Faith & Life

A Man Who Works for the Country

At a construction site where a school was to be built, a morning assembly was held before the construction began. The director asked the workers. “What do you work for?” Then one laborer said, “I have no other reasons but just to eat and live.” Another one said with a sigh, “My business collapsed and I have to pay off my debts. Every day I feel like I’m dying.” The answers from others were similar. At that time a worker said, “I work for my country.” All eyes turned towards him, and he spoke with pride. “Children, our future generation, will sing, exercise, and study at the school that I’m building. So I’m not just doing labor, but nurturing talents…

Before Speaking

A word of wisdom repays a debt, but a careless word like a thorn that you spit out leaves a scar on the other person’s heart. Then, what should we think before speaking? The answers are contained in the spelling of the word, “THINK.” Is it True? Is it Helpful? Is it Inspiring? Is it Necessary? Is it Kind? Like this, before speaking, you need to examine if what you are going to say is true and if it can help the listener. You also have to look at whether it has a positive impact, refrain from speaking if it is not necessary, and speak kindly. If you keep these five things in mind, you will be able to have…

Family Love and the Meaning of Life I’ve Learned in Zion

I thought making a lot of money is all I have to do as the head of a household. I was running a diner at Shenyang in China, where I was born and grew up, but I moved to Shanghai, two hours away by flight, to begin to work as a tour guide to make more money. When my pregnant wife went back to Shenyang to be well taken care of, I had to stay alone. But I had the sense of responsibility more than that of longing. Four years passed by quickly while staying away from my wife and child, meeting them only during the national holidays. I faced a challenging situation and had to make a choice whether…

Lee Guk-cheol from Jeju, South Korea

A Parent’s Heart

A man had to go abroad on business. He was worried about his wife, who had to take care of their five children alone for a couple of months without him. So he thought over how to relieve his wife’s burden, and he finally figured out one way. “Dad will give a great gift to the one who listens to your mom best while I’m gone.” The children cheered at Dad’s words. A few months later, the man returned from his business trip and asked his wife whom he should give the gift to among the five. Then his wife said, “The first child bore up well even in difficulties, caring his younger brothers and sisters and yielding to them.…

Ringwanderung

The Max Planck Society in Germany experimented with making people find their way through dense forests without a map and compass. As a result of tracking them with GPS, those who participated in the experiment went the right way while the sun was up, but when it got dark, they went round in circles. Although they walked twenty meters, they actually turned round and round within a four-meter radius. However, they did not recognize it. The phenomenon of going round in circles, thinking that they are going the right way is called Ringwanderung. It is a trekking term that combines “ring” (circle) and “wandering” (walking). Even professional mountain climbers often meet with a disaster due to Ringwanderung when they get…

Happy Home Is Full of Humor

At a funeral in Dublin, Ireland, the crowd of mourners burst out laughing in a solemn atmosphere. It was because the daughter of the deceased played his funny pre-recorded message according to his request of making the mourners laugh. The deceased, who always smiled even while suffering from a chronic illness, presented laughter to the people around him even at his funeral. As Charles Dickens said, “There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor,” the utility value of humor is getting more attention as life is difficult. A sense of humor has become a virtue that leaders must possess, a witty talent is favored by companies, and humorous advertisements generate more sales. Humor is…

With an Earnest Heart to Save a Soul

#1 Oh Seung-gwon from Osaka, Japan Now it is not easy to preach the gospel to our hearts’ content like before due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, a preaching festival titled “Bear Good Fruit” was held throughout Japan in obedience to Mother’s words to “show more love and care to our families and friends as the times are difficult.” A sister was led to God during the festival. She attended a Japanese religious organization with her parents and older sister when she was little. However, she found nothing but contradiction in the doctrine education that she had to receive there, regardless of her will. Disappointed by the corruption of the members and their oppressive style, her older sister and she…

Japan

Scientific Reasons Mothers Deserve to Be Served

First, mothers need a break. A study found that women have 40 minutes less leisure time every day than men. Second, mothers are worried about their children all their lives. No matter how hard you try to be a good kid, the challenge sticks with Mom forever. Mothers feel the most strain even to the point of death, particularly about the finances and housekeeping prowess of their grown children. Third, you are mostly your mother’s child. Your genes are half from Mom, half from Dad. But Mom’s genes have a greater effect on what you become. Forth, mothers get no help. In the old days when families were larger, grandparents were of great help in raising kids and keeping house.…

Daily Life That I Have Taken for Granted

My parents share housework; Dad cleans the house, Mom does the laundry, and they cook together. Since I became an adult, I was ashamed of doing nothing for them, so I volunteered to help them. But my parents said it was helpful when I did nothing. On a holiday, my parents went out and I was left alone at home. It was a perfect chance to finish all jobs around the house. First of all, I gathered up the laundry hanging on the drying rack and folded them. But it was a challenge from the beginning. I couldn’t fold the clothes as neatly as Mom did; the folded parts were stuck out and the shape was sloppy. After trial and…

Kim Ha-jin from Anyang, South Korea

A Miracle of Tree Planting

The Brahmaputra River is one of three major rivers in India, along with the Ganges and the Indus Rivers. The huge island, Majuli, formed on the river, is often flooded by monsoon1 rains. It was once a beautiful island with thick forests, but it turned into a barren land as trees were cut down by loggers. 1. Monsoon refers to seasonal winds blowing between land and sea, changing directions in winter and summer. It occurs in India and Southern Asia. A sixteen-year-old boy named Jadav Payeng was shocked to see a swarm of reptiles dead because of no shade of a tree on a sandy beach where rivers had subsided. He called the government agency to ask for planting trees,…

