1) The author was a salesman who realized he had used $5,000 worth of client installment payments without making the scheduled payments on their accounts. 2) Unable to raise the funds and fearing the consequences, the author prayed fervently to God for help paying off the $5,000 debt by the end of December. 3) A few days later, the author was recruited by another company and given a $5,600 salary advance in the form of a check, the exact amount needed to pay off the debt.

1. P 5,000 – THE FIRST CONTACT
I was a College Assurance Plan salesman in 1986, at the age of 26. On my third year with CAP, I
came across a Naval Station in Cebu City and made 5 sales, all on monthly installment basis. All of my
clients here are commissioned officers ranking from lieutenant to colonel. After this group , sales of
new CAP accounts had been rampant the following months. Since we do the monthly collections from
among our clients, I seldom run out of money for my daily sales activities. Anyway, 50% of collection
was still commissionable. It was only after one of the naval lieutenants, followed by another, made
complaints at the office that no payments were made on their accounts for the past two months, that I
realized that I have totally used up all collections intended for their accounts. Summing it all up, I
discovered I had used up a total of P 5,000 worth of installment payments. Checking their plan status, I
realized that I have to make immediate payments before their plans will lapse after one month. I was
stricken by fear of this realization. I know I cannot raise this amount even if I can close 6 new CAP
monthly accounts. Maybe 2 annual modes can generate this, but it would take a miracle to make this
happen. I didn’t know whom to turn to. Even my parents cannot raise this amount immediately.
Then I remembered HIM. I recalled that He said “To all of you who are heavily laden, come to
me and I will give you rest”. But then, I have prayed before but nothing happened. Then I remembered
Jesus saying: “Come to me as a child…”. So, with the fear of what might become of me when my
shortages will be discovered, I began to pray the Lord’s prayer, earnestly asking HIM to deliver me from
this P 5,000 debt by the end of December. With tears flowing down my face, I called to HIM like a child
asking his father for some money to pay his loses.
The next day, I made a resolve to earn P 5,000 until the end to December by relentlessly making
daily sales calls. I reviewed all past prospects and referrals and paid them a visit. On the third day, a
sales associate arrived from Manila informing me that all of us in the Branch are all “invited” by another
preneed company to join them in launching their new education plan. I told him I was not interested,
and I was busy trying to earn enough money to pay for my deficits. The next day, to my surprise, he
gave me a boat ticket to Manila and explained that we have to go in as much as all Unit Managers in the
Branch are “invited” to join. There were 6 of us Unit Managers in the Branch – three in Manila, two in
Cebu and one in Mindanao who are contributing regular monthly sales to the Branch Office based in
Manila. This “invitation” was actually a strategy of “pirating” consistently productive sales agents from
other companies. The deal was for the whole group. So I said “Okay, I will go but no more than one
week because I have to catch up with my obligations.”
So, off to Manila we went. In the board room of Prudentialife Company, together with the other
Unit Managers, we signed a contract as Area Managers while our Branch Manager signed a document
setting up a new Agency. All of us were given an advance salary in the form of a check. The amount of
my check was P 5,600. As we went out of the building I remembered HIM.