Faith & Life

Visit to a Branch Church

Nepal is a land of breathtaking beauty, home to the snow-capped Himalayas and the majestic Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. But to me, Nepal is a land where the fertile soil of the gospel is bearing abundant fruit. By God’s grace, churches have been established throughout the country. Even in the face of hardship, many brothers and sisters are passionately walking the path of the gospel, longing for the glory of heaven. In the cities of Nepal, we find the main churches, while in the mountainous regions and small villages, smaller branch churches are more common. Reaching these branch churches from the main ones can take anywhere from a few hours to several days. As we travel…

Jiwan from Damak, Nepal

A Rainy Day

It’s pouring outside. On days like this, going out would leave you soaked from head to toe—but I’ve always liked rainy days. I sometimes wonder, Why do I love the rain so much? When I search for the answer, my mind drifts back to a memory from elementary school. My parents, who were farmers, would head out to the rice fields and vegetable plots at dawn after preparing breakfast for us. One morning, I rushed through my meal and went off to school as usual. By the time classes ended, heavy rain was pouring down. Back then, we didn’t have mobile phones, and even if I could have called my parents, they wouldn’t have had the time to come meet…

Yoon Ju-yeong from Seoul, Korea

Call Your Family with a Voice Full of Love

How many times do you call your family members a day? If you can call someone and have someone who calls you, it is a joyful thing. Calling is to seek. This means that we are not alone but are having relationships with others. A poet said, “When I called its name, it came to me and became a flower.” But what determines someone to be a beautiful flower or a dying flower is the way how you call the person. It is easy to respond nicely when someone calls you with a cheerful voice, but it is not easy if someone calls you with a sharp and irritated voice. The mind of a person is contained in his voice.…

Take Your Daily Dose of Vitamin G!

Have you ever heard of Vitamin G? You’ve probably heard of Vitamins A, B, C, and D—but G? That might be a new one! Just as vitamins are essential nutrients that regulate our body, boost our immune system, and give us energy, Vitamin G strengthens the immunity of the heart. The “G” stands for Gratitude. A thankful heart brightens the mind, nurtures positivity, and deepens our connections with others. This month, be sure to take your daily dose of Vitamin G with your family. Each day will feel more vibrant and full of joy—and best of all, you can take as much as you want, with absolutely no side effects! Tip Be thankful for even the small things. Look for…

A Café That Discriminates People

Nice is a resort city located in the southern part of France. In this city, there is a café where they priced their coffee on the menu as below: “One coffee” $10 “One coffee, please” $6 “Hello! One coffee, please” $2 This café’s coffee price is interesting because it can be 5 times cheaper or 5 times more expensive, depending on how you order it though it is the same amount of coffee. The owner of the café said, “Many customers who came during lunch time were under a lot of stress. They were sometimes rude to my employees while ordering coffee, so we made this menu.” After they changed the menu, some customers exaggerated their politeness and made everybody…

A Novice Shepherd’s Realization

I was born and raised in one of the coldest northern states in the U.S. where the temperature went down to -40℃ (-40℉) in winter. It was hot in summer; it reached up to 38℃ (100℉). My closest neighbor was 1.6 km (1 mile) away, and I never really got to know them at all. In North Dakota, my dad had a farm where he sowed grains and raised hogs, cattle, horses, chickens and turkeys. One time, I asked my dad why he didn’t raise any sheep despite rich pasture for grazing and plenty of hay for the long winter. He just said that sheep were not the kind that he would enjoy tending. As I had no first-hand experience…

Alan Sayler from Houston, U.S.

Patience and Persistence

Bill Porter was born with cerebral palsy in San Francisco, U.S., in 1932. He spoke in an awkward way, his back was bent, and his right hand and his legs had problems. After graduating from high school, he sought work but no company hired him. Watkins Incorporated, a purveyor of household products, turned him away at first. However, as Porter persuaded them to give him their most inhospitable territory, they finally took him into the company as a salesman. Whether it rained or snowed, he walked his route—eight to ten miles daily, carrying his heavy bag. Despite inhospitality and a spate of slammed doors, he kept knocking door-to-door for about twenty years, regarding their inhospitality as a request to come…

Mother’s Love that I Haven’t Realized

Before I was born, my family had lived in Lima, the capital city of Peru. One day, there was a very strong earthquake in a region in Peru. At that time, my father was working at the Ministry of Home Affairs, and he was in charge of reconstructing the region damaged by the earthquake together with a group of professionals. Owing to this, my family moved to Huaraz, Ancash. After a few years, I was born as the last of six siblings. My oldest brother was thirteen years older than me. All my family took care of me with love. One morning, I got up and looked out the window of my bedroom. Things like white beads were falling from…

Mertty Polack from Lima, Peru

The T-Mac Time

On December 9, 2004, there was a basketball game between the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs. When they had only 41 seconds left, the score was 68:76; the Rockets was 8 points behind. More than half of the audience left the stadium, thinking that the Spurs is going to win. But then Tracy McGrady in the Rockets, who was nicknamed T-Mac, began his outstanding performance. T-Mac scored 3 points. Then the Spurs gained two points from free throws, and made the score 71 to 78. Then T-Mac made a three-pointer plus one point by shooting a free throw, and the Spurs also got two more points. T-Mac could’ve given up there, but he didn’t. He scored three more…

Manners

After completing a six-month rehabilitation course, a tennis player had a match. In the match, he played with all his might, but he lost the game. A reporter came to interview him. “How are your injuries?” The tennis player replied, “I won’t mention the injuries. That will diminish the winner’s triumph today.”

