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By Jeahyun Choi, S. KOREA
I was born into a Buddhist family. Both of my parents were Buddhists, though my mother was more religious than my father. One day when I was at school, she signed my name in the temple. She said, “You, too, are now a Buddhist.” When she went to the temple to worship she usually asked concerning my future. I sometimes went to the temple with her because my name was recorded there.
My hometown was a very small country village. My parents were farmers. When I was through elementary school, our family of six (my parents, two older brothers, one older sister and I) moved to a small city. My father found work in a factory. Father drank a lot, and he borrowed a lot of money which we had to repay. That meant that my two older brothers were unable to study. They went to work in the factory too.
When my father drank, he and my mother argued a lot. I would often leave the house when they argued. I did not love my father nor my mother, and I didn’t feel loved by them. I did not know how to live my life nor how to plan my life.
When I was in middle school a friend invited me to go to church with him. I found the people in our Korean churches to be very kind and loving. They cared for me and were interested in me. I had never felt such love before, so going to church was good for me. However, I was not interested in Jesus Christ. I just went to church to meet people.
In high school I hung out with a bad group. I drank with them and fought with other rough student groups. In spite of my ungodly lifestyle, I continued to go to church.
When I was a junior in high school I met an amazing person, my teacher and mentor. This teacher was famous in our school. His character was very interesting. He made many students interested in their studies and gave them a vision.
One day he called the students who went to church into his office and gave us homework. It was a very strange assignment. He said, “Please go to church every Sunday and submit to me a summary of the pastor’s sermon.”
It was not an easy assignment for me, but I tried hard to do it. I wanted the teacher to notice me because I was not good at studying, and I was often a rowdy student.
A surprising miracle happened to me. The more I did my homework, the more I knew who Jesus Christ is, what He did and why He died. Whenever I did my homework, God enabled me to understand His Word. From that time I could honestly confess that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Lord. It was the turning point in my life.
One day when I handed in my sermon summary, my teacher asked, “Do you believe this Word?”
“Yes, I believe it.” I replied.
He asked, “Can you confess your faith?” I told him that even though I believed in Jesus Christ as my Savior, I didn’t know how to pray. The teacher helped me to confess my sins and confess my faith. Then he led me in a prayer to God which I repeated after him.
My teacher/mentor helped me to plan my future. Through him God gave me a purpose to live. I could now have a vision to glorify God. From that time God put on my heart to become a Christian worker in an overseas country.
Preparing myself for such a vocation was not easy for me. First, I had to persuade my family because they are not Christians. Then I needed money for college studies. To earn money I joined the Marine Corps. I worked as a marine for six years. During that time God gave me the opportunity to go to college and major in computer science.
When I graduated from college, I enrolled in seminary for two years. At that time I married Sewon, a young woman from my church. It was difficult for us to marry because our parents did not want us to marry. The reason was that we were both students at the university. Because I was a student I didn’t have money to rent a house and buy the things that we needed. In fact, I didn’t have money for school fees.
Also, according to Korean culture, it was incorrect for me to marry since my two older brothers had not yet married. But our pastor recommended that we marry at that time. He said that it wasn’t good to have a long time of dating. Sewon and I were both active workers in the church and were always working together.
Our parents finally gave up trying to dissuade us. Since we married without our parents permission, we had to make preparations for the wedding ourselves.
My wife worked very hard for nearly two years as a teacher to pay my school fees at the seminary. It was a very stressful time for her. The year we were married she was struck by an automobile and suffered through a bout of cancer treatment. But God in His goodness gave her grace and strength to do what she needed to do. After graduation, our parents’ minds were completely changed. They accepted our marriage and rejoiced with us.
While we were at the university, God revealed to us the Asian country where we will be serving Him. In order to join the organization that works in that country we had to learn English. English is an interesting language to learn, but very challenging and stressful. Our attitude is that through studying English God is continuing to train us. Sewon and I are both looking forward to God’s next step as He continues to lead us to serve Him.
A word to the readers:
Everyone in the world wants to be important. If you want to be important, please realize that you cannot be important by yourself.
When I was in middle school, I wanted to be an important person, but I didn’t know how to be important. Trying to become popular in high school, I met with bad groups. But following bad groups was not the way for me.
The way to importance is to meet Jesus Christ. If you meet Him as your Lord and Savior, you will be an important person in the world, even though you may have a bad background and you don’t have money. You will be a very special person because Jesus Christ loves you and He died for you.
This is how you can come to Jesus:
If you have strong Christians around you, ask them to teach you how to pray and how to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. But if you don’t know any Christians, you can pray to God yourself. Say out loud, “Our Heavenly Father, I thank you for Your love for me in sending your Son Jesus to die for me. I confess all my sins, my wrong doings, and I ask you to forgive me and cleanse me in the blood of Jesus. Now I open my heart and life to you. Please come in and teach me Your Word. I will follow You. Thank you, Lord. I pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.”
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