Inspiring Stories

Every day I receive a lot of calls and people say they were blessed by the seminar. The people who always opt for financial loans now shun away from being in debts and making earnest efforts to be fair in the business practices because of the influence of the seminar.

I myself personally like to testify that it has brought a great change in my life. Earlier I used to borrow heavily, and any offer of a loan, I will be the first person to opt for. Now I do not do it any many of the principle of God in our work place had tremendous impact in my life and now I send more quality time with my wife and children.

If not for the seminar I would not have know the God's will in my life and the Lord has shown me a different ministry which i would love to do among Christian Business people around my country and elsewhere. Thank you very much for all the wonderful things you have done for us.

God Bless You.

M.J.ALBERT JAWAHAR - INDIA

WALDINEI

My name is Waldinei, my wife is Luciany and we have 3 children: Isabela, Letícia and Gabriel. We moved to Pompéia in January of 2002, up to our ears in debt that we had had for many years.

God really worked miracles in our lives. We were unemployed and when we arrived in Pompéia. I was invited to work in shipping at the National Office of the Nova Shalom Association and Luciany was invited to teach at the school. We heard about the Crown course but we thought we would only be able to take it the following year. But God knew our needs. We were invited to be in the first group.

We have lived on the basis of post dated checks, loans and investing in deals that never worked out. The verse that says “I have learned to be content in every situation, I know how to be honored and humiliated,” was never a reality in my life. I was dominated by ambition because the desire to become rich was very strong in my life. I never planned anything, did whatever I felt like doing without considering the consequences and without accepting advice.

After studying the Biblical principles presented in the CROWN small group study, my mind and heart were opened for the beginning of a transformation. For the first time in our lives, we decided to get out of debt and never charge anything. We are paying off all of our debts one by one.

We had a car that had been financed and we decided to return the car to the place we bought it. The funny thing was that no one wanted to take it back because they all thought it strange that someone would decide to take the loss of all the payments already made in order to get out of the remaining debt.

Without the car, my wife began to go to work by bicycle (borrowed) and one dark morning, on the way to work in the cold, the Lord spoke to her heart that in the midst of all her difficulties, He wanted to teach her as he had the apostle Paul who wrote, I have learned to be content in each and every situation...”

God taught us that he supplies all of our needs, but our dreams and the acquisition of superfluous things will come about if it is His will. And this demonstrates how much the Lord Jesus wants us to trust in and depend on him.

We have taught our children to depend on God, praying for the needs to be met and we are teaching them to manage their money according to God’s patterns. They are learning to give, save and spend.

The lesson that impacted my life the most was the one on Eternity. I discovered that being rich and getting everything that I wanted would get me nowhere because this life is so very short!

MARCELO from Brazil

The area that I was most dealt with during the CROWN small group study was the area of my motivation. When I came up against certain situations, I was really tested. My wife and I travel a lot, coordinating seminars and training leaders of the Ancient Paths ministry. We are often hosted in the homes of Christians. My wife, always very careful, would pack my personal hygiene items, including shampoo and conditioner.
But my heart motivation was twisted and I was caught by it: I would go into the bathroom to take a shower and suddenly I would be faced with a situation that some might think normal, but it wasn’t for me. I would look at my little bottle of shampoo, looked at our host’s shampoo... and you guessed it...I would leave my simple shampoo aside and use my host’s “imported” shampoo! Normal thing to do, right? But for me it was an area that God dealt with. I realized that when I did that, with such a small thing, I was annulling God’s role as my Provider and I remembered the word in Matthew 25:23, “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things: I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’ ”

I believe the Lord can use a big debt or even a simple bottle of shampoo to deal with our motivations. Today, because of the revelation of God through the study of his word, I am completely healed in this area of my life and in other areas where I was deficient.

My life and the lives of my wife and children have been restored day by day to the Glory of God the Father.

Praise the Lord for Crown Financial Ministries!

About seven and a half year a go I started to study about Christian Financial Concepts from a book written by Ron Blue (Master Your Money). This book came with the Study Guide produced by CBN titled 'Finances by the book'. After completing these materials this totally changed my life and the way I live.

I used those materials to teach Sunday school at my church. I was teaching the adults class and we took about 29 Sunday to teach a very solid class.

On 1997, I became a certified Counselor and Teacher by CFC. I started going to churches to teach this material. I have gone to New Jersey (were I live), New York, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland, Florida, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. During the first half of 2002, I had presented at five different locations.

During these years, many people have come to me to tell me what a transformation of life the teachings have been for them. Our Associate Pastor B. Matias, told me about 3 year ago that after 20 year of marriage they had just gone to their first vacation debt-free. Our Senior Pastor is committed to become debt-free, so both he and his wife can go full time into ministry.

Next month Dec 2002, we, the Ruiz family, will finish paying our home. We have paid our home in ten years, (this year in Sept we also celebrated the 10 year anniversary of our marriage).

