Former Canadian televangelist Len Lindstrom is facing the toughest challenge of his life after losing everything to his mining business.

"I am absolutely flat busted," Lindstrom told CBC's iTeam. "I'm a vagabond... with no money, no credit card, no driver's license, no vehicle, no office building, no house, no boat, no nothing.

"And not even my own bed to sleep in. So everything - gone."

Lindstrom was involved in logging and construction before he started preaching at Kelowna, British Columbia. Soon he began to travel across Canada and around the world preaching.

"I have literally preached to multiplied tens of millions of people in over 120 nations of the world, filling soccer fields and stadiums."

The former preacher said he got an idea to start a gold mine while preaching in Liberia in 2004. He was approached by powerful nationals to ask his help to revive the mining industry in the country.

After much thought, he and his son decided to explore the gold of Liberia by acquiring the mineral rights to a 21,000-square kilometer land.

He went back to Kelowna, looked for investors and was able to raise more than $18 million.

Dean Britton, a Saskatoon man who invested his life savings in the mining company, told CBC that Len convinced him this was "God's business" and it was going to be huge as they are looking at a 20, 30, 50 times return of investment.

Britton said he felt it was a good investment as Lindstrom bragged about his "dream team" of geologists, accountants and IT professionals.

"We had over 300 people working for us. We had top geologists in from the states. We had some of the best lawyers in Vancouver out of three very large firms looking after different aspects of it," Lindstrom explained.

THINGS GO WRONG

According to Lindstrom, things started to go wrong when the Liberia's Ministry of Lands, Mines and Energy illegally cancelled their license.

"They liked what they saw," Lindstrom explained. "They [saw] all the results and stuff that we were reporting and the opportunity to capitalize (on) it."

Now, he is threatening to take the Liberian government to the International Court of Justice.

But Britton has another concern. He learned through a newspaper article that Lindstrom had been compensated with a $200,000 yearly salary and a hummer.

"For a little ma and pa company with no revenue, no proven resources, no cash flow, no corporate investment - to pay himself that? And not tell us?" he said.

Lindstrom defended his salary, saying it was below average industry compensation for a president and CEO.

Despite what happened, Lindstrom is putting his faith in a "payday that's coming and by God's grace it's going to be a good one."