GIVING
A Winning Strategy to Build Your Business
By Ken Hulme
The 700 Club
CBN.com
– By the year 2000, Kim Kerstetter had been working for an electrical contractor for 7 years. But all was not well financially with his employer. Kim knew it was only a matter of time before he lost his job. So he decided to do something radical.
“My whole life I’ve been an electrician, and that’s what I knew,” Kim said.
Kim Kerstetter hadn’t planned on leaving his job, but things were pretty unstable where he worked. So 6 years ago, at age 53, Kim decided to start his own electrical contracting business.
After praying with his wife and a CBN prayer counselor, the couple moved forward.
Things were tight financially - very tight.
“We didn’t have 2 nickels to rub together to start the business and we owed 150,000 dollars and two 15,000 dollar credit cards to live off of and get the business going,” Kim says.
All together the Kerstetters now owed more than 180-thousand dollars — with no money coming in from the new business. That’s when they began to realize they had been doing something wrong.
“We hadn’t been tithing,” Judy says. “We would give, but we would give as we could.”
So taking some advice from one of their favorite television programs, Judy and Kim decided to become more faithful in their giving.
“We committed to tithing and then we learned about giving offerings,” Judy says.
For the first six months Kim says, “financially” they began to plant seeds — giving sacrificially to organizations like CBN.
“It’s giving when you don’t have anything to give. But you find it, and you give it,” Kim says.
Then, Kim landed his first big job — a 1.2 million-dollar contract to build an electrical plant at a coal mine. He remembers why getting that first job really was a miracle.
“We were bidding a big job at a coal mine. We bid it, but we didn’t get it. So Judy and I prayed and a week later they called back and said the other guy didn’t get it, you got it,” Kim recalls.
“Biggest job I ever had.”
Since that time 6 years ago, Kim’s “start up electrical company” is doing about 3.5 million dollars worth of work a year. And their 12 employees work in 5 states.
Today, all of Kim debts are paid — the mortgage, the credit cards, the bank loans — and the company new trucks, trailers, equipment and even the office all paid for with cash.
“Everything is paid off. We don’t owe a man anything,” Kim says.
“It’s so exciting for us to give,” Judy says. “And what is so interesting is that we see God increasing, and you just wonder what the Lord’s gonna do next.”
“I would encourage people to give to CBN, to give where God is telling them to give and how much he’s telling them to give,” Kim says. “You can’t out give God.”
God wants to bless you too, just as He has blessed the Kerstetters. One way you can give to God’s work is through CBN. Not only will you reach thousands each day with a message of truth and hope through The 700 Club, you will also help feed and clothe children around the world, bring medical aid to those suffering and so much more. Please join with us today.
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