How to Enjoy Fruit Every Day

At a junior high school, a teacher asked his students, “A woman bought ten apples at a market. When she came home and took a close look at them, she found that each apple had a defect. It was annoying to go to change, and it was no good blaming the fruit shop owner. So she decided to eat them. Now, let me ask you a question. If she eats one apple a day, how can she eat it pleasantly every day?” One student quickly said, “I’ll eat anything because all apples have a defect.” Another student said, “I’ll eat untasty-looking apples first.” Then another student raised his hand high, “I’ll eat tasty-looking apples every day! Then the same apples…

The Secret of Forests

The thick forest with trees and grasses! The forest is not just a concentration area of trees. Though they have no eyes to see and no mouths to talk, trees live together, communicating closely and helping each other. Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, Canada, experimented on it: She covered a birch seedling with a plastic bag and injected carbon into it to see if it is transferred to other trees. As a result, carbon was measured in fir seedlings next to the birch. How did the birch deliver carbon to the fir? The secret was under the ground. As there are huge belowground networks of mycorrhizal1 in the forest, trees exchange nutrients,…

Work Together with Love

A lot of changes were made in my daily life due to COVID-19. Semester opening date was delayed and I had to begin the first day of the semester on-line. While I was practicing social distancing and following government guidelines, I really wanted to be of help to the medical staff and quarantine officials who fought with the virus at the front line. However, in reality, all I could do was support them with my heart. If there was a single way I could help them, I really wanted to do so. Then, I heard of “Cheer Up Campaign” that was planned by ASEZ, our church’s university student volunteer group; it was a wonderful news for me like a timely…

Song Yeon-ju from Yangsan, South Korea

Although Different from Me

A baby elephant chased a butterfly and accidentally went to where baby giraffes were playing. The baby giraffes that saw the baby elephant for the first time started to comment on him. “Guys, look over there,” “Oh, the nose is too long,” “(Giggling) He looks weird.” The teased baby elephant came home, crying. Surprised, the mother elephant asked what happened. When the baby elephant told the whole story, the mother elephant said, “Nothing will change though the giraffes make fun of you. The problem is not you but their act of teasing.” The next day, one of the baby giraffes that made fun of the baby elephant got lost and came into the elephant herd. All the baby elephants, watching…

“You Are a Good Person”

Everyone has good points you can learn. But it is not easy to find out what your good points are on your own. Often, you may know them only by hearing from others. When someone says to you, “This is why I like you” or “You are a good person,” you feel good. These words can develop your good points all the more, and you will feel more confident that you can do anything. It is a great happiness to have someone who recognizes and acknowledges you. This month, find good points of your family members and handwrite them for keeping a long time. You, too, are a good person who knows how to find good points of your family.…

The Memory They Do Not Want to Lose

It is painful if the memory you want to erase keeps playing on your mind. On the contrary, if the memory that you do not want to forget becomes blurred, it is painful, too. Dementia is one of the most dreadful illnesses that people do not want to have at an old age, because it is an “illness of oblivion.” The Seoul Metropolitan Government surveyed 373 seniors on the memory that they don’t want to lose by dementia, as part of the campaign to prevent dementia along with a pharmaceutical company. As a result, the number of seniors who answered “my life” to the survey was only 54 (12.5%), while the top answer to the question was “family” with 284…

A Fruit Sweeter than Honey and More Precious than Pure Gold

In Dallas Zion, we have a male adult brother who is a firefighter. Since he is a firefighter who is dispatched to accident scenes, he feels the need of God’s protection more desperately than anyone else. So he’s been constantly preaching to his co-workers the good news of salvation for the past several years. However, most of his co-workers either didn’t want to listen to what the brother was preaching to them or argued with him. Some of them were interested in studying the truth, but soon closed their minds due to the negative reaction from people around them. The brother felt so heartbroken, but at the same time he offered deep thanks to Father and Mother for opening his…

Church of God in Dallas, TX, U.S.

The Secret of Flying over 7,200 Miles

Bar-tailed godwits breed in Alaska, and when it begins to get cold, they move to Australia or New Zealand located in the Southern Hemisphere and get through warm winter. In order to fly from Alaska to their destination, they have to cross the Pacific Ocean; surprisingly, the bar-tailed godwits fly nonstop over that long distance. Having doubts about whether they rest on an island in the Pacific Ocean, ornithologists of the United States Geological Survey put a satellite tracking device on some of the bar-tailed godwits to find out their flight route. As a result, they noticed that one of the birds left Alaska in the afternoon of August 30, 2007, and arrived at the mouth of the Piako River…

The Answers They Want to Hear

A teacher assigned homework to his students. It was to pick up trash for thirty minutes in front of each house on a holiday morning. It was to let the students get up early because they might oversleep with the excuse that it was a holiday. After class, a student came to teachers’ room and asked the teacher. “Sir, if it rains, I don’t need to pick up trash, do I?” “No. It will be hard to do that if it rains.” Soon after the student left, another student came in and asked. “Sir, even if it rains, I should pick up trash in front of my house, right?” “Can you do that in the rain?” “If I ask my…

Holding on to My Crown of Life

It was a very special day for me though it must have been a usual day for others. Some members from the Church of God in Windhoek let me know the existence of God the Mother and how important it was to receive the promise of salvation. I was very surprised, and wanted to learn more about the Bible, but my mother had taught me that I should be careful of other people; so I decided to postpone the Bible study until the following day to make a careful decision. That very afternoon, I went home and highlighted the very verse I had been taught, not wanting to forget even one point. On the one hand, I thought, ‘I already…

Shange Valombweleni Nawa from Windhoek, Namibia