AMAZING STORY
Life After an International Financial Scandal
By Shannon Woodland
The 700 Club
CBN.com- “It was ego. It was pride. It was power.”
International banking was George Del Canto’s world - and he thrived in it. “It was success. It was trophy. It was status.”
As far back as he can remember George was obsessed with money. “Money was my god,” said George. “I think that was inside me from the get go, early on. I thought that money was really something that people were going to look at you differently if you had it.”
Right out of college, George was well on his way to make a name for himself. Even after marriage he travelled extensively relentless in his pursuit of making money. He had no idea the price he was paying. But his wife and three children did.
“’Here I am traveling, working really hard to make money so I can give you nice things,’” George explained to his family. “And I thought that that should just be a normal understanding that they could – they could see that. Unbeknownst to me, to them it was like, ‘no dad does not want to be with us.’”
While George continued to work at a frenzied pace, his wife, Marichu, gave her life to Jesus Christ. George agreed to go to church with her. What he heard started to sink in. “It was the first time in my life that I really started listening to scripture. And it was the first time in my life that I was feeling a pressure on me, and realizing that my life and what I believed in was maybe not right at all.”
But he still couldn’t let go of what was most important to him. George admitted, “The money was still good. The money was still good.”
Then in 2000, while working in London, England, George and his partners found a potential buyer for a business concept they developed. It would be a multi-million dollar deal that would put George right where he wanted to be. “In my mind I was going to become a king of the world.”
The deal went through. George was now employed by one of the largest corporations in the world. “Together with my three partners we thought we’d hit a home run. We had,” said George.
But their fortunes were short lived. The company was Enron. Just a year after the deal, scandal broke out that brought down the billion-dollar empire. George became a casualty, and feared the fallout would ruin his career.
“I was road kill. I hit the bottom. I thought it was over. That anyone remotely associated with Enron would not be allowed to go back into the financial markets because of the financial scandal. I didn’t know how far that was going to go.”
George tried to make sense of his life. “’What am I going to do, for myself, for my family for my future?’ And everything turned out zero.”
He had to face the truth about who he had become. “That's when I started realizing that I hated myself. It was all about me. It was all about me,” said George. “I wasn't really thinking about my family, what was good for them. I wasn't thinking about others, how I was improving their lives, how anything that I was doing was for the benefit of anyone else outside of George Del Canto.”
Then George remembered those moments in church, and realized his only hope was to turn to God. “And I knelt down in my study just out of despair,” said George. “And I said, ‘Jesus, I'm worthless. I’m nothing. I'm nobody. I don't deserve anything at all, but help me. Help me. I accept You. I'm going to follow You. Help me and I'll be Yours.’ That was a turning point. That was a turning point.”
“It was like a bubble of calm enveloped me and my family,” said George. “And I just started reading my Bible every day there at the office, just whiling the time away and I was not making any plans. I said, ‘I've given my life to Christ, and I'm going to see that my life is His. He's going to determine what’s done.’”
George says as he put God first in his life, he got back on his feet and started his own business. He also cherished every moment he had with his family. Then seven years later his wife Marichu died from cancer. George has since remarried and he makes a priority to spend time with his wife Maricarmen and their family.
“How pitiful my own vision was for my life versus the vision that God had planned for me,” said George. “My message is, ‘dare to dream God's dream for your life, not your own.’ God's dream is supernatural. It's beyond anything you can imagine.”
CBN IS HERE FOR YOU!
Are you seeking answers in life? Are you hurting?
Are you facing a difficult situation?
A caring friend will be there to pray with you in your time of need.
