A plumber working at Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church was recently awarded $20,000 after he found 500 envelopes of cash, checks and money orders inside the wall of one of the church's bathrooms while doing maintenance on November 10.
On Tuesday, the plumber, Justin Cauley, was awarded $20,000 from Crime Stoppers of Houston for the discovery.
According to Church Leaders, Cauley first broke the news of the discovery last week during a call-in segment by the Morning Bullpen at 100.3 The Bull in Houston, Texas, in which callers shared stories about what items of value they found.
"My heart stopped," Cauley told KPRC Click2Houston News about being given the $20,000 reward. "Needless to say, I have really had no clue that would come about."
"Bills are stacking up, and work [is getting] slow," he added. "I'm just trying to make the best of it, and today a light shined through …This money is going to help tremendously."
Cauley also thanked the Osteen family for donating the money to the Crime Stoppers of Houston, which he considers a blessing. Earlier this week, however, Cauley said he was "a little upset" that the megachurch pastor hadn't directly contacted him.
"I wanted to hear [Osteen] say, 'You know, Justin, what you did was right. We understand what you did and what you could have done,'" Cauley told Local news station KPRC.
The plumber continued, "I feel like, at this point, I should have heard something. I'm just a little upset."
As Christian Headlines previously reported, the stashed envelopes are linked to the 2014 theft of $600,000 from a safe at Lakewood Church.
At the time, the Crime Stoppers of Houston offered $5,000 for any information leading to an arrest. Lakewood offered an additional $20,000 reward for information. In 2016, the megachurch donated the money to the crime stoppers since the case wasn't resolved.
A representative from Lakewood Church said that the church is grateful to Cauley for what he did and hopes "he pays the gift forward." Cauley says he plans to donate some of the money to the Houston SPCA and Crime Stoppers.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.
