Everything was in his favor. He had an impressive education focused on Commercial Engineering and Aeronautical Electronics and seven years of experience at a major telecom company where he earned a dazzling title and salary.
His wife Verónica was on board with his plans, too. Her husband’s talents and business acumen had allowed her time to focus on being a mother to their two sons.
For Christian’s first venture, he started with what he knew. He launched a business importing cell phone hardware and parts using his contacts and background in the market. But sales didn’t go as projected. He underestimated the competition. Competitors slashed prices he couldn’t match as a new business.
Christian had dug himself into a hole. But he was sure he could build a ladder out. Desperate and bruised by debt, he forged ahead. As luck would have it, he came across the opportunity to purchase a footwear franchise.
He doubled down on his latest venture sinking money they didn’t have into the store. But the investment in curb appeal and stylish interior didn’t result in dollars. Only more crippling debt.
Hope vanished. The hound of creditors was all that remained. Christian was broke and broken.
Face-to-face with his failure, Christian accepted a friend’s invitation to visit the Cumbayá Church in Quito. Soon he met Pablo, one of the church’s pastors and a leader of Cumbaya’s “Financial Freedom” ministry. Christian felt anything but free.
The church and the financial ministry became a lifeline. For the first time in his life, Christian stopped trusting his ability to figure a way out and looked to Jesus instead. Humbled, he began to approach his finances in a whole new way. His new church family helped him appropriate the Scripture’s wisdom on managing his money.
Christian stopped running from creditors and began taking responsibility for his debts. The more he began to trust and obey the Lord’s wisdom, the more the Lord blessed their footwear franchise.
.
Today the business is doing great. Christian is a pioneer in Ecuador as one of the first to sell his footwear online.
The story he set out to write the day he quit and stepped out onto the busy sidewalk had a different hero than he imagined.
Jesus and His Church had come down into the pit of Christian’s financial mess, met him, and set a broke, broken, self-reliant man free.
