Faith & Life

Every Family Member Is the House Owner!

If the strength of a person pulling a rope is 100, theoretically it should be 200 for two persons and 300 for three persons. However, the result of an experiment with a tug of war showed that the power of an individual was used by 93% when there were two persons, 85% when three persons, and only 49% when eight persons. As the size of a group increases, an individual’s contribution to the task decreases. It is called the Ringelmann effect. It happens because of the thought, ‘Someone else will do it, though I don’t.’ The same thing happens at home. Your home is where all your family members live together, but sometimes they tend to pass the house chores…

In Unity

Chlorine [Cl] is a very toxic gas. If chlorine [Cl] and sodium [Na] combine, they become salt [NaCl], which is indispensable for our life. The process of forming water is similar. When hydrogen [H], that is flammable, is combined with oxygen [O], water [H₂O] is formed, which is also essential for life. The principle that two different substances combine and become a useful element is reflected in our life of faith as well. If alone, it is difficult to achieve the goal of our faith, have a joyful religious life, and receive the blessings of heaven. This is because it is difficult to throw away our sinful nature while walking the path of faith alone. God has prepared rewards for…

A Note from Baby Twins

“Hello! We’re twin baby boys on our first flight, and we’re only fourteen weeks old! We’ll try to be on our best behavior, but we’d like to apologize in advance just in case we become uncomfortable, get scared, or our ears start to hurt. Our mom and dad have ear plugs available if you need them. We are sitting in 20E and 20F, just in case you would like to come by and get a pair. We hope you have a great flight!” The note from the twins was actually written by their parents. A passenger took a photo of the above note, which was attached to packaged sweets, and posted it on social media. The parents handed out the…

Getting Rid of the Old Yeast

Last Sunday, I volunteered to paint a school located near our church with the brothers and sisters from the 5th Lima Church in Peru. This time, my husband and my son were also able to join it. My family hadn’t had much time to get together with the excuse of being busy, but we spent time together at this voluntary service, which made it even more meaningful. We peeled the old paint before painting it over. We had to do that, otherwise it wouldn’t be painted smoothly no matter how good the quality of the new paint was. I thought the spiritual principle is similar to this. If we want our souls to be cleansed by Mother’s water of life,…

Luz Angela Benites Carpio from Lima, Peru

Training for Humility

Nordstrom is an American department store famous for its high quality customer service. At Nordstrom there is an executive training program that all management-level employees must go through to develop their management skills. This training program is held in a very unconventional place–a shoe store. John W. Nordstrom, the co-founder of Nordstrom, even trained his three sons and grand-children at the shoe store. To find the right size that fits a customer, you must humble yourself by kneeling down at their feet. This is the only way to sell shoes; without doing so, you cannot sell even a single pair of shoes. In the mall, a shoe store becomes the best place to educate executives on how to have a…

In the Place Where God Wants Us to Be

There was a very special day for me though it must have been a usual day for others. It was when some smiling members from the Church of God in Peru let me know the existence of God the Mother. That day, God opened my heart and allowed me to receive a new life. My husband who came home from work too listened to the truth and received it, and my younger brother became a heavenly family member as well. Before, I attended a Protestant church since my childhood, where I tried to preach the word to people though I didn’t really know what preaching was. I also asked my husband several times to come to church with me and…

Doris Espinoza Huachaca from Sao Paolo, Brazil

A List of Things to Throw Away

When you have things that you have to do or you want to do, it helps you improve your concentration if you make a list of them and decide the order of priority. However, if you have too many thoughts about those things, you get distracted and fail to fulfill your goal. This is when you need to make a list of things to throw away. Arianna Huffington, an influential journalist in America, made a list of things she was not good at, things she didn’t like, and things she thought she might be able to do it someday but in reality, there was no possibility in doing it, on her 40th birthday. For example, one of the things in…

Even One Seed with All My Heart

My heart is only filled with hope for heaven now. It’s because earnestness and the sense of mission which I didn’t have before have filled me. It’s already been more than half a year since I came to Australia. I remember the day I preached the gospel here for the first time. I couldn’t express what I wanted to say because of my poor English, and couldn’t understand what they were speaking. Just following the brothers and sisters, I was surprised that people at the malls or on campus or some other places would listen to the words of the Bible for thirty minutes or even for an hour. Is this how Peter felt when Jesus made him a fisher…

Shim Eun-jeong from Sydney, Australia

Helper’s High

When you help others without conditions, a quantity of endorphins secrete and make you feel good and also bring good changes to your body. This finding is called Helper’s High in psychiatric term. Literally, it means the best psychological satiety the person, who gives help, feels. An experiment shows that among 3,000 volunteers who help others over eight hours a week, 95% experience a helper’s high. A forced service is no different. One legal profession, who mainly deal with criminals, says that under trials who’ve received a suspended sentence of probation and community service order, initially do the service by force, but that they gradually do with sincerity. Service is helping others of course, but it also changes me. When…

A Letter to Dad

A nine-year-old boy named Mac, who lived in Alaska, baked cupcakes and hosted a party every year on the birthday of his father, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. This year, however, he wrote a special letter. “Dear Dad, I have some questions. What is it like to be in a tank? How old are you now? How old were you when you died? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite hobby? What is your favorite activity? What is it like to be in heaven? Have you seen what I have accomplished?” Mac was only five when he lost his dad. So, he was curious about many things concerning his dad. He…

