Manoj Raithatha had it all. A booming property business, a picture-book family and the power to shape his destiny. His was a life to envy. Then his professional and personal worlds were shattered. The 2008 financial crisis devastated his business and a sudden illness threatened his son’s life. With his hollow foundations exposed, Manoj Raithatha found himself utterly dependent on the prayers of others and the help of a previously unknown God.
Manoj Raithatha Fills In More Of The Background To His New Book Filthy Rich.
How Did You Get Filthy Rich?
Though many would have described me as ‘filthy rich’, I can’t say I ever thought of myself that way. My trade was buying off-plan property at a discount and selling it on for a profit. With the rising house prices of the early 2000s, I had quickly moved from buying small numbers to buying whole blocks of apartments. I had made money but I wanted it all; the fancy cars, house staff and a humungous family home. And so in my opinion, I still had a long way to go.
When Did It Start To Go Wrong?
Despite a major feature article in the Daily Telegraph in 2005 I had brushed aside any fear of a recession. I felt invincible. Land was in short supply. The demand for property was rising. The future was bright. The future was Manoj!
But in 2008 I was forced to accept how wrong I had been as the credit crunch brought my property company crashing down. I had bought some 900 off–plan apartments and sold them on to investors. With limited mortgage finance for my investors to access I found myself in the firing line of a queue of ruthless creditors demanding their money. My business never went bust but we were stripped of most of our cash. The impact on my family was brutal.
Tell Us How You Came To Know God
As the credit crunch of 2008 set in, my two year old son became severely ill. He had been hospitalised on many occasions with breathing difficulties. But this time the nebuliser failed to work and he was rushed into resuscitation where he stopped breathing and had to be incubated to keep him alive.
Transferred to St Thomas’, the ensuing days were the hardest days of my life. But my wife and I were strengthened by the continuous prayers of a Christian couple and on the fourth day my son suddenly sat bolt upright in bed. We had witnessed a miracle. A few weeks later I went to church to thank the couple for their prayers only to find myself giving my life to Jesus a few weeks later.
How Has Your Life Changed?
In that single moment of committing my life to Jesus everything changed. My relentless focus on money was quickly replaced with a desire to share the message of God’s love with others. Though I am still involved in property, this is on a much smaller scale with the majority of my week spent serving in the South Asian Forum team at the Evangelical Alliance and Instant Apostle Christian publishing house.
I still can’t get over the fact that God not only saved a wretched sinner like me, but gives me the privilege to serve Him in two very distinct ministries.
What Message Would You Like People To Take From This Book?
Having been in that place of having had considerable wealth, I wanted to write a book that reveals that it is not all it is cracked up to be. Life’s true meaning is found not in worldly desires but in Christ alone: a crucial message to a world chasing money, success and fame.
I have also deliberately allocated time to unpack some of the questions I grappled with about the Christian faith, such as ‘Why do Christians say Jesus is the only way to God? Is Jesus God? Isn’t Christianity a Western religion?’
In that sense my hope is that Filthy Rich will be read by Christians who prayerfully pass it on to those from other faith backgrounds, as well as those of no faith, in the hope that their questions too will be answered!
Manoj Raithatha is one of the team that delivers our Discovering Jesus through Asian Eyes training. Manoj Raithatha’s book Filthy Rich is published by Lion Hudson and can be purchased on InterServe.
Part 1 Source: South Asian Concern
Part 2: FROM FILTHY RICH TO HEAVENLY WEALTH
Author: Amanda Pilz | Premier Christianity
It was while at school in Kenya that I first heard the Christian message and was blown away by it. I was 11 years old.
I was a Hindu but became hugely passionate about the Christian gospel. I was moved by the cross; that the creator would die for the created.
But when I moved on to secondary school other things began to preoccupy me, such as money and business. I studied accounts and commerce at O-level and was excited by tales of how much money my grandfather had made.
DITCHING GOD
As a result I left Christianity behind. We moved back to the UK, where I went to a Catholic boarding school. I had to go to mass but I was more interested in friendships and earning money on the side.
After graduating from university I couldn’t get a job and ended up being a tea boy in a furniture store. I learnt the importance of coffee for getting sales and my manager quickly noticed I was passing customers on to the salespeople. They offered me a sales job, and in a few weeks I was one of the top salespeople in the company.
I made a lot of money in commissions, and used this to invest in property. I bought my first house and sold it a few years later for double the amount.
SUCCESS AND MORE SUCCESS
I’d begun teaching drama and wrote a play with my future wife, which won a Fringe First award in Edinburgh. That opened more doors, including being commissioned to write a TV series that won a Bafta and was nominated for an international Emmy.
But there was one thing missing – money. So I decided to go into business, and this time I really went for it. I started buying flats and renting them out. Then I got involved in the bulk buying and selling of off-plan property. It gave me a real buzz. Soon I was doing multi-million pound deals. It was always a big adrenalin rush and a gamble, but I believed I could do it. I worked day and night, selling the dream that people could be like me if they parted with their cash. There wasn’t one deal that I would turn away. I didn’t just want to be rich, I wanted to be filthy rich.
Over time, money became my god. It was like a drug. At its height the company had an annual turnover of £70m. I thought I was invincible. Money had gone to my head because it had come so quickly. I was eating out at expensive restaurants, throwing big social events and spending thousands on entertaining clients. I became a bad husband and was unfaithful to my wife.
I wasn’t happy. I always thought the next year would bring happiness; that somewhere, I would find contentment.
CRUNCH AND COLLAPSE
Then the credit crunch hit. My entire world collapsed overnight. It was like the mortgage market had been turned off, so how could I complete on these transactions? The developers began to strip us of our cash and things became extremely nasty.
At the same time my 2-year-old son became seriously ill. He was rushed to hospital, and within minutes of arriving, the hospital room was teeming with doctors and nurses; it was mayhem. My wife and I were ushered out, unsure of what was going on.
I DIDN’T JUST WANT TO BE RICH, I WANTED TO BE FILTHY RICH
Then, my wife and I prayed. We had never talked about God and the last time I had prayed was at school in Kenya. But as we did so, the sense of God’s presence I had experienced as a child began to return.
Over the next four days, I wept uncontrollably and would have given away everything just to see my son survive. What did accumulating all this wealth matter now that my son’s life was hanging by a thread?
A MIRACLE CHANGES EVERYTHING
A Christian couple we had recently befriended found out that my son was unwell. They kept calling, saying they were praying for us. I couldn’t fathom why they would do this. It blew me away. On the fourth day the consultant said: ‘Your son is not going to open his eyes.’ Then, when she was doing the ward rounds, he suddenly sat bolt upright in bed. It was a miracle.
As a result my wife and I decided to go to church, and as soon as I walked in I felt the presence of God again. I was hooked. I went back again over the next few weeks and finally gave my life to Christ. I had a massive conversion experience. I walked into church as one man, and walked out as another.
What struck me and caused me to weep for months was sensing God say: ‘I rescued your son but I did not rescue my own son. He went to the cross so you might have life.’ I was utterly broken by this and set on fire for God. My wife was amazed by the change in me.
My passion for money disappeared overnight. I prayed one afternoon, sensing God was calling me to work with South Asians. On the same day I was invited to join the South Asian Forum, a wing of the Evangelical Alliance that unites churches for mission to South Asians.
Now my passion is for how we share the Christian faith. I also run a small Christian publishing house, which releases books quickly, looking for ways to bring crossover into the secular, so that some of the books will be read by non-Christians. That is what really excites me.
Today I’m not perfect, of course. I’m still quite a mess, but I’m far less of a mess than I was.
Part 2 Source: Premier Christianity
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