As i sit here in a coffee shop, reading "Jesus Every Day" by Pastor Jim Cymbala the 100-day devotional, I turned to "Praying People" and this simple truth is so strong today. (You can also get it on Amazon - I AM NOT TRYING TO ADVERTISE IT, I PROMISE IT'S JUST A GOOD BOOK!)

When I took over Safety Restore in 2013, perhaps I wasn't the most mature Christian, but prayer was certainly part of my life. I never imagined that working for a seat belt company would one day be my business and career, but this is not what any of this is about. To those not familiar of what we do, here's a quick break down:

1. Car get's into accident.
2. Insurance totals the car and sends it to an auction. 
3. Buyers bid on crashed and cars and buy. 
4. State regulations require safe repairs from body work to SRS systems.
   One of those SRS systems is seat belts. Controlled by the SRS airbag module (computer or brain) the seat belts have an igniter in them that goes off instantly during a crash, locking up the seat belt. 
5. We repair those seat belts by replacing the igniter charge and rebuilding the entire mechanism to work like new.

How Seat Belt Repair Works

To get a seat belt repaired with us, you will need to remove the seat belt out of your vehicle and determine the stage. Whether it has 1 plug, 2 plugs or even 3 plugs! This refers to the amount of igniters and price. Then, simply purchase the service online:

SEAT BELT REPAIR

Once purchased, mail in your parts to:

SEAT BELT REPAIR
40 Main St. 
Westfield, MA 01085

In addition to seat belt repairs, we reset SRS airbag modules clearing all crash data and hard codes:

Anyways, let's get back to God, Family & Business. 

The Living God

The Faith in Jesus, isn't just another religion or a denomination. Jesus is the living son of the Living God - Creator of the Universe, the Almighty powerful God that has no beginning or end, the One who's outside of time and is in Heaven with a promise for us: eternal life for all who Believe in Him. 

Listen, I'm not here to spin fairy tales and feed you something. I get nothing out of this. I experienced Him in a supernatural way and I believed in Him before that. If you have doubts, I invite you to try Him for yourself. Pray. Ask any questions like you normally would to anyone you trust. He is more real than the reality we're in. But I'm not here to preach to you. I want to write this blog and testify that the definition of successes this world defines are empty lies. They never fill you. All the money in the world will never fill the void your spirit longs for. So what is that yearning inside of you? What is it about the consciousness inside all of us. You see, I was like many of us, thinking business was about success, money, yes giving back and providing a living for others and having a nourished family, abundance, etc. Wow, did I quickly learn how none of that is even relative when you look at it spiritually. 

A couple years into the business, I knew it was God. I thanked Him daily almost, I prayed my simple prayers, I tried to remain humble, but it got the best of me and I allowed a few thoughts slip in along the lines of "I'm not bad at marketing" and "when I'm here working, things are going well." This slowly creeped into a thought that maybe I did achieve some of this on my own. On one Monday, back then our busiest day, my cousin was in the hospital battling a physical and spiritual battle, I invited my pastor friend that was visiting out of state to go visit and pray over him. We had a very spiritual encounter and a powerful meeting right there in the hospital. In fact, we spent all day there. On a Monday. The most important sales day of the company. The day that determined the financial health of our business for the week. The day I, the owner, thought it was somewhat about me and my achievement and ability to be there and make it happen. Around 5 o'clock, I remembered about the business and the fact that it was a Monday! "Wow." I thought, I just had a loss of a day. I wasn't at my company all day. So I decided to call my manager, or maybe he called me, I don't remember, to see how bad it was. He picks up the phone and says; "We had a record-breaking sales day today."

That humbled me to my core and broke any trace of pride. What a fool I was. I thought I achieved something on my own and boy was I wrong. I cried a prayer of forgiveness to God and gave Him all the glory. It's all about Jesus. He's in control. He did all of this. Not me.

Sharing the Testimony

This is my testimony and this is a testimony to me that I share with others. What a rude-awakening of our self correction. How easily can we forget the blessings of God. His promises. What life is about. The true priorities. How more often than not we put so much time and energy into things that do not matter. I'm sharing this testimony to exalt my God! To give Him the glory. The praise. He deserves it all.  

About Me - Artem Martynyuk

My name is Artem Martynyuk and my parents immigrated to America in 1996 when I was only 2 years old. Almost 3. From early age, I was into computers and technology. The 90's era where technology made its debut into the world. I remember we had 1 desktop computer at our apartment and the only way for me to use it was to wake up earlier than my older brother. Long before YouTube days and ChatGPT, I was mostly self-taught and had to figure everything out on my own. My ventures included graphics design, web design, music, videography and photography which combined turned into entrepreneurship around e-commerce and online businesses. Because I grew up in a humble with not much: food stamps, Section 8 housing and a low-income, I valued the dollar. I didn't even know other brands or cereal existed besides Cheerios! Because that was the only thing they gave us on Wix food stamps program. True story. I saw my dad work hard and my mom pour out her heart into me and my siblings. I was so thankful that God brought us to America. The land of opportunity, I can't imagine where I'd be today if I was still in Ukraine. So that's God. With a beautiful wife Jennifer today, 2 kids (a boy and a girl) all I want to do is live this life for God, loving on others, sharing His love and being the best husband and father I can be.

Faith & Business

So am I saying because I have God the business was nothing but a blessing? Oh no. Boy did I make my share of mistakes... but I also learned so much. My wife and I have gone thought it all it seems. A rollercoaster I couldn't even fully write about. There are weeks where payroll can't happen. Bills can't be paid. I can go on forever, but as apostle Paul writes:

Philippians 4:12-13: "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. ¹³ I can do all this through him who gives me strength."

One sermon I heard where the Pastor preached: "You have to be above your problems. You can't go up and down with the circumstances." Sounds simple, right? But that's how we humans are. The situation is bad, we're hit with something and all of a sudden we're depressed. We don't want God. We don't want to go to church and so on. That's so immature! Might be easy to say, or write in this case, that's definitely something I want to get better at. And that's why we need Jesus every day.

As I get older, I realize more and more that one day I'll stand before my Creator, God and will have to answer for every thing I've done. The way I lived my life. But the hope we have is Jesus that I accepted as my Lord and Savior and His blood washed me clean. Now everything I do is different. Do I still sin and make mistakes? I'm human.

Be Encouraged

So whether you're a rising entrepreneur or an established businessman, I call for you today to surrender to God. Fully. Give it all to Him because it's all from Him anyways. Shouldn't you trust the almighty Creator to help solve your problems? We're such ants in comparison to Him that's it's humorous how we try to take matters into our own hands or think we've achieved something on our own. Get out of your comfort zone - PRAY! If you don't know where to start, I recommend:

Daily Devotionals on Youtube

So keep going. God bless you!