Faith & Life

Home & Mother

On a day off, which I don’t usually have, I was busy doing all the house chores that had piled up and didn’t even notice my phone was ringing. I checked my phone later and found there was a missed call from my mom. “You called me?” “Yes, did I wake you up? Did you get up?” “Of course! Look at the time!” My mom felt bad that I had been working part time for a few years to help with my children’s education fees. She said that her neighbor gave her some big and nice radishes and so she made diced radish kimchi for me and sent it. She asked me to call her to let her know when…

Kim Hyang-sun from Uijeongbu, South Korea

To Reach the Essence

There was a young man whose dream was to become an artist since he was young. He left his hometown and went to a famous artist, begging him to teach him how to paint and expressing how he was willing to do any chores around the house. Seeing his passion, the famous artist let him stay. The young man started building skills by copying the famous artist’s art pieces. As his drawings started looking like his teacher’s, he became more and more confident. One day, the young man completed a drawing of two tigers that looked so similar to his teacher’s. He became curious and wanted to see if his teacher would know which one was his. So, he gave…

With Parent’s Heart and Soldier’s Spirit

I was born in a poor farmer’s family as the youngest of eight children. Since my childhood, I was always worried about what to do to live without hunger. After much consideration, I decided to be a career soldier. I had to go to the military anyway, so I wanted to be a noncommissioned officer just like my cousin working in the Special Forces. I thought I could settle down, while getting monthly salaries. However, my cousin stopped me, saying that it would be too hard. So I gave up enlisting in the Special Forces. Instead, I applied for a noncommissioned officer in the army and finished the education without a problem. But guess what happened next. After I was…

Park In-seob from Paju, South Korea

Sleeping Under a Dead Tree

This is a story about what happened when Professor Jared Diamond, a renowned American scholar, was staying in New Guinea when he was young. One day, he went into the deep forest with some natives, and stayed there for the night. He suggested that they pitch a tent under a big tree where stars were shining through the gaps between the branches. However, the natives opposed his idea vigorously. “It’s a dead tree. We don’t know when it’s going to fall. It might fall on us while we are sleeping!” Instead, the natives took him to an open space. He thought the natives were being too extreme and unnecessarily worried. Afterwards, while he was continuing his research in the forest,…

Beautiful Preparations

When the winter is coming, animals bustle around to make preparations for the cold. Some store food in many places, or some eat a large portion and save it inside their bodies, and some prepare a place for hibernation. Then, what about trees which are immobile? In winter, the amount of sunshine reduces and it gets dry, which makes it hard to make nutrient through photosynthesis. So when it starts cooling down, trees stop growing so that they can store nourishment and moisture, and they shake off their dense leaves. This is how a tree shakes off its leaves. First, it moves the leaves’ nourishment to the stems and then it makes a strong cell layer called “abscission layer” in…

Love Is Love When Expressed

Love takes the most important part of our life. It is not too much to say that love is the essence of life. However, love cannot be seen, smelled, or touched. Therefore, you cannot physically take your love out of your heart and show it to your loved one, or put it nicely in a gift box and hand it to them. Then, when do we feel loved, and how can we convey our love? The formula for love is “heart × expressing.” When love is expressed, it comes to the surface and becomes amazing medicine that changes the world. Although love is a hundred, if its expression is zero, it is useless. No matter how close you are to…

Following Father’s Path

I am a newly appointed missionary to India; it’s been just three months since I came here. I thought I had many experiences in overseas missions, but since I came to India, I’ve often thought I am like a child who flounders around, not knowing what to do. While staying in the Hubli Church during the preaching festival, I sincerely realized that God had sent me to India to train me to be a suitable prophet for the gospel. I’ve engraved on my heart the realization I received through this trip, and I am writing to share it with Zion members around the world. It takes more than twelve hours to travel from Pune to Hubli. In India, this distance…

Lee Se-min from Pune, MH, India

The Reason Why Food Tastes Better

In which of the following situations does food taste the best? ① When the customer and the cook cannot see each other ② When the customer can see the cook, but the cook cannot see the customer ③ When the cook can see the customer, but the customer cannot see the cook ④ When both the cook and the customer can see each other Research teams from Harvard University of the United States and University College London of the United Kingdom had an experiment based on the above four situations. The customer’s satisfactory for Cases Number ① and ② was similar, and it was 10% higher for Case Number ③. And for Number ④ it was 17.3% higher, and the…

I Am a Bad Daughter

When I was in elementary school, my father died, and my mom raised her son and three daughters alone. My mom used to go to Jagalchi Market early in the morning and buy a box of fish to sell it in a retail store in the neighborhood; she worked so hard and there was no business that she did not try. My mom always came in late at night, so my two older sisters took care of me and my little brother. Since my brother always ran little errands for my sisters, I had nothing to do as a third, so I just played without feeling the difficulties of life. One day, my mom called me and asked me to…

Choi Yeong-jin from Seoul, South Korea

Surpassing Survival Instinct

In the wild, various types of animals have fierce fights for survival according to the law of the jungle. Since ecosystem is maintained through the food chain, there is always a chance for herbivores to become food of the predators. However, since their survival instinct is as strong as the predators’ desire for hunting, they don’t easily let them eat them. However, sometimes, there are situations where an animal goes against its survival instinct. A young antelope is crossing the river. It seems that it can cross it with no problem because the water is just up to the neck. But then, for some reason, the mommy antelope jumps into the river and runs toward the young antelope. When it…

