My Secret to Escaping a Swamp of Debt and Living a Blessed Life
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April 16, 2006 |
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Deacon Jung-kyu Kang
(Branch Manager, Urim Insurance Company Digital, Inc.; United Mission Leader, Light and Salt Mission)
 Tormented by the grim realities of life from credit card debts
I began working at a large Korean restaurant in Seoul in 1993. With a small salary and a debt – which I had received when I moved to Seoul – to pay back, I began using credit cards. Around 1999, I began the preparation to start up a business with an associate of mine and with the intemperate use of the credit cards, and I soon realized that I was no longer able to pay back the mounting debt with the kind of salary I was receiving at the time.
I made over 10 credit cards so that I might pay back all the debt by switching from card to card, but the only thing left in the end was a ballooning debt. For the interest alone, I had to pay around $1,3000 every month, and the interest over a 3-year period alone was more than $38,000; in sum, I had run up over $100,000 in credit card debt.
Gaining spiritual faith with the healing of my nephew
  Hospitalized for leukemia
After receiving God's healing
While I was gasping for breath from the swamp of debt in March 2000, my nephew Sae-jin (at the time 7 years old) – the son of my younger sister living in Changwon, Kyungnam Province – was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia. My sister tried to save money by eating less to help pay for the hospital visits, and she herself soon began suffering malnutrition and deteriorating eyesight. Yet, as I was unable to help her financially, I could not feel sorrier or more helpless.
In May 2001 was "The 9th Two-week Special Revival Meeting with Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee." I told my sister, "Sook, Sae-jin can live if you guys come to my church. There are all kinds of things happening there, like the blind opening their eyes and the mute beginning to speak. Let's at least go and see."
After having been preached the gospel in such a convincing manner, my sister attended the Revival Meeting with Sae-jin and on the first day, when Sae-jin received prayer from Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee, he was healed of leukemia. All my sister's family members have come to believe in God through this incident and their lives are filled with bliss to this day. I have also come to gain spiritual faith and was comforted in the heart, but the torment from my financial trouble still remained.
Repenting of my disobedience as marked by my poor credit
After years of nonpayment of the debts, I was finally listed on the bad credit "blacklist" in 2003. The difficulties soon followed as no banks were to do business with me and I was harassed and threatened by bondholders. My wife and I left our two daughters with her parents and began working together. Whenever I saw my wife in anguish and was reminded of how our girls were forced apart from the embrace of their parents for over a year, my heart was rent again and again.
This is when I repented thoroughly of not having obeyed the Senior Pastor's messages on how I was to always live by God's Word and not having remembered his warnings against the evil practices of intemperate credit card use. I did my best not to show my difficulties to others and as I rejoiced in the Lord and diligently carried out my God-given duties, I only prayed for everything to be resolved according to His ways.
Vowing to pay back Our Lord's grace while receiving relief
At the request of my Restaurant Mission Parish Pastor Rev. Sang-joon Park, who was well aware of my situation, I began receiving monetary relief from the church in July 2003. I felt embarrassed and I also deeply felt the love of Our Lord and my shepherd. A year later, my financial troubles had not ended but I stopped receiving the relief by faith so that people who were in greater need could receive it. I began praying fervently so that I could receive financial blessings with which I hoped I could help the church and the Senior Pastor, give relief to those in need, and pay back Our Lord's grace.
In March 2005, at the proposal of Deacon Eui-won Kim, I began working as an insurance planner as a side job. Two months later, at the fifth anniversary of Sae-jin's healing, all of my family went to greet the Senior Pastor for a brief meeting, during which I vowed to devote myself to the insurance industry, which would allow me to faithfully keep the Lord's Day holy and carry out my God-given duty as a mission leader of the Restaurant Mission.
Marching forward by faith on the path of righteousness
June 1, 2005, was my first day at Urim Insurance Company Digital, Inc., a company that handles insurance products by Shinhan Life. As I had no previous experience in the insurance industry or in insurance planning, there were many difficulties at first. However, as I kept in my mind the words of the Senior Pastor, "Do not rely on people. Believe only in God as you walk on the path of righteousness. Do not become greedy and be patient with your work," I did not look for shortcuts to great sales performance but only strove to walk and remain on the path of righteousness. Elder Kyu-dong Lee, representative director at Urim Insurance Company, also assisted me in many ways.
In 2006, I was elected United Mission Leader at the Light and Salt Mission (Manmin Joong-ang Church's interdenominational mission that serves Christians who work on Sundays) and began faithfully carrying out my God-given duty. As I have long desired to give relief to the needy and provide financial support for mission, I relied on God's Word, "Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness" (Psalm 37:3), began each day with the Senior Pastor's "Prayer at the Beginning of a Day" recorded on a cassette tape, and worked diligently to close each of the contracts.
Then God began working in His wondrous ways. There were clients who insisted on signing insurance contracts with me even though their husbands or wives were insurance planners. After briefing the potential clients, some of them would say that they felt they could trust my company's products and even took me around the whole building and all the departments of their companies, referring even more clients to me.
 Magnifying God with an unbelievable sales record
I prepared offerings every Sunday morning and received the Senior Pastor's prayer by faith. Whenever I briefed the clients, I had with me the handkerchief on which the Senior Pastor had prayed (Acts 19:11-12) and God never failed to do His share of the work.
When I showed my faith to God in an earnest desire to give a tithe of about $1,050 (KRW 1,000,000) each month, I could accomplish that goal after receiving the Senior Pastor's prayer by January 2006, and two weeks later, I was giving God a tithe of about $2,1000 (KRW 2,000,000) a month. As of April 2006, in 10 months since I began working as an insurance planner, I am now giving God a tithe of over $2,800 (KRW 2,700,000) every month.
In March, my sales performance came in first place among 3~4,000 Shinhan Life insurance planners throughout Korea, and in terms of a single product sales, I could magnify God with an unbelievable record.
In recognition of my work, I was promoted to the position of Branch Manager of Urim Insurance Company Digital, Inc., on April 1, 2006. As all of my debts have also been resolved with the assistance of one of my acquaintances, I have been working diligently with a lighter heart and living a joyous life in Christ.
I give all thanks and glory to God and I express my deepest gratitude to Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee for his heartfelt prayer.
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