Mary
Hunt’s hard road to sound stewardship
By John W. Kennedy
Many Christians faced with the devastating burden that gripped
Mary Hunt in 1982 would have plunged into the throes of depression.
But Hunt admitted her errors, and God used her desperation to build
a ministry.
In 1982, Hunt, of Garden Grove, Calif., had racked up $100,000
in unsecured debt — mostly on credit cards — not to mention
all the interest and fees added to the actual charges. It took her
13 years, but in 1995 she paid the last debt. And along the way
she came to grips with her compulsive overspending and learned to
depend on God to meet needs rather than looking to credit as a solution.
Upon marrying Harold Hunt after college in 1970, Mary assumed she
would never have to worry about money again. After all, she rationalized,
a husband is supposed to handle the finances and make sure his wife
has enough money to buy nice things.
 |
| "Unless you give
God the firstfruits, you won’t get His blessing. When we
give to God we expose our lives, particularly our finances,
to His supernatural intervention." |
The overspending began when Hunt received her first credit card.
She discovered the deceptive lure of possessing plastic and felt
a rush of power every time she signed her name to a charge slip.
Soon she became as obsessed with credit card acquisitions as a boy
is with collecting baseball cards. She told herself she merely wanted
them at hand for "emergencies." She seemed to have a plethora of
emergencies the next dozen years, ultimately charging near the limit
on three dozen credit cards.
"They worked like a charm to relieve pain and worry," Hunt writes
in Debt-Proof Living: The Complete Guide To Living Financially
Free, a book that contains much of her testimony. "They offered
asylum from the penalties of past-due property taxes and provided
wonderful Christmas holidays for our two boys and extended families.
Even the dentist and preschool accepted plastic. Credit cards worked
perfectly in bridging the gap between what I’d determined was
our woefully inadequate income and the cost of maintaining the minimum
acceptable lifestyle."
Just when she thought it could not get any better, credit card
companies began offering cash advances, and Hunt began to hide purchases
from her husband. Several times the Hunts refinanced their home,
and each time Mary promised Harold they would pay off their debts
and stop using credit as soon as they got things "straightened out."
They figured they had plenty of time and earning capacity to pay
off their debt. Harold worked as a banker and Mary had part-time
childcare and secretarial jobs.
But after the Hunts had been married for 12 years, the minimum
monthly payments on all their obligations nearly equaled their take-home
pay. Their credit card limits had maxed out, and they chased new
forms of credit to stay afloat. Mary convinced Harold to leave his
job as a bank branch manager to become self-employed in a multilevel
marketing scheme.
Harold, who had been a banker for 16 years, had been impressed
by a couple of clients who drove new sports cars and made hefty
daily deposits. The Hunts let their bills slide to pay the start-up
costs of the new cash-intensive business. The clients disappeared,
and the Hunts realized they had been bamboozled by a pyramid scheme
that collapsed.
Within four months of pursuing the self-employment dream, the Hunts
had no jobs, no income and no unemployment benefits. When they were
on the brink of losing their home, God got Mary Hunt’s attention.
Hunt had attended church regularly as a preacher’s daughter
and made a commitment to the Lord as a child. She graduated from
a Christian college, married a committed believer and had been active
in church. But she had never allowed God to take complete control
of her life.
In 1982, Hunt confessed her manipulation, deceit and lies as sin
and asked God for forgiveness. "I was absolutely terrified that
I would lose the only things that meant anything to me: my husband,
my kids, my home," she recalls. While the debts did not mysteriously
disappear, Hunt sensed God’s forgiveness and His plan for her
future.
Hunt has learned not to presume arrogantly about the future. She
questions how people can ask God to bless those who have tens of
thousands of dollars of unsecured debt and no resolve to repay it.
"I’m most repentant about not trusting God to take care of
me," Hunt says. "I never put my needs before the Lord as long as
I had a credit line available."
"I remember the fancy cars, the clothes, the jewelry," says Paul
Sandberg, a friend since 1981. "Mary had to come to grips with the
reality of what she was doing."
Pastor Mark Copeland counseled Hunt in her darkest hour and admired
her efforts to pay off all her creditors. "Mary experienced being
overwhelmed," Copeland recalls. "But she had the strength of character
to do what was right and a willingness to maintain integrity regardless
of the cost."
Hunt learned that God — not paychecks, pensions or bonuses
— is the source of income. "We gave our way out of debt, and
it started when we were both unemployed," she says. "Unless you
give God the firstfruits, you won’t get His blessing. When
we give to God we expose our lives, particularly our finances, to
His supernatural intervention."
God provided a job for her in real estate, which paid both a regular
salary and commissions. The Hunts cut expenses and lived without
incurring new debt, and they went on to cofound a profitable industrial
brokerage and property management firm, Hunt Industrial Properties.
But God had plans for Hunt not only to get back on her feet but
also to help others.
Hunt began writing a newsletter in 1992 to offer financial advice
and as a way to raise money to pay off her debts. Most of her friends
and family had no idea of her financial problems until she shared
the story in the first issue.
The most important lesson in becoming financially responsible,
Hunt believes, is to become generous. She began tithing while still
in debt. "When we are the neediest is when we need to be giving
the most," Hunt says. She advises Christians to tithe with the first
check each pay period.
Hunt has written a series of how-to books to spread her frugal
good news. Her books contain lessons she has learned such as buying
only with cash. She shares tips on how to save money: Make water
the drink of choice at meals, run the dishwasher only when it is
really full, combine errands at the same time to cut down on driving
trips.
Christians who have escaped the charge habit must be vigilant not
to return, Hunt says. Her new highs are giving and saving, which
do not have the letdown afterward that charging does.
"Money can be as powerful a mood-changer as the most potent tranquilizer
— and as habit-forming," Hunt says.
Citing the resourceful wife depicted in Proverbs 31, Hunt has learned
that every woman, regardless of marital status or age, needs to
know how to manage money. "God requires all people to be good stewards,"
she says. Typically in a marriage one spouse is more gifted with
numbers and should actually write the checks, but that does not
mean that person should make all the monetary decisions, she says.
Making major financial decisions and reviewing the monthly bills
should be a joint effort.
God strengthened the Hunts’ marriage despite the financial
disharmony, the key factor in 90 percent of divorces. "We’ve
become much more open with each other about finances," says Harold.
Mary warns that zealous Christians are not immune to financial
pitfalls. She has seen many who want to make great contributions
to further the kingdom of God drawn into business schemes. Their
good intentions are quickly replaced with avarice to make more money
to improve their standard of living.
With the availability of credit at an all-time high in the United
States and credit card companies successfully targeting high schoolers,
Hunt cautions young people that bad decisions have a lasting impact.
But Hunt knows even those in dire straits can turn it around, with
God’s help. "As we’ve obeyed God’s financial principles
of giving, saving and not spending more than we have," she says,
"He has blessed us in ways you could never imagine."
John W. Kennedy is associate editor of the
Pentecostal Evangel.
