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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: The Short End of the Stick (02/20/14)
I lost a lot of money in the stock market through an incompetent financial planner. I was desperate to recover my losses. A pastor recommended I talk to Stan. He knew Stan was a Christian and had worked in the financial industry. I felt confident that I was in good hands.

He told me about a limited partnership called an RLLP with a company called Merchant. There are so many people that have credit card bills, and don't know how to get out of debt. The company buys debt at a reduced price and make a killing on it. All I needed was twenty-five thousand dollars.

During a conference call with Stan, he introduced me to Wayne, a representative from Merchant, about how this investment would work. From our conversation, I was under the impression that he worked for other firms. I assumed he had a lot of experience in the industry. It sounded like he was going to make the decisions on what debt to buy.

After I signed on the dotted line, all of a sudden Stan didn't know anything about RLLP's. I also found out that Wayne was only a salesman; he wouldn't be making debt buying decisions. Besides Wayne, Stan told me that he knew Steve who was the president of the company. That made me feel that it was safe to invest half of my life savings

I talked to a gentleman from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC was investigating Merchant, and the gentleman told me that they knew from the start that the RLLP was going to lose money. When I heard that I started to feel numb; I felt like the air went out of my tires. I tried to pray, I couldn't get the words out of my mouth.

I don't know if Wayne was a Christian, but Stan told me that Steve was a believer. Stan lied to me; he admitted to me that he didn't know Steve, but that he only knew someone who knew Steve. That made me very frustrated; I thought I could trust Stan. He took a bad situation and made it worse.

There was evidence to suggest from the SEC that Steve knew the RLLP was going to fail.

I don't know if he ever made money from it, but I hope a Christian would want to protect people from a financial loss. That makes me mad that he would want to continue the charade.

Why would Christians do this to someone? I was punched twice, first by a bad financial planner then by these two men.

But if you don’t forgive others, your Father in heaven will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:15 NCV

When I went into this I checked it out; I didn't take my decision lightly. It stinks when you're lied to by people who call themselves Christians. It's been hard for me to forgive them. The only thing I can do is ask the Lord to help me forgive. I can't do it within my own strength. I also need to trust the Lord and hope that he will provide for me and make my situation right in the end.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
C D Swanson 
02/28/14
A powerful lesson to be learned here...(if this was a true story, so sorry for your experience.

Sometimes we need to "hurt" in order to grow, and your entry has all of the earmarks of "growing" from this harsh scenario.

The scripture you've supplied is one in order to meditate upon, and one so true.

Good writing.

God bless
Toni Hammer
02/28/14
If this is a true story, I'm so sorry for what you've gone through. I pray with confidence that the Lord will redeem the situation for you. If it is fiction, I'd say you wrote a compelling tale with an interesting take on the topic.

Just one small note. You're missing a period at the end of your 4th paragraph.

Thank you for the verse reference near the end. So often it's easy to forget that we'll be judged based on matters like these.
Hannah R
03/01/14
What they said. I was thinking the same thing, about the true story part and the period part, lo! :) I'm sorry if that was what you went through, hope it isn't true.
Sheldon Bass 
03/03/14
This is a compelling story with a great message. You did a good job here.

Please indicate fiction or non fiction when there may be a doubt.

If you would, read over your piece and see how many sentences you started with "I". To make this piece even better than it already is, you could reword some of those sentences, and begin them in varying ways.

Keep writing and entering, you definitely have what it takes.