Restored After Recession
As the co-founder of Grand Bay Construction, Chris Burch builds vacation homes and properties across the tourist town of Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. He says, “This is a big tourist destination, and I had I had plans to build a big construction company was my plan.”
But within two years, the housing market began to crash and Chris and his financial partners quickly felt the pressure. Chris remembers, “Prices in real estate were being dropped and dropped and dropped and dropped, the owners defaulted and couldn't pay us. So we were sort of left with a lot of obligations financially that we couldn't keep going on certain projects, because we weren't being funded like we were supposed to. I didn't panic, but it was sort of like, okay, you know, what's going on? Look we got a storm coming."
Chris is a Christian and has been a faithful tither since his mid 20s, but with his business struggling, Chris had to decide if he should stop giving. He says, “The Lord has taken care of me all these years, even things have been tight. You know, why would I not trust His Word, and why would I just borrow from Him, or steal from – steal from Him, or whatever you want to say? and so I said, ‘I'm not gonna do that.’ to show the Lord that I really do believe Him, and I really trust Him, I'm gonna actually give more than I'm giving now, even though, again, my income's going down. And it was a lot, but this was something I just felt like the Lord said, ‘Just trust me with this.’”
At the end of twelve months Chris says he was amazed at what happened to his finances. “I had paid off my graduate school loans, which was pretty amazing, and I had saved more money in that one year than I had in the previous five years combined. God's economy just doesn't work the way ours does. There's no way I can explain that. Besides Him just saying, ‘You trusted in me, and I'm gonna provide for you.’”
His construction business survived the recession in the years since Chris has seen even more incredible growth. He says, “So, from those days when we first got started, I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but I would say we're probably close to almost ten times in volume sales of what we were doing back then.”
Chris continues to tithe and also gives time and money to ministries that serve those in need, like CBN. “Well like Operation Blessing and all those type things, I really believe in those kind of things, and I'm trying to do that as well, but I love being part of a bigger organization that is doing those things, and is changing the world, and bringing light into the darkness. He's increased the business, and in return we-we take a portion of our business uh and we turn that back into the kingdom, whether it's buying Bibles or uh – we've got mission projects all over the world where we're helping spread the Gospel.
According to Chris, the key to overcoming financial strain is following God’s financial principals. “If you do what God asked you to do, He will give you His peace, and He will provide a way. Even when, like in my case, there was no way it worked on paper. And all these things that looked horrible turned out better. Everything has turned out better. And He's proven to me that He will take care of me even through those difficult times.”
