Faith & Life

Fathers’ Dream

After taking the SAT, some high school students were asked of what their dreams were. Their answers varied: making debut as a singer, traveling around the world, eating fried chicken as much as they want, farming on the school ground, and so on. Then, another question was given: “If you have only one year left to live, which one will you choose, achieving your dream or having 500,000 dollars?” They all chose their dream; they regarded their dreams as more valuable than anything else. On the other hand, their fathers were asked of the same question. The fathers’ dream was to travel with their families, to build a nice house to live happily with their families, to meet their sons’…

Conditions of a Good Leader

Among the analects left by Genghis Khan who built the Mongol Empire, there’s a quote about his favorite servant whom he felt sorry for. “Yesun Bei is a great warrior. He does not get tired after a long battle. Therefore, he thinks all the other soldiers have his stamina. He gets furious when others cannot perform as well. Such a man cannot become a commander.” [Source] http://mengnews.joins.com A good leader is not the one who does well by himself, but the one who takes part and understands difficulties the group members are going through.

When You Turn Off the TV, You Will See Your Family

The word television comes from Ancient Greek tèle, meaning far, and vision, meaning sight. As the word explains itself, television is a broadcast system which allows us to see what is going on in a far-off place, even on the other side of the world, at home. However, we should remember that it actually blocks us from seeing our family members who are very close to us. It has become an everyday thing to turn on a cartoon channel for a crying kid, or to place a television set in the living room where all family members gather. Now since there are many cable TV channels as well as terrestrial TV channels, quite many families turn on the TV from…

A Trip That Turned Back Time

In 1979, a newspaper in the State of Ohio, U.S., put an advertisement for a one week free trip for eight elderly people in their late 70s to early 80s. The elderly people were selected and arrived in a remote country village. There were two regulations that they had to keep: One was talking and behaving as if it were actually 20 years ago, and the other was doing the housework on their own. In the mansion decorated with things that were in 1959, the elderly participants watched films and read magazines of that time, and discussed historical events as if they were current news. In spite of their old age and physical frailty, they themselves cleaned the house, did…

I Have Finally Met the Truth

Sister Jayshree is a nurse. Whenever she has a chance, she preaches the gospel to the patients who come to her hospital. Among them, there were a pastor and his wife who came to her hospital from the countryside for their sick child. They were from Naydongri, four hours away from Nashik by train. The pastor and his wife were startled by the word of God and asked the sister to come to their house and deliver the words to them more. It was a great suggestion, but it wasn’t easy to go visit them right away due to the distance and circumstances. It took us a month to visit them. We formed a small short-term mission team and took…

The Nashik Church, India

From What I Can Do

John Wood who was working as an executive for a major company went to a Himalayan remote area in Nepal for his holidays. There he saw students having classes, being densely seated in the dirt. He was shocked and made up his mind to do something helpful for the education of children living in developing countries. Though he didn’t know how to prepare books and education cost and how to send the gifts to them across the Pacific, first of all he sent his acquaintances emails soliciting book donations. And then, he shipped the donated books to schools in Nepal. After that, he established a charity and performed various projects; he did one by one from what he could do.…

Well Done!

A mother wheeled a stroller into the elevator. The hair of the child sitting in the stroller was shinny and eye-catching. Then I noticed a mark on his wrist. It was like a “Well Done” stamp. “Hi. What’s on your wrist?” I asked him out of curiosity and his mother answered instead. “It’s a stamp he got at his daycare center. When I tried to remove it while bathing him, he cried that I couldn’t wash around it. So the mark is left.” I smiled despite myself, imagining how anxious he must’ve been about the stamp being washed off while his mother was bathing him. I was reminded that even whales dance when praised. Animals too dance with joy when…

Choi Seok-hui from Seongnam, South Korea

Love Written on Napkins

Garth Callaghan, a common head of an American family, is such a sweet dad who packs his daughter’s lunch box. Every day, he wrote a good writing such as a proverb on napkins of the lunch box to express his love for his daughter. One day, however, he was diagnosed with a cancer. While fighting against the cancer through several operations and recurrence, he was worried that he may not live to see Emma graduate. So he wrote 826 napkin notes in advance—enough to get her through her high school graduation. “Dear Emma, sometimes when I need a miracle, I look into your eyes and realize I’ve already created one,” “Do the right thing even when no one is looking,”…

The Way to Change a Troublemaker

There was a teacher who called the names of the children in her class peculiarly like cute who, wise who, and who of strong sense of responsibility. There was a well-known troublemaker in her class. She even named him as a scholar. He never did his homework, never brought his school supplies, and always messed around during the class. But still the teacher called him a scholar. After a year later, the kid totally changed to a whole different student. He really became a model student and got voted as a leader in his class.

Actor–Observer Bias

If you are late for work, you justify yourself that there were enough reasons for it such as a traffic jam or a long bus interval. But if your coworker is late, you regard him as a lazy person. If you messed up the test, you think it’s because the test was too difficult, but if others messed theirs up, you conclude that it’s because they did not study hard. Everyone gets this psychological error at one time or another. The actor-observer bias is a term in social psychology that refers to a tendency to attribute one’s own actions to external causes, while attributing other people’s behaviors to internal causes. Essentially, people tend to make different attributions, depending upon whether…

Volunteer Service = Joy² + Thankfulness²

I heard the news that the college students of our church were to do a street cleanup in the afternoon on a weekday. I eagerly wanted to participate, but I had a job without flexibility. The opportunity came to me who had been envious; young adult workers, too, decided to do a street cleanup on a Sunday. I earnestly waited for that day, counting down the days with excitement. On the morning of the cleanup, we, young adult workers, gathered around the Cheonggyecheon Stream with twinkling eyes. We held a short meeting, made teams, and moved to each designated cleanup area. While we were diligently picking up trash, all of a sudden, there was a really bad smell. It was…