With Beautiful Hearts Together

Members from the Cape Town Church and the Bellville Church gathered together for a blood drive. Through previous meetings, we made a thorough preparation for pickets, refreshments, and recreation for the blood donors who would be waiting for their turns. When the event day came, we got even busier getting ready to welcome people. At 3 p.m., the blood drive started with the words of appreciation given by the officials of the blood bank. Thanks to the Zion members and the invited guests, the waiting room was crowded without an empty seat. The process of checking the health status of each person before the blood donation took longer than expected, but no one complained, because we took care of even…

Churches in Cape Town and Bellville, Rep. of South Africa

God Has Come

More than ten years ago, I became a member of the Church of God. The words of the Bible were marvelous that I led my two sons, who were elementary students at that time, and my second older sister to Zion. I learned a certain amount of the Bible and heard compliments from the members, so I was confident that I had faith. However, I could not accept God who came with the ordinary physical body that was not different from ours, so I eventually left the truth. Ten years after that, the trials came without notice and even broke my will to life. I was totally exhausted in body and mind, and even the words of people whom I…

Baek Eun-hui from Gimhae, South Korea

How to Keep Your First Resolution

Once upon a time, a king was passing through a country village. On his way, he met a young shepherd who was greedless and diligent, and took him as his official. As the shepherd was always honest in assisting the king even after being called, he finally rose to the position of prime minister. At this, other courtiers became jealous of him. They were all obsessed with an idea of driving him away, but they found no fault with him. One day, they found out that he used to visit the house he had lived before once a month. On knowing that he opened the cover of a big jar in the house and looked into it for a while…

A Judge Who Made a Girl Cry

“Stand up, please.” A judge said in a soft voice to a girl who was in the court for theft. When the girl stood up hesitantly, the judge added, “Repeat after me in a loud voice. ‘I’m the best-looking person in the world. I can do everything. I’m not afraid of anything in this world. I’m not alone in this world.’ ” The girl, who was repeating after the judge in a loud voice, burst into tears in the end. Actually, the girl used to be a good student until the beginning of the previous year; she got good grades in school and dreamed of becoming a nurse. However, as she was beaten up by a group of students, she…

When I Am Weak, Then I Am Strong

Palmerston North is a small city in the North Island of New Zealand. This city is full of youth and enthusiasm, and when I stepped foot here, my heart was beating fast with excitement. God opened the way for the gospel work to begin in Palmerston North, so I was confident that heavenly family members would be here. On the other hand, I felt Mother’s anxious heart of seeking Her children, which also made me feel the urgency to seek my lost brothers and sisters. We knew that we cannot do the gospel work only with our earnestness. It is not an exaggeration to say that living the life that depends on God thoroughly is a fight with myself day…

Yu Ae-ri from Auckland, New Zealand

“As I Have Loved You, So You Must Love One Another”

People who live by the word of God make efforts to put this teaching into practice. However, it is not easy, contrary to their expectations. God said, “Love one another,” and so they expect to receive as much as they give. They feel that they are losing many things when they give to others without receiving. So it becomes difficult to give love. However, there is something we must not overlook: That is the word, "As I have loved you,” which is placed before the word, “so you must love one another." God sacrificed even His life, and yet He loved us. Did He expect to receive anything in return? Just as God loves us without any condition, let us…

Division of Housework Has an Amazing Power

Cooking, doing the dishes, laundry, cleaning, arranging, recycling, taking out the trash, grocery shopping . . . The housework repeats every day, and it’s not even that noticeable even if you do it, but it’s very obvious if you don’t do it. Although the housework seems simple and trivial, quite a lot of families have conflicts because of it. ‘Why can’t he help me with the house chores?’ ‘How can she ask me for help after I came back from working all day?’ ‘Mom will take care of it’ . . . The problem is not the housework itself, but the difference in understanding among family members. Sometimes, you don’t feel like doing housework, and they seem like trivial and…

Mission of a Libero

In a volleyball team consisting of six players, we can see a player who is in a uniform different from his teammates. He is a libero, who is specialized in defensive skills. Since he is allowed to replace any other player, he is called the “libero” meaning “free.” However, in actuality, he has many restrictions. Without being permitted to block or serve or attack the ball when it is entirely above net height, the libero is only responsible for the serve of the opponent team and has to catch the ball that comes at the full speed. In this way, he takes care of all the chores of his team in securing the end line. For these characteristics, he doesn’t…

The Wage of Overcoming Pain

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a French artist in the impressionist style, did not put down the painting brush in his hand even on the day when his fingers were in extreme pain. His friend saw him barely painting with his sore fingers and asked, “Do you have any reason for painting even in the pain?” Renoir replied with a smile, “The pain passes, but the beauty remains.”

Three Percent of Salt That Will Purify the World

Not long ago, we conducted a street cleanup in Junggwan-eup, Gijang, Busan. The day before we were supposed to do the cleanup, it started to rain at night, and it didn’t stop until the next morning. We were worried about the bad weather, but thankfully the rain stopped at 9 a.m. and the sun started to shine. The cleanup started and we joyfully cleaned the trash hidden between buildings and the areas that sanitation workers couldn’t reach, and also cleared weeds that covered the trees and the waste in the sewers. We moved in perfect order with the tools in our hands such as mops, tongs, and trash bags as if we were one body. I was reminded of the…

Kim Suk-gyeong from Busan, South Korea