's real easy to say that I did this, I built this when we're living on this high life.
And so it's very important that God knocks us off that stool of pride once in a while
so that we can experience that valley so we remember who really is in charge, who really
does provide.
We would hold on to a scripture that says, does two birds gather food all year long?
Or how about the plants in the field, the flowers?
Aren't they adorned greater than Solomon?
How much more does he love us than he likes a flower or a bird?
And I'm not saying he doesn't love those things.
He created them.
But he loves us more.
So why should I worry about things like that?
Why should I worry?
Like, you know, what year has been added to my life by worrying?
Nothing.
You know, and I firmly believe that worrying just makes you suffer twice.
You suffer through the worrying and then you suffer through whatever activity it is.
Why bother?
You know, you look at Paul, I count it all joy.
And it doesn't matter what circumstance it may be.
Highs, lows, riches, poor, abundance of food, famine, I'm content.
Well, you know, Josh, you just quoted Matthew chapter 6.
I just wanted you to know.
So everything you just said was, which of you by worrying can add one cube to a statue?
That's Matthew 6, 27.
So that's the reason why for anyone that's listening, I would say, go home, open up Matthew
chapter 6, devour it.
You will see the heartbeat of God to reward you.
And you'll see the heartbeat of God saying that if he cares for the birds of the air,
how much more valuable are you?
But it starts with nothing.
Absolutely.
People want to start at the top.
It starts when I first got saved and I would go preach in churches.
I never asked for money.
Matter of fact, pastors would come up and hand me a check and I said, no, I don't want it.
They look at me.
What?
I knew nothing about seat faith.
I knew nothing about sowing money.
I just couldn't believe I was going to get paid for sharing God's word.
Those years, I'd preach for nothing.
I'll still preach for nothing.
You know what I mean?
And it was really amazing because I wasn't looking for money.
It was an honor just to be used by God.
He always provided.
It is an honor to be used by God.
What a great commission that is, right?
To go and make disciples of all nations that we don't just get to be a spokesperson.
We are an ambassador.
We're the very heart and soul and speaking to somebody about God Almighty, right?
What an amazing position he puts us in and it can be quite intimidating.
So it is important that we know scripture so that we can adequately represent him.
So many people, I feel, are drifted away from God because of Christians, not because anything
God did, but because of what a Christian represented him as.
And I think that it's up to us as the body of Christ to relieve that burden from God
and to rightfully show his character to others through that loving relationship with others.
A pastor at my last church, Pastor John Kent, he had a saying, I love it.
And it's you never lock eyes with somebody who doesn't matter to God.
And I try to hold on to that one, especially if I'm agitated with someone or, you know,
I'm still human.
I know I look perfect.
I know, but I'm not.
And so when you look at that, it's really hard to look at him in any other way than
significant, right?
It's really hard to look at him any other way except meaningful, you know?
So I'm looking in your eyes, you matter to God.
You matter to God.
I'm like, oh my goodness, like this is a lot of people.
And even the ones that are spitting in your face, that are telling you these horrible
things or mocking God and calling them sky daddy, that person matters to God.
And how we represent God is what's going to be so crucial in how they're going to receive
him next.
And I just love the way that you present the word.
I love that you don't sugarcoat a lot of things, that you go out there and say it.
I love how you ask permission, but I know that you're going to do it anyway.
I love that part about you.
They say, can I say this church?
Because I know it's coming anyway, right?
Because you're actually going, no, you can't say it.
Like, I'm doing it anyway.
Right?
So I love your heart for this church.
I love your heart for his word.
I love your heart for his people.
I love your heart for your family.
A God blessed man.
You're truly a spiritual couple.
I really appreciate you.
And I do agree that a church isn't about the one guy on the top, the one human on top.
I agree with you that that is not how it should be viewed.
And that's not how it should be looked.
Because if you have a problem in your pastor falls, stumbles, whatever, your church stumbles
and falls.
It's a house built on carts.
And so you need to have a strong team.
You need to have your Luke's and Bree's and Pat's and Kayla's.
And Anthony's.
Everybody.
And just because you get the predominant spotlight in this church does not mean the light does
not shine on the others.
And I love that you actually highlight that.
I love that you put that in the light and the spotlight.
And if you're anything like me, which I sense that you are, you hate getting credit.
Like I hate it.
I hate if I do something and I'm like, I love the way you do that.
Don't tell me that.
I don't like that.
You know, there's a part of every man that wants to be the hero that wants to be this
wants to be that.
But when that happens, if you have a love for Jesus, that's not what we want.
Because anything that you do that's praising me, you're taking from him.
I don't like it at all.
And I feel you don't either.
So like when you're up there and people are like, oh, Pastor Pete, I can almost feel your
the uncomfortableness in you.
I look in the mirror and say, uh, not much.
And so I feel your heartache when that happens.
And so I just want to let you on the record now that I love that the church body here
is more impactful for the kingdom of Christ than any just one man.
And it's not just the ministry that you have here, but it's every single person that sits
in the pews, every single person that has a seat that serves or just walks in a door
that they have a place in the kingdom at this place.
And I just love that about about you and how you two present yourselves this way.
You're very vulnerable with that.
Very open.
You're caring.
You're not afraid to show it.
You know, like some of us men who say, I don't cry unless there's no one around.
Right.
Like, and I'm not saying that's the right way because, you know, Jesus wept.
Shortest verse in the Bible.
It's obviously it's okay if a man cries.
It's just the way I was raised.
It's hard.
Right.
And I love how open you are.
I love how passionate you are.
And I'm so grateful that you finally got the time to be on this podcast.
Me too.
You guys are just great.
We love you.
We'd love to do this again sometime.
Oh yeah.
I'd love to come back someday.
I mean, at your calling and talk about when we went through a depressive time.
Yes.
That's not a really enthusiastic.
I'm sorry.
But yes, because I know God's going to come out on top of this one because I'm looking
at you.
Crushing of the grape when it becomes valuable.
Thank you Josh.
Thanks Shelley.
Thank you for coming on and sharing all of that with us and, you know, letting us get
to know you better.
Thanks.
You know, one of the things that I saw on social media that I loved was we're going
to make God a star, something they'll always remember.
So just talking about his goodness and his provision is just, it's just so good because
it's there for everybody.
They just have to seek him and ask.
He does not withhold from anyone.
And you know, if I could say this, I know we're winding down.
If I can say this, it's not buying God's blessings.
You are not buying God's blessings.
It's literally taking seed.
If you eat the seed, it's gone, but if you sow the seed, you're looking for a harvest.
I know that may sound a little evangelistic, you know, but the point is, don't eat your
seed.
Sow your seed and see what the master harvester can do with that seed.
Even if you don't benefit from it, as long as his kingdom does.
Well, if this episode has been a blessing to you, we ask that you pass it on to whomever
the Lord led you to so it can be an encouragement to them.
And we also have a fundraising campaign to help pay for the expenses of this podcast,
such as the audio editing.
And if you look up gifsango.com and look up God's goodness podcast, you can put your
donations through there.
And that would be greatly appreciated.
And we hope you enjoyed it and we'll talk to you next time.