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By Ki Soo Hwang
Japan occupied my homeland, Korea, from 1909 to the end of World War II in 1945. Life under occupation was severe. The Japanese wanted to rid us of our culture and blend us into theirs. Even our names had to be Japanese. Koreans were taken to Japan to do hard and undesirable work. Many Korean girls and young women were taken to serve Japanese soldiers.
My father was a merchant in Seoul, our capital; Mother came from a rural area where life was less affected by Japan. Both parents were Buddhists but did not attend the temples and shrines.
In 1950, when I was eight, the Korean War began. Our house was bombed twice. The second bomb killed my father and two sisters. Mother took us four remaining children and fled with the refugees to the city of Pusan on the southern coast. She attended the church that American christians built in our camp. Through the preaching of the Word of God, she came to faith in Christ and invited Him to be the Lord and Savior of her life.
When the war ended three years later, we returned to Seoul. We fixed the house and Mother had a small vendor business so she could feed us children and send us to school. In time that little business expanded into a small grocery store.
After the war South Korea was in disarray politically and economically. Organized gangs controlled politics, the markets and the economy until Mr. Park's government took over in 1961.
Since the streets were no longer safe, someone suggested I study the martial arts to learn how to defend myself. I enrolled at a Judo Center. Unfortunately, these centers were also gathering places for the gangs. Since I was a very good fighter, the gangs wanted me. I allowed myself to be persuaded to join the third largest gang in Seoul. I was only 15 and in middle high school. The gangs robbed, fought against political parties and destroyed those who did not obey gang orders.
Mother prayed a lot for me. Every morning before she went to the 4:30 A.M. service at the church, she knelt beside me while I was sleeping and prayed fervently. I would wake up to the sound of her prayer. Sometimes she would grab my hand and take me to the church. Little by little the Word of God was planted in my heart.
I had been in the gang for about three years the morning I accompanied Mother to the early church service. The congregation sang, "Jesus took our sin by dying on the cross." Tears came to my eyes; I knew I was a sinner, for I had done many bad things. I had been against Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who had come to earth from the Father to die for the sins of the whole earth. I wept and wept. I confessed my sins to God and asked for His forgiveness. Suddenly I realized I did not have to be a gang member anymore; I would follow Jesus. Since it was baptism time at the church, I was also baptized—signifying death to the old sinful life and a resurrected new life in Jesus Christ.
I knew the first thing I had to do as a born-again Christian was to get out of the gang. I also knew that gangs have rules to punish those who leave. One night the gang came to my house, but the neighbors came out with axes and shovels. Before the gang ran off, they threw stones into our house.
Another time the gang caught me on a dark street and beat me so badly that I nearly died. A lawyer, who was a prosecutor, happened to be walking by and recognized me. He said, "I am a policeman." He caught two of the gangsters and put them in jail. The gang leader came to me and said, "If you talk to the policeman to release the two gang members, I'll release you." I was free at last.
I joined the military after that and served three years in the Air force where I lived a consistent Christian life. After military service, I continued to attend church and was involved in teaching childrenand singing in the choir. At age 28, I married a girl from the church. The Lord blessed us with a daughter. To make a living I owned a small business in a town near Seoul. An elder in our church lost his business and was having to return to his hometown. My pastor did not want to lose him, so he asked me to make him a partner in my business.
After three years my business began to go down. I checked the books and found something very wrong. I called the elder, my partner, and asked him why he was lying on the business records. He became angry and said,'iYou don't trust me."
I said, "I trust you, but these things are not right." When the pastor came to make peace between us, he accused me of treating an elder badly. Angry, I reverted to my old ways and assaulted the pastor. I left the church and Christianity. I got tired of doing what is right and being accused of doing wrong.
After the business collapsed, I took my family and returned to Seoul where our second daughter was born. Since I wasn't living a Christian life, I got into an illegal business. I was making a lot of money but living in a world of darkness. After work I would drink continually and not go home except for a few days a month. My wife got so fed up she ran away, leaving me with our two daughters. The illegal business began to go down every year and i hen collapsed. I had lost everything but my physical life. I was imprisoned by evil in crime and then caught by the police. A friend was able to release me from prison.
