Mother Answers Even the Smallest Prayers

One day, about five months after I had my first child, I lied down to get some sleep. Then suddenly a thought came into my mind and kept me from falling asleep.

‘What happens when I die?’

I had no idea why I was curious about it all of a sudden, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the life after death. Maybe it was because I had just become a mom, who needs to take care of her baby, and it made me even more eager to avoid death. Around that time, I met some people from the Church of God. Actually, my relationship with the Church of God began when my first child was still in my womb. I was very surprised to hear about the Sabbath from the Church members I met at that time. However, as my older sister was a sincere Buddhist, I had to stop meeting them, so I could have no more chance to study the truth.

The people from the Church of God, who I met after I gave birth to my first child, told me that Christmas is not in the Bible. It was a shock to me. I wanted to know more in detail about the truth, so I studied God’s word with them every day for about a month. I was able to confirm through the Bible the truth of the new covenant and the existence of Heavenly Mother as well as the principles of the spiritual world which I had always been curious about.

Immediately after being born again as a child of God, I kept the Sabbath day. While keeping the Sabbath, I felt my soul had been cleansed just as the Bible says that God made that day holy. There was no reason for me not to keep the law of God continually. The more I attended worship services, the more I believed that God is the greatest among many gods in the world.

As I stood firm in the truth, my family including my older sister began to oppose me severely. They didn’t like church, and on top of that, they heard some wrong information about the Church of God. I wanted to help them know our church correctly, but their impression of our church didn’t change easily. I had no other choice but to continue to pray that God would open the hearts of them all.

Several months passed, but their attitude didn’t change. My heart was burning as the Passover was approaching. I plucked up my courage and said to my mom,

“Mom, if you keep the Passover, you can be protected by God. I want you to celebrate it with me.”

Then she said, “Okay, I will.” She came to Zion right away and received the sign of salvation. Then she kept the Sabbath and the Passover as well. I felt somewhat perplexed because it happened all of a sudden.

Later I found out that it didn’t happen by chance. Before my mom received the truth, I had some chances to meet the pastor of the Protestant church that my aunt attended. As my aunt arranged the meeting between him and me, I met him twice. The first time, I was alone, and the second time, I was with some of my Zion members and we boldly told him that the Sabbath and the Passover are the truths of the Bible. My mom was probably surprised to hear our preaching at that time.

My mom continued to watch the way I acted. It seemed that she decided to keep the Passover because I didn’t go the wrong way, contrary to her worries, and everything that I preached to her was from the Bible.

I prayed that she would continue to come to Zion after she became a heavenly child. One day, an unexpected hardship came upon her. She went to the hospital as her health deteriorated all of a sudden, and she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Although it was a desperate situation, she didn’t fall into despair but depended on God. After realizing that the essence of life can only be found in the eternal world—the angelic world, she continued to come to Zion and kept her promises to God even in the midst of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

She had only a 20 percent chance of survival; her chances of a full recovery were almost zero. However, something amazing happened about seven weeks after she began her chemotherapy treatment; even the doctor was surprised. The tumor in her body was completely gone. Actually, it was not guaranteed that she would be cured even if she had undergone surgery and received treatment for over half a year. However, she was completely cured without surgery in such a short period of time. Then her faith in God became even stronger. She came to regard God’s commandments as more precious than anything else.

This reminded me of something that I used to do before; whenever I prayed for my mom, I earnestly asked God to help her keep God’s laws, regarding them as precious, so she could go to heaven without fail.

After I experienced the help of God who answered even a prayer I offered with little and immature faith, I began to pray more earnestly for my husband to become a member of the heavenly family. However, it wasn’t easy to preach God’s word to him because he was so busy working every day to support his family, and secondly because he didn’t like church.

Then he came to Zion for an unexpected reason: He suddenly had to have an appendectomy. When he was in hospital, some members of Zion came to see him and even helped him with the discharge procedure. He was very moved by them and visited Zion to express his gratitude. Then he studied the Bible and received a new life.

There is a saying that goes, “Ten years is an epoch.” A change also came over my older sister who never seemed to open her heart. It was most likely because she felt that I earnestly wanted her to be saved, no matter how she treated me. Her attitude toward me changed a lot.