Mother’s Mind

My sister is one year older than me. Since we are similar in age, we often squabbled like friends. On all such occasions, however, my parents scolded me. I couldn’t accept their minds no matter how well they treated me because I thought it was unfair. As I began to work, I moved out from my parents’ and lived by myself. I went to see them once a week. One day, my mother, my sister, and I went shopping to a department store together after a long time. Looking around, here and there, my mother spotted my sister’s old shoes, and went to a shoe store to get a pair of shoes for her. I thought, ‘She will buy my…

Choi Eun-hye from Incheon, South Korea

The Selflessness of a Fire Fighter

“They were part of an elite squad confronting wildfires on the frontline, setting up barriers to stop the spreading of destruction. But in their unpredictable world, it doesn’t take much to turn a situation deadly.” CNN says of the 19 firefighters who are being honored posthumously for giving even their lives to fend the blaze of a wild fire in Arizona. The United States as a whole not only mourns the death of these fearless men, but is conscious of the situation they must’ve had when approaching the wildfire. In the U.S., the sacrifice of a fire fighter is not just the task of confronting disaster; it starts with the training. One who desires to serve must first willingly accept…

Michael Means from Charlotte, NC, USA

Mother’s Faith

On September 17, 1960, many people who were watching the Rome Olympics paid attention to one female American athlete. She won a gold medal in the 100-meter dash by running it in 11 seconds which was equivalent to the world record. She also added two more gold medals in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter relay. Her name is Wilma Rudolph. What made her a great issue was not her three gold medals, but the fact that she suffered severe infantile paralysis which made her unable to walk when she was little. She explained what made her success, as follows: “It is all thanks to my mother. She always let me believe that everything is possible if I really want…

Taking Time to Think

Dale Carnegie, the bestselling author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, once appeared on a radio program where he openly discussed the strengths and weaknesses of past U.S. presidents’ policies. A few days later, he received a letter from a listener fiercely criticizing his opinions. Feeling humiliated and believing his reputation had been tarnished, Carnegie immediately wrote a reply in the same harsh and scornful tone as the letter he had received. However, the next day, when he reread his draft at work, he realized it made him appear petty and arrogant. So he decided to write a new letter instead. This time, he expressed gratitude, saying he would remember the listener as a valued friend who had…

Failure and Experience

Avery, a renowned Canadian microbiologist, failed in the majority of his countless experiments. Those around him often felt sorry for him and expressed concern, but he never once frowned or became discouraged. “Even a failed experiment is of great help to me. If I stumble but pick up something each time I fall, those things will eventually add up and lead to success,” he said. We call it “failure” when we do not achieve what we hoped for. However, if each failure brings us meaningful insight, it becomes a valuable experience. The greatest failure is not trying at all out of fear of failing.

A Life Blossomed Through Seven Years of Text Messages

Eight years ago, I met a Korean-Japanese young adult during a united short-term mission trip to Hiroshima. After returning to Osaka, I stayed in touch with her—sending text messages whenever I saw beautiful scenery or when there was a Bible webinar. Every year during the holidays, I also sent her warm greetings. Last winter, we arranged to meet again in Hiroshima. Just before the trip, I received some surprising and joyful news: a deaconess who had participated in that same short-term mission years ago had recently moved to the Hiroshima Zion. It felt like Heavenly Father and Mother had already paved the way for this young adult to be led to salvation. On the day of our meeting, I worried…

Hwang Mi-ryeong from Osaka, Japan

When to Stop Criticism

Psychotherapist Alice Miller once said that you can tell whether it is appropriate to criticize someone by paying attention to how you feel when you do it. “If, when criticizing a friend or someone around you, you feel a sense of pain, then it’s okay to proceed. But if you feel even the slightest pleasure, that’s when you should hold your tongue.” Feeling pleasure while criticizing is not true criticism—it is condemnation. Such an attitude often stems from pride, from viewing yourself as superior to the other person. If you do not stop at that very moment, it will not be the other person’s faults that are exposed, but your own character that ends up being criticized.

The Three Keys to Success

From childhood, the future of those who have dreams differs greatly from those who do not. Most who hold dreams go on to achieve success, while many without them struggle to find stability even in adulthood. Those with dreams make plans and take action to achieve them; those without dreams often drift through life from day to day, uncertain of their direction. Yet there are also people who, despite having dreams, live no differently from those without them. They dream big but lack concrete plans or consistent effort. Instead of working toward their goals, they spend their days vaguely worrying about whether their dreams can ever come true. They fail to realize that dreams, plans, and action are the three…

A Photo With Dad

When I heard about a contest for photos taken with your dad, I felt excited and decided to join. Our house is filled with pictures—one wall is practically a photo gallery—so I thought it would be easy to find a picture of me with my dad. I went home, heart fluttering, and began searching through drawers and flipping through all our photo albums. But to my surprise, no matter how many pictures I looked at, I couldn’t find a single photo of just the two of us. “Where are all the pictures of me and Dad? There are so many photos, but none with Dad in them!” I exclaimed. That’s when my dad quietly said, “I’m not in the pictures…

Park Yoon-jeong from Seongnam, Korea

The Secret Behind the Stickers

One day, I noticed some stickers on my desk. They featured a cute bunny character—exactly my style. Assuming my mom or younger brother had left them there, I peeled one off and stuck it on my phone. But even after that, more stickers kept appearing on my desk. Curious, I asked my mom, “Mom, are you the one leaving those stickers for me?” Before she could answer, my dad—quietly watching TV—spoke up instead. “That was me. I eat bread as a snack at work, and those stickers come inside the packaging. They looked like something you’d like, so I asked the other employees not to throw them away and give them to me instead. There are other designs too, but…

Lee Su-bin from Gangneung, Korea