At the end of 12 years of living without God, I had nothing but my two daughters. I was destitute and alone; I needed help. I wrote to my sister in the U.S.A. She recommended I come to America to remarry and then sent me the airfare.
Before I left Korea, my sister put me in touch with her friend, Faith, a young widow in her church. We corresponded for several months. My sister told Faith that I was a good Christian. When she last saw me, I was living for the Lord in the Air force.
I arrived in America in August, 1982. A month later, on September 4, Faith and I were married. Faith not only had a new husband, but two teenage stepdaughters. Ten months later, my mother immigrated and came to live with us.
Faith was a mature Christian and attended all the services and activities of the church. I went with her without having any faith of my own, my heart still far from the Lord. I was unclean and hated myself. But the Word of God began cleansing me.
One Sunday the pastor preached a sermon based on the Scripture, I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them. But whoeuer blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will neuer be forgiven... (Mark 3: 28-29). I realized I had not blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, so I could be forgiven. I began to look for what I could do in my church and was soon involved in many activities.
Of course, I had to make a living for the family and put two daughters through college. I got a construction job when I first arrived, then for two years I attended an electrical technical school. After graduating, I began my own construction company.
The church gave me the position of deacon. To be used in God's work, I knew I needed to be cleansed of the roots of my sinful nature. The Lord gave me the following Scripture: If a man cleanses himself...he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work (2 Tim. 2:21). I began to repent of the many sinful things I had done during the 12 years I was away from the Lord.
In 1992 I was ordained an elder in my church and two years later made the head of the Cross-cultural Service Committee. God led me to begin a short-term cross-cultural service program for our church. Our first trip was to the Dominican Republic. I learned that God is glorified through many different peoples with different styles of worship. I thought of the Scripture, And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come (Matt. 24:14).
God gave me a love for cross-cultural work. Our church group went to the Dominican Republic four more times and to Sierra Leone twice. I also established a lay person's cross-cultural service movement in Philadelphia among the 150 Korean churches.
While I worked in cross-cultural service, God gave me the following Scripture: Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt. 16:24). I want to follow Jesus so I must die to the old nature—like old habits of lying. As I act on the Word, God gives me grace to become more Christ-like.
During my short-term travels, I prayed a lot for God to give me work using the skills of my hands. I came across an e-mail from Cambodia asking if someone could come to convert a bus into a mobile drop-in center for street children. I felt that was an answer to my prayer. I immediately responded. My wife, Faith, was in agreement with me.
When I first arrived on the field, I came down with the dreaded dengue fever. "If this is your time to take me, please do so after I finish the bus," I prayed. I woke up the next morning free from the fever and illness. I worked steadily for five weeks.
After my return, the team leader in Cambodia asked if my wife and I would consider working longterm with them. There were three other opportunities as well. What did God want me to do? I decided to fast and pray for 40 days.
During the fast, the key Scripture that impacted me was, I haue been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loued me and gaue himself for me (Gal. 2:20).
The Lord showed me I needed to repent of the sin of assaulting the pastor. I found him and confessed my sin and asked for his forgiveness.
I was also convicted of not being a good husband to Faith. I had told her that I loved her, but it was not real. I was selfish because my children were my priority, not my wife. I called Faith and apologized.
She simply said, "O.K." and went out. Then I got an excruciating stomach ache. I cried to God for a couple of hours, asking Him what was wrong. He reminded me that I was still lying because myconfesaion didn't come from deep in my heart. Just before midnight I called Faith again. I knelt down before her and with tears I said, "I have been such a bad husband to you. I lied to you. My children came first and you were second."
Faith's heart responded to my heart.We grabbed hands in our joy. We had not known such happiness before. After a visit to the toilet my stomach ache was gone.
On the 29th day of my fast I had a vision of the WEC International sign. I realized that was God's leading for us. I folded up my business and Faith hers. During our training course, the Lord reminded me of the work in Cambodia. He confirmed this reading by a Scripture (Rom. 10:14,15). We are now in Cambodia and thank God that we are counted worthy to serve people who need to know Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.
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