About six years ago, I started shifting my focus from self-effort to God’s undeserved grace toward me. As I did this, I could feel joy and peace that I had never felt before. I refused to listen to anyone preach anything besides the undeserved, unearned love of Jesus Christ. This all happened when someone introduced me to Pastor Joseph Prince’s messages.

One of my goals in life was to be debt-free and able to own my own home and car before reaching the age of 30. However, as my focus shifted off myself, I also found myself wanting to help other people instead of putting all my resources in my own personal goals.

My wife and I started sponsoring a child in Jinja, Uganda, in East Africa. I was very skeptical about sending my money off to a foreign country, so I made the decision to take one of my yearly vacation times to travel to Uganda, and see if this child was really receiving the funds and gifts we were sending him.

I went on this trip by myself, holding on to the verse, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear…” (1 John 4:18). I met the child we were sponsoring and I saw all the things we had sent him for Christmas. I videotaped the needs of the children and paid for a small, simple house to be built for a widow who desperately needed it. I was amazed at how God had changed my heart. I was actually using money I would normally use to pay for my home loans to build a home for someone I did not know.

On the plane ride home, I was looking out of the window (as the plane took off the runway) at all the houses and how tiny everything is from the sky. At that moment, I prayed, “Lord, do not let my entire life be a rat race just to pay off one of those houses there on earth.” When I returned home, something amazing happened.

I work at a factory for a major auto manufacturer despite having no college education. At this time, the economy took a turn for the worse. My employer did not want to lay people off, so they announced that they were going to allow people who wanted to leave to be able to receive a compensation package of $100,000.

I had been praying for God to get me out of that line of work, because it was breaking my body down, and He did much more than that. I took that package and used the money to fulfill my dream of owning my own home before I was 30 years old. The funny thing is, I was not focused on this dream any longer, but was focused on helping other people. I had no idea God had my dreams in mind this whole time.

So all the money I got from my employer and all the money in our savings account went to paying off our house and car. My wife prayed with me that I would find a job before Christmas. Just a few days before Christmas, I was called for an interview and to my surprise it was for a job at my previous company. This time, they needed someone in the maintenance department, who knew how to weld, which was what I had posted on my résumé. This also meant that I was not on the assembly line, hurting my body every night. I remember reading your book and telling God that I felt like Joseph being promoted to Pharaoh’s right side.

Not long after my return from Uganda, my wife and I decided to fly the pastor whom I had stayed with back in Uganda to come and stay with us, and use the video I shot to raise money to build an orphanage. Since then, we have raised that money and more. We later raised other funds specifically to buy the pastor and his family back in Uganda a beautiful, all-brick home! There is now a multi-purpose building serving as a Christian school, a church on Sundays, and an orphanage to a few who have nowhere to sleep at night in Uganda. God keeps blessing me as my focus is no longer on myself but on Him. I am living proof that God can do in an instant what would take a lifetime to accomplish using my own efforts.

At work, I ran into a former supervisor of mine who had been promoted to a senior plant manager. This man is a Christian and I always had favor with him when I worked for him years before. He secured me an interview for a job as a key trainer for the tool and die department even though I have no prior experience or college education—and I got the job.

I remember when Japanese engineers asked our group how much experience we had, all my coworkers responded that they had 20 or more years of experience. When they came to me, I said with a big smile, “Three years.” They all laughed and the lead engineer said, “Jesse-san, you are very fortunate to have this position, we will teach you everything you need to know.”

That was three years ago and now I am the lead trainer of our entire tool and die department, and my wife is a stay-home mom to our first-born son. A college degree is great, but the favor of the Lord is better!

You have only heard the tip of the iceberg on what God has done in my life since I have started focusing on His grace, His love, and His effort toward me. We buy all your books and wear out your website watching your sermons! I find myself just eating my lunch and dinner while watching your sermons. I later realized that God was showing me that grace is my food and I relate even my physical nourishment to receiving His love for me! Glory to God, brother Joseph Prince, may Jesus Christ receive all the glory! Keep on keeping on brother, and never stop preaching the grace of God.