One day, I had a chance to talk calmly with her after a long time. At that time, my sister apologized for how she had treated me, using my religion as an excuse. We cried and got things off our chests.

She had lived a lonely, painful life. After much thought, I realized it was only Mother’s love that she truly needed. I was thinking about what I should do to help her feel Mother’s love. Just at a proper time, “Our Mother” Writing & Photo Exhibition was held, and I invited her to the exhibition.

It was so touching just to see my sister come into the church, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw how she changed after looking around the exhibition. She looked so bright and happy. In the last section of the exhibition hall, she read the writings that showed the root of motherhood and examined the existence of Heavenly Mother testified in the Bible, over and over again. This probably changed her mind.

Three days later, my sister called me.

“I want to believe in your God.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. I asked her repeatedly if she was sure, and she gave me the same answer every time; she said she would believe in God. Finally she came to God and received the blessing of the forgiveness of sins.

In those days, she was going through a hard time and even suffering from depression. As she saw how I was overcoming hardships, great and small, with faith in God, she thought to herself, ‘Is it the power of faith? Maybe I should believe in God, too.’ At a good time, she was invited to the exhibition and felt so happy. All her fixed ideas about our church were shattered through the exhibition.

Not long after she received God, her husband also visited the exhibition and became a heavenly family member. He said that he, too, was surprised to see me with brothers and sisters in Zion when he first came to the church. I heard from my sister that he encouraged her to continue attending our church, saying, “I’m sure you will also become bright like your sister if you keep going there.” I could imagine how impressed he must’ve been.

My sister was known for being tough before, but she has completely changed now; she is everybody’s favorite neighbor and comes to Zion comfortably. Her way of speaking and her personality have become so gentle that even the people around her can hardly recognize her. The fact itself that she has changed is a fragrance of Zion to everyone. She is now so busy looking for chances to serve the heavenly family members, and she also keeps God’s commandments diligently.

While becoming more worthy as a child of God, she is very eager to carry out the mission of preaching the gospel as well. She had stubbornly refused to receive the truth for over ten years, but she finally received the truth. This has helped her believe firmly that anybody can become a son or daughter of God no matter how he or she is stubborn right now.

My sister and I became like-minded to save souls, and we invited our aunt to Zion; she had denied the truth together with my sister before. After she looked around “Our Mother” Writing & Photo Exhibition, she began to view the Church of God differently. Seeing her attitude change, my sister was more moved than I was. When our aunt stepped into the church for the first time, my sister cried a lot and said to me,

“Is this how you felt when you first brought me to Zion?”

It seemed that she had prayed so anxiously for our aunt. Seeing my sister born again as a gospel worker after repentance, I realized God listened to my prayer this time, too.

‘Please help my sister become a gospel worker like Apostle Paul.’

Only God who heard my prayer must have known that someone would soon turn to God.

When I was young, I once lost my mom in the middle of a market. She was wearing a red jacket at that time. So I tried to find her by looking for anyone with a red jacket on. But my mom was nowhere to be found. Right at that moment, someone called my name in a loud voice.

“Kim Gyeong-suk! What are you doing there? Come over here right away!”

It was my sister who helped me find my mom that day. I think that I’ve paid back her help in some way by leading her to our spiritual Mother.

The day when my sister was born again as a heavenly family member, she apologized for all those hard times she had given me. She hugged me and asked me,

“How did you not give up on me but pray for me?”

Since I am a human being too, I actually felt like giving up everything when I had a severe conflict with my sister. However, I was able to tirelessly preach God’s will to my family without giving up, because my belief in the truth became stronger as I preached more and more. However, the greatest reason was, of course, “Mother.”

Heavenly Mother answered all my prayers; She must have been worried about my soul. Mother answered even the smallest of my prayers. Whenever my prayer was answered, I felt like She was giving me an encouraging message, “I am always with you and watching over you.” Mother must have been worried about me every moment and felt more anxious than I whenever I was troubled and distressed. Thinking of Mother, I couldn’t give up preaching the gospel no matter what kind of hardships and trials I faced.

Mother’s love always remains the same and will last forever. I am deeply feeling Her love in my everyday life. Since I have received overflowing blessings from God, I will always be thankful and willingly devote myself to God’s work. Mother is always at Her work, and I, too, am working.