Blessings Overflow after I was Set Free from a Vicious Circle of Debts
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 13817 |
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August 05, 2012 |
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Deacon Seokhun Kim (Masan Manmin Church, South Korea)
I was born in Gyeongsangnam-do in a rural area. I lost my father at an early age and was raised by a single mother.
In May, 1994, I registered in Masan Manmin Church. Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee's testimonial book Tasting Eternal Life before Death and his life-filled sermons made my passive and introverted personality active and adventurous. But I didn't act according to the Word of God properly, just being overzealous. At that time, I used credit cards recklessly, stood as a surety, and extended my business without deliberation. Because of all these, I was faced with financial difficulties.
Debts snowballed due to a lot of credit card loans and imprudent investment in stocks
In November, 2001, I married Deaconess Sukyung Ahn who worked for Masan Manmin Kindergarten and as a pianist in the church. I had a large amount of debts and most of her salary was used to pay my debt.
To pay off my debt, I received another card loan and invested the money in stock market. Its principal was cut in half, and my debt snowballed. I can't even express how painful it was.
Finally, I was retired and paid some of debts with the severance pay. After this, I opened a health food store in February in 2008. Sales were better than expected, so my business stabilized quickly. Then, another temptation came to me. I thought to myself, "I will hit the jackpot in the stock market and pay off all my debts." I invested in the stock market with all money that I had. But there was a slump in stocks due to financial crisis that struck the U.S. To make matters worse, sales in my store dropped in half on account of economic downturn in Korea. I got stuck in a serious situation. But an incident that was my life's turning point took place.
I reestablished my faith when my business was on fire and I started to prepare a proper vessel for blessings
In November 2008, I received a call that said my store was on fire. My legs were shaking and many of thoughts came across my mind. "God! Forgive me. Forgive me for not relying on You, God, but on my will and wisdom." I gave prayer of repentance and rushed to my store.
Thankfully, it was not my store but the building next to it. There was only an 8cm gap between the two buildings, but the fire didn't get over to my store. At the moment, Dr. Jaerock Lee, who always prays for Manmin members, flashed through my mind and tears of thanksgiving flowed down my face. I repented that I hadn't taken the right path and lived following my greed although the Senior Pastor had taught us how to receive blessings.
God made me lack nothing with His overflowing blessing
At the time, the church had a Double Session Consecutive Special Daniel Prayer Meeting for six weeks. I was in a great financial hardship and I prayed with tears in the prayer meeting. I reestablished my Christian life, and then I became reassured that I could overcome everything. Afterwards, God opened the way of blessing for me.
In September, 2009, I closed my store and after receiving Dr. Lee's prayer of blessing, I entered Seoul Joong-Ang Asset Insurance Co., Masan branch. As a man who had undergone the experience of valuable afflictions, I wanted to help the poor. I wanted to extend the kingdom of God and lead many souls to the way of salvation. After the two weeks of the training session, I started to work. To my surprise, I was ranked in second place the first month. After only a year I had paid off all my debts and received a promotion.
In the meantime, I felt greed and arrogance stimulated in my heart again. At the right moment, I remembered my past life and the God-given blessings that had been given to me, and made up my mind not to forget about His grace. And with a grateful heart for His grace, from my second year in the company, I began to give two tenths of my income as my tithe and gave as many offerings as possible on a regular basis.
In November, 2011, my family met Dr. Lee in his office. I withdrew my very first installment savings in my life and gave it to him as an offering for his ministry and received his prayer of blessing. Then, in the following month, I was ranked as the best employee in the performance and received the prize money. My annual income reached 400 million won which is around 350,000 dollars. I also received a lot of awards such as Best Employee Award, Best Performance Award, and so on. Moreover, I bought my own home and we had a baby that we couldn't have before due to our severe financial hardship.
I am overwhelmed with happiness thinking of God's love and grace. I give all thanks and glory to God the Trinity who let me reap what I'd sown and let me reap greater amount of blessing than what I'd sown through the shepherd's prayer.
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Manmin News 
