Faith & Life

Woodpecker’s Brood Patch

Feathers are light and have very good thermal stability. So in winter, down jackets are popular among people. However, woodpeckers pluck out the feathers that cover their bodies and keep them warm. It’s only for their young. Woodpeckers willingly pluck the feathers off their bellies that directly contact the eