Now, let me tell you about the grace that God has given me.
While I was serving as one of the associate pastors of a large church in Los Angeles, my sons and daughters graduated from college and came back home. We used to live in an apartment with two, but now we live with four. We need three rooms, but it’s hard to find an apartment with three rooms. And even if we could, we couldn’t afford the cost of three with our finances. However, while we were looking for such an apartment, my daughter suggested that we buy a house instead. It was during the sub-mortgage crisis in 2008-2013 when the government was rushing to provide homes for low-income families and was pouring money into the market. The world was going crazy. The newspapers were saying that you could buy a house with zero interest rates and no down payment. So I decided to buy a house even though I had no money. Now that I think about it, it was a thought given by God. He gave me courage and wisdom.
I went to a loan officer and asked him to lend me money to buy a house. So he asked me to bring my annual salary and proof of income. If I put that out, I wouldn’t be able to buy a house. So this time, I went to a Korean loan officer and asked him to lend me money. I told him not to ask me how much I make a year, but to figure out how to get a mortgage from the bank so I could borrow money. That was the time. Then I was able to borrow money. So I prayed to God, ‘God, please show me a house that has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, and is within 10 minutes of LA church, but is in the outskirts of LA, and I can buy it for less than $300,000.’ However, the first house in the first neighborhood that the agent showed me didn’t suit my taste, such as the transportation and the appearance of the house.
I liked the second house I saw, and it met the conditions I had prayed to God for, so I decided to buy it. That’s when I realized that buying a house costs ten thousand dollars. It was the commission to the seller and buyer agents, and the loan officer. Without that money, I could borrow ten thousand dollars from my sister-in-law. I have to put down 20% of the house price, but instead of putting down the money, I took out a second mortgage with a higher interest rate than the first mortgage and used that to get mortgage insurance. I got insurance against the risk of not putting down 20%. I was able to buy a house without a single penny.
I believe God created the sub-mortgage crisis to give me a house. At that time, many people who bought houses bought houses but could not make the payments, and millions of families in America were evicted from their homes and lived outside in tents. It was the time of the tent camps. If there had not been a sub-mortgage crisis at that time, I would never have been able to dream of buying a house with my income. The house was in Gardena, CA. Three bedrooms, 1600 square feet, two bathrooms and one bathroom without a shower.
I gave up everything when I surrendered to God to become a pastor after running away for ten years because I thought I could not be a pastor. Since I became a pastor, I decided to give up living at home for the rest of my life. However, God allowed me to live at home because I was a pastor. When I was serving in El Paso, my first home was a house, but a missionary group rented a house from my church and asked me to vacate the house quickly because they were going to sell it. At that time, my wife and I were busy with visiting, evangelizing, district group worship, and teaching the Bible to help people receive the Lord all week long. I asked a deacon of a neighboring church, who was a realtor to look for a house. The conditions were that it was close to the church, close to the school.
However, the next day, the deacon contacted me and said that there was a house that was not on the market yet. He said that he was a military family and that he had to be transferred overseas quickly, so he had to sell the house and leave quickly. Our family had only been in the area for a short time, so we had to have good credit to buy a house, and the church didn’t have much money, so we couldn’t buy a house. But the landlords wanted to sell the mortgage they were paying on the condition that we (the church) would pay the mortgage instead of them. And the church had $3,000 in construction funds, so I could buy the house in my name on the condition that we pay $3,000 to the landlord. They said that since the church members were military families who had to leave. The church had to buy the house in my name. It was 60 meters from the house to the church, and the children’s school was right in front of the church.
My wife’s American nursing license
When I was serving in Los Angeles, I was able to buy the house in Gardena because I received $2,000 from the church, and a person in the medical field asked my wife to come and help her with her business, so she went there to help her. she had some income, so I was able to pay the mortgage. However, my wife was fired from her job in the second year. The future was bleak. However, we did not despair. We were confident that God would not throw us out on the streets since He had given us a house for free. I decided to make a decision, believing that when God closes one door, He will open another.
At this time, my wife decided to get her American nursing license. The study period was 6 months. This is because unemployment benefits are 75% of my wife’s income from work. After 6 months, unemployment benefits are cut off. She had to study and get her RN license within that time. She had to study five or six thick English books. My wife had left the medical field 30 years ago, and she was over 50 years old when she started studying. However, she decided to study because that was the only way.
However, my wife’s health condition was too difficult for her to study at that time. It was as if the LA Nurses Association had a class for the American Nurses License Exam, so she studied the nursing exam genealogy. She prayed to God. ‘God, please let only what I studied appear on the exam. God, please let only what I know appear on the exam”. 6 months passed. She went to the exam site to take the exam, , and the test was administered through a computer screen for the first time. At first, 75 questions were given, and after 75 questions, the computer shut off. This is because, after 75 questions, it said, “You’re a weakling. Don’t take the test anymore,” and the computer shut off. The second time, after 75 questions, it said, “You passed without asking any more questions,” and the computer shut off. My wife said she thought she would get about a 90% score. Of course, she passed.
So my wife got her nursing license and got a job in a month. We kept the house. We lived in the house for 13 years and used the house as collateral to get my son married. We bought the house for $265,000, lived in it for 13 years and ended up selling it for $300,000. We paid off the remaining mortgage and added some money to buy our current home, so we were able to buy a manufactured home for $190,000 cash. It’s a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1600 sq ft home. It’s in Carson City, 2 miles from Gardena. It’s a very convenient location. Highways 110, 405, and 91 run right in front of our house.
The story of buying a house in Carlson City
The house in Carlson City is the house we bought as our retirement home. Until 1975, it was called a mobile home. It was a house that was built in a factory and erected on one spot, and it was a bit shabby. When we were buying a house, a 700-square-foot house cost about $70,000. However, after 1975, it was called a manufactured home, and the materials used in the house were as good as those used in regular houses, so the price of the house was a bit more expensive and the area was bigger. Our house was built in 2002, and it is a 1,600-square-foot house with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The ceiling is high and there is a sunroof, so the house is very bright. We fell in love with the house at first sight and bought it for $190,000 and renovated it for $10,000.
Before we bought it, it was vacant for a year. The old parents lived there for a long time and died, and the children were overseas, but for some reason it was left empty for a year, and we ended up buying it. God kept it for us to live in. The day we sold our previous house in Gardena and moved to our new house in Carson is on Saturday. The moving truck has to park on the street in front of our house to load our belongings, but since it is Saturday, people are not moving, so the truck cannot park in front of our house by the curb. I have been praying to God for several days. I prayed that the moving truck can park on the street in front of our house on the day we move.
The neighborhood of Gardena is made up of houses on back streets. I have lived there for 13 years, but the Gardena City Hall has never asked us to clear the street because they are cleaning the streets. However, on Thursday afternoon at around 4 PM, when I was returning home after doing some work, there were posters on the utility poles on the street. It said that all cars on the street had to be cleared from 10 AM to 6 PM on Friday. If there were cars on the street during that time, they would be towed, and those cars were to be called at this number. There was no reason for the cars on the street to be cleared. The neighbors thought they were cleaning the streets. However, I immediately realized that this was God working to help us move, so I took action. I waited and at about 5:30, I had my car and my neighbor’s car parked in front of my house. And I was able to finish the move safely on Saturday morning. There was no street cleaning that day, and no one knew who had given the order.
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