Ecological Succession of the Forest

Climax community refers to a forest where the forest ecosystem sustains stability for a long time according to the climate, achieving harmony among trees, grass, birds, and insects. For a forest to turn into a climax community with high preservation value from a barren land, it passes through several changes over hundreds of years; this is called ecological succession1. 1. The process of change in the plant community over time in the same place The following is the process of the ecological succession of a forest: When a barren land is left untreated, lichens and mosses start growing, and after some time annual weeds grow, followed by perennial weeds. Afterwards, short trees settle down, and then taller trees start multiplying.…

Hearing

The shape of an ear begins to appear three weeks after conception, and the cochlea, which delivers sound to the inner ear, develops around week 16. The auditory nerves which connect the cochlea to the brain are completed by week 20, allowing the fetus to hear the sound. Even before the whole body is formed completely, the fetus can hear by month 4 or 5 of pregnancy. Compared with vision, which allows the baby to see properly about six months after being born, the development of hearing is very fast. Not only that, but the sense that is alive until the last moment right before a man dies is also the sense of hearing. As for unconscious cancer patients in…

Secret to Harvesting Good Fruit

I once watched the news that farmers were facing a serious labor shortage due to COVID-19. Since there are many farming areas in Sangju, the labor shortage is inescapable here, too. Hearing that an elderly couple, who had been growing grapes nearby, too lacked in labor were in desperate need of a helping hand, our church made plans to help them right away. Over twenty members from our church headed for the vineyard, being determined to help and comfort the elderly couple by working with them while complying with the quarantine rules. We had to prune the shoots that were between the main branches and the leaves throughout the morning for two days. We were told that without pruning the…

Jin Sun-gyeong from Sangju, South Korea

Reply from a Great Man of Letters

French writer Romain Rolland (1866–1944) fell into deep anguish due to the uncertainty of the future and literary conflicts. Although he wanted to ask for advice, he didn’t have anyone he found suitable to ask. After much thought, he decided to write a letter to Tolstoy, a great man of letters from Russia, whom he had so much respect for. There was a very slim chance that a world-famous writer would write back to an obscure writer. However, he still wanted to get things off of his chest even if he wouldn’t hear anything back. However, something unexpected happened. He received a letter back from Tolstoy. In his long letter, he wrote warm and kindhearted advice and words of encouragement…

Enjoy Inconvenient Happiness!

There are many inventions around us that make our life convenient and enriching. If we use a finger without going shopping, we can get the items we want. We can communicate online without seeing each other face-to-face. But the convenient life does not always bring happiness. The development of transportation causes lack of exercise as time for walking decreases, and a new type of digital dementia arises due to the use of convenient smartphones. We sometimes regard even a little inconvenience as big. These are side effects of getting accustomed to convenience. The mission of this month is to find happiness hidden by convenience. Enjoy the happy things we can get from inconvenience! Tip Ring the bell or knock before…

Without Losing a Single Soul

About a month after I moved to Syracuse, I needed to go to a hair salon, and so I looked for a Korean hair salon in my neighborhood on the Internet. Happily, there was one that opened a year before, not that far from my place. I made a reservation by phone and went there the next morning. Although I arrived on time, the hairdresser was not there. Her husband asked me to wait, apologizing, and brought his wife a while later. While she was doing my hair, we talked about things and the church. She asked me which church I went to. “Have you heard about the Church of God by any chance? I attend the Church of God.”…

Kim Hye-yeon from New Windsor, NY, U.S.

How to Calculate Love

“I know you’re having a hard time at work. Here is some money for you to treat yourself with something you want to eat. And don’t get sick.” The son who just saw off his mom found an envelope on his bookshelf, where he found a note and a $200 bill. Feeling sorry and thankful that his mom had come all the way to see him, he put a $200 bill in her purse without letting her know, but the same amount of money was back on his bookshelf. He called his mother and told her that he ended up doing nothing for her as she gave him back the money. Then the mother said, “No, I got your money…

Lost Memories

When I was a kid, I liked animated TV shows a lot. Whenever I came home after school, I was always excited to watch them, and whenever they ended, I felt so sad. I tried to figure out how to save those episodes so that I could watch them over and over again, and I learned about video recording. There is a square hole on a video tape. When I covered that hole and recorded the show, what was originally recorded was deleted and the animations were recorded over it. We had various kinds of video tapes: my kindergarten talent show, bowling guide, foreign movies, my parents’ wedding, etc. I started recording animations with them. Of course, I was only…

Hong Sun-tae from Gangneung, South Korea

Benjamin Franklin Effect

In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin, who was an American scientist and politician, was trying to figure out how to deal with a rival legislator who tried to find fault with him about everything. He wanted his relationship with him to improve, but he didn’t want to use a gift or flattery. After much thought, he politely asked him if he could borrow a scarce book that he had. He returned it with note, expressing his appreciation. When they met again in the House, he spoke to Franklin first and manifested a readiness to serve him. Mentioning this in his autobiography, Franklin wrote, “He that has once done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another.” This…

Blessings of the Feasts, Which Even a Lion Couldn’t Stop

I am an electrician. I work for a company that sells heavy logging equipment. When the Autumn Feasts were just around the corner, I had to go on a business trip because one of the machines had a problem. The business trip could take days, but the Feast of Trumpets, which I was eagerly waiting for, was only a couple of days away. I wanted to postpone the business trip, but it was an urgent matter, and no one else was able to handle the problem. I left for the trip, asking God through prayer to help me solve the problem and come back in time. The region I had to travel to was a town called Obala, located near…

Djangue Rudolphe from Douala, Cameroon