The Lord Jesus Christ has continued to show His Love and Grace upon us. Thru the years we have chosen to live debt-free. We are committed to our church and over ten other ministries with our financial support.

Thanks to your Ministry we have developed “Mayordomia Financiera Cristiana,” a bilingual ministry that is under the leadership and guidance of Woodbridge Christian Center and it’s Pastoral Staff.

Thanks for your ministry; we will continue to teach others as you teach us.

All Glory be given to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith!

In His Grip,

Nelson & Magali Ruiz
Servants of Our Lord Jesus Christ!

C. Stephen David

Introducing myself, I am C Stephen David, from the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It was a JOY to hear God’s message through you in the Crown Financial Conference, which was held recently in Viceroy Hotel, Secunderabad.

When I first came to know about the conference, I was not interested to come. I was assuming this is for big-shots and for big-ministries. I thought I am a small minister of God and this does not help me. However, one brother called me up and told that he will pay the registration fee and encouraged me to come. Therefore, I with my co-worker (I am not with any organization but the Lord has blessed me with five wonderful co-workers in Christ) attended the conference.

It was really wonderful and I believe the Lord has led us to the meetings. The messages were practical, Scriptural and well-balanced. Especially, your sermon moved our hearts. It is true that the servants of God must first excel in the grace of giving and model ourselves before exhorting the believers to give. You know, Uncle (as a young man, I address you as Uncle, because, according to our custom it is disrespectful to call an elder with name), after few days, I shared with my co-workers, even your life example, and we all together bowed before God and made a commitment before the Lord and before each other that we give tithe (not maximum but minimum) out of all we receive.

I am sharing this as a note of thanks and to let know that you have been a blessing to us.

Uncle, if there are any study materials or vidoes you can send to help us learn more and to teach others, we will be glad to receive, learn and teach others. I am a young minister of God in full time ministry. If there is anything we can do for you, kindly feel comfortable to use our humble service in Christ Jesus.

May continue to bless your life and ministry abundantly in Christ Jesus. Amen.

With you in HIS service,
C. Stephen David

During the second night, I taught the entire material of “The Finances and the Bible”, it was such a wonderful time, 78 people attended from different churches, and two pastors from two different congregations. We had a five-hour training using the video, and the materials. God touched so many lives; it was a glorious time!

The two Pastors I mentioned, were touched by the challenge of sharing these principles to more than 100 people until 2008, these Pastors are: Julian Alfaro Gastunuadi (Misión Evangélica Church) and Feliciano Sanchez Lujan (Monte de los Olivos Church), both churches are located at Cartavio.

We are also considering making copies of the video to audiocassettes for the Pastors in cities where electricity is not available, but they do have a cassette player. This will help them to share these teachings with their own congregations, and it will definitely help them to go out from the mistakes we have made by not knowing these principles.

In my church we are planning the four lessons to be taught in the service on Sunday nights. We hope to obtain the “Finanzas Familiares” material to share it the same way. We are very excited about the idea of sharing this with every Pastor in our region and outside of it, wherever the Lord leads us.

As you can see, before these months pass by, we will reach our goal of 100!!!!!! It does not mean we will stop teaching, we have it in multimedia too because the Lord deserves the best. We are also thinking about having this material into slides.

Regarding us, here in Cajamarca, we have seen so many Pastors very interested in getting the educational kit. We will train them on Mondays, two classes per day, we will also have dinner, because it is scheduled from 4 to 8 pm. We will charge for the dinner, but the material will be given by FREE, as it was settled, and we will ask them to sign the Compromise or Covenant form, as same as we did.

We hope that time and resources invested for this Conference in Lima, will give great results to our nation, and this is not only a desire, because we are doing everything God guided us to do, and let us do.

God bless you richly,

Pastor Gonzalo Malpica
Kairos Ministry
Iglesia Bíblica de Cajamarca

M.J. Jayanth - India

I wanted to thank you for the Crown Seminar and for the teaching of God's word as it relates to handling of finances and stewardship. Here below is my experience:

1. My financial giving has increased 10 times after the crown conference.
   
2. I am working on a goal of being debt free and passing on of substantial portion of the savings for God's work.
   
3. I’ve gained a Christian perspective on customer relationship, dealing w/debtors and collection matters.
   
4. I’ve gained a whole new perspective on discipling my own managers and employees in their understanding of the company's values and their relationship w/customers etc. This has developed leaders who are now willing to take on more responsibilities.
   
5. After the crown conference , I have gained the full confidence that I can prove to the world that a Christian businessman can thrive and grow w/God's blessings even in third world countries and be a role model for younger people to follow.
   
6. I've gained the perspective that a Christian businessman can impact His society more thru his lifestyle than any other means. I am seeking to do the same, thanks to Crown.
   

M.J. Jayanth - India