After escaping from a swamp of death, I am now the president of a very successful business
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March 4, 2007 |
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"But He knows the way I take; [When] He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).
 ~ Deacon Kyung-tae Noh (2-1 Men's Mission; President, Seoul Central Insurance, Inc.)
The life of Deacon Kyung-tae Noh, President of Seoul Central Insurance, Inc., in his early 40s, is an epic story filled with testimonies and grace as he has overcome the hardships and adversity of life.
Trusting only in myself, my strength
I joined Manmin Joong-ang Church in 1992 as my wife Deaconess Mi-sun Jang preached the gospel to me. My faith grew as I heard the messages of authority by Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee and witnessed countless signs and wonders manifested at Manmin. I was also given a number of God-given duties, including working for the ministry of the Men's Mission and as a district leader.
I was also in the business of selling computers at the Yongsan Electronics Market (Editor's Note: the most prominent of its kind in Seoul, Korea) at the time and was solidifying my position. As my business became an "associate partner" of such large computer manufacturers as Samsung, Hyundai, and Hyosung, I had slowly begun to trust only in myself, only in my strength.
Bankruptcy and going broke
In 1997, all of Korea's was engulfed in the major financial crisis that swept through Asia but I continued to receive God's overflowing blessings and my business actually prospered.
That was a time when venture business was "the big thing" and many offered to help me with expanding my business. I thought it was God guiding me through and by getting loans, I recklessly invested over a US$ 1 million in a chain of PC rooms (Editor's Note: a place where people use the Internet and computers by paying hourly fees) and an Internet broadcasting company.
I also thought that if my company were listed on KOSDAQ (Editor's Note: one of South Korea's stock markets; similar to NASDAQ of the US in that it primarily trades stocks of medium- and small-size venture and technology-related firms), I could make a bigger profit. To attract stockholders, I'd created a company that was worth more than $US 2 million.
Yet, only expenses mounted while the turnover remained low. By December 2000, after failing to pay $700,000, I became bankrupt. I had to keep hiding from creditors. My house had already been auctioned off, and calls from creditors kept coming in. With a little daughter and a wife in her last month of pregnancy with our second child, I went from rooms in the basement to rooftops. There were times when I didn't have a dollar or two to buy my daughter snacks and when our second child was born in January 2001, we didn't even have money for milk.
Repenting from the depths of my heart
As President of Manmin's Computer Mission, I had donated a web server for the church's Internet broadcast. When the church underwent a colossal difficulty in 1999 from a distorted report by one of Korea's broadcasting companies, I went wherever my feet brought me to make the truth be known. That's when I began to receive God's blessings – purely by His grace alone – by which I could look back and examine myself.
I remembered how I'd been disobedient to the messages of the Senior Pastor, who urged to stay away from insisting on one's will, the boastful pride of life, greed for money, and excessive use of credit cards. I also remembered how I had made my wife's life difficult with all the bickering I initiated, how I had desired to be served by others as one of the head workers, and how I had been arrogant and anything but reconcilable.
"God!" I implored. "Please forgive me and all my wrongdoings. I'd really been foolish."
After renting my heart in repentance, my heart was joyful even when I was doing seemingly insignificant things like cleaning sewers and septic tanks. My heart danced in gladness as I gave God whole tithes and spent the rest of my incomes to buy milk for the baby and food for the rest of my family.
 New work place and path to blessing
After receiving the Senior Pastor's prayer, I came to possess the kind of faith by which I believed that I could start anything anew. The first job I undertook was a real estate agent and as I sowed before the Senior Pastor and received his prayer before starting this job, my sales record steadily improved and I could begin to pay off my debts little by little.
As my business settled down, I began seeking another job in hopes of becoming greater assistance to the Senior Pastor's ministry. A friend of mine told me about a branch office of Shinhan Life Insurance, Inc. that was up for sale and I got a good deal in the purchase. I took over the office and on July 1, 2005, I founded "Seoul Central Insurance, Inc."
As I had the experiencing of failing when I'd trusted my strength and abilities, I only desired to succeed by faith and magnifying God became my priority. With a few of my employees who were also Manmin members, we prepared an offering and went before Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee to receive his prayer and to seek God's will.
"Always walk on the path of righteousness," he said. "Do not be greedy and expand your business only as much as you have been given." He also prayed for "the unity of all workers so that this company could become the best." We, of course, made every effort to live by God's Word and the Senior Pastor's prayer.
Always seeking goodness and looking after the church
At first, there were many managerial mishaps on my part and administrative mistakes and malicious intent of some of my employees who did not believe in God and left my company after purposely inflicting huge losses. Yet, I never even thought about bringing them to court but placed all the blame on myself.
Immediately after starting the business, my income was not steady. Still, as I looked after the church and made every effort to contribute to mission work and relief for those in need, Father God sent along necessary workers to the company and at times blessed for deals to go through even when I had not expected.
As sales began to rise markedly, the monthly sales, which had only been about US$6,000 a month when I took over in July 2005, rose to $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, and higher.
At the end of 2006, I remembered God's Word, "Never forget the grace you have once received." I went through my office to find the account number of a person who had written off parts of my debt and wired the remaining $6,000 to his account. After receiving the money, he called and said, "Five years have passed and I've already written this off. I guess Santa Claus even came to me this year!" I was, more than anything, embarrassed to hear something like that.
Exploding sales
After this, I was continuously blessed as the monthly sales rose to $98,000 in January of this year. Today, I work with approximately 60 people and have even opened branch offices in Daejeon and Gwangju.
I had had no prior knowledge or experience in the insurance industry. Yet, as I committed everything to God without mixing fleshly thoughts and experienced His overflowing blessings, I realized more thoroughly that the true owner of my business is God and that I'm merely a manager of that business.
I give all thanks and glory to God who has tried me and blessed me to come forth as gold. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Jaerock Lee for his prayer of love and leading me to the path of life!
~ With Seoul Central Insurance employees
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Manmin News 