Park Su-bin from Seoul, South Korea

Mature Faith

Children usually throw a tantrum if they cannot get what they want. They are selfish, so they do not care about their parents who are having a hard time or about the people who are frowning at them. But adults, who are mature, are different. Although they are uncomfortable, they bear the situation and understand others and consider them. The word mature does not simply mean getting bigger and older physically. When one’s mind grows as mature as his body, and when he sees reason with a mature personality, he is finally a grown-up. In short, he becomes an adult only when he becomes mature. Parents are glad to see their indiscreet children no longer talk as they please but…

Set Laughter Devices at Home!

Your smile makes those who see you as well as yourself happy. It’s also the best way to express your love to the people around you and to encourage them and support them. Set laughter devices all over the house to laugh more. Laughing out loud for more than ten seconds will increase the effect of laughing even more. Make good use of various laughter devices to laugh aloud together with your family. Unhappiness will run away and happiness will fill your house. Tip Laughter zone: Laugh whenever you’re in the zone. (Put up a sign, “Laughter Zone” or “LOL.”) Laughter line: Laugh whenever you cross it. (Put up a sign, “Laugh when you cross it.”) Laughter time: Laugh at…

Following Father’s Sacrificial Path for Seven Days

Having received the Holy Spirit of the latter rain on the Day of Pentecost, the Denver Zion formed a short-term mission team to participate in establishing God’s realm throughout the world. The brothers and sisters who volunteered for it prepared in a hurry to leave a week later. The areas to preach were Duluth and Rochester in the state of Minnesota, where there aren’t many Zions yet. Duluth was about one day away from Denver, and Rochester was four hours further from Duluth. Our schedule was going to be tight due to the distance. We planned to leave Sabbath day evening, arrive there Sunday evening, preach the gospel for two days from Monday till Tuesday afternoon, keep the Third-day service…

Short-term Mission Team from Denver, CO, USA

“Remember Birkenhead!”

In 1912 when the Titanic, called as a “Floating Palace,” was about to sink into the sea, the captain ordered to let women and children first get on lifeboats that were far from enough. Today, “Women and children first” is a common law, but this originated from the Birkenhead, a troopship of British Navy. In 1852, the ship was sailing along the African coastline with 472 soldiers and 162 women and children of their family. Unfortunately, the ship ran into a reef near the Cape of Good Hope. There were only three lifeboats left, with a capacity of 60 people each. As the ship began to sink, the commander, Sydney Seton, ordered all soldiers to assemble on the deck and…

The Secret of Longevity

A Korean TV program reporter asked a 107-year-old man, “Sir, what is the secret of your longevity?” Then he answered with embarrassment, “Did you call me Sir? Call me just friend!” The reporter asked again, “Oh, my friend! What’s the secret of your longevity?” This time he said, “No secret! I live a long life because I don’t die.” His answer raised a laugh. So the reporter asked him again, “My friend! There must have been many people you disliked while living so far. How did you bear all?” Then he replied, “Yes, some I didn’t like. But I let them do as they wanted. When they were in their 80s or 90s, they died. Though you don’t like someone,…

Learning Harmony Through Orchestra

In 1975, a special meeting was held in Venezuela. José Antonio Abreu, an orchestra conductor and economist, founded “El Sistema,” an orchestra made up of eleven impoverished children. Abreu wanted the children, who were exposed to various criminal acts in the streets, to be comforted with music and learn solidarity. After forty years, “El Sistema” has established itself as a free music training program, in which more than 300,000 children are participating across thirty different countries. “El Sistema” is an orchestra based upon children who learn harmony and fraternity through playing instruments together. Now, they are no longer wandering in the streets, but growing with dreams for the future.

The Greatest Decision

One day in August, 2012, my friend told me an astonishing secret of the Bible, beginning from the words in the Book of Genesis. I was overwhelmed while hearing the words but I couldn’t just simply be happy because I was worried about my parents’ opposition; they were diligent in the Catholic Church. After thinking about it for three weeks, I finally accepted the truth. It wasn’t an easy decision but I have no regret till now. The decision I made to follow Heavenly Mother was the greatest decision I’d ever made in my life. The most thrilling truth was certainly about Heavenly Mother because I always had a question, “Doesn’t God the Father have a wife?” since I was…

Charles Tespoer from Iloilo, Philippines

A Man Who Stumbled Over a Rock

A man was walking along a path. The sunlight shining through the dense forest and a fresh breeze made him feel happy and refreshed. Smelling the fragrance of nature all around him, he was walking slowly with his eyes closed. Then he tripped over a sharp rock on the ground. He was so angry that he decided to pull the rock out. He thought it would be easy, however, the deeper he dug the ground, the more he realized how big the rock was. His clothes were soaking wet with sweat, and the sun was already setting. Only then did he realize how silly he was to have tried to pull out the rock. He put the soil that was…

When Seen from a Different Angle

An art teacher handed out a portrait of Picasso to students and asked them to copy it. The students looked confused because Picasso’s drawing had two or three people’s faces mixed together. They didn’t know where to start, so the teacher asked them to put the portrait upside down and copy it. Then the students were able to copy it without any difficulties. When they put the copy of the portrait upside down, the students were now able to forget their preconceptions about what the picture was, and they could simply focus on the lines and shapes. When we take one step back and look at a problem from a different angle, we can find solutions we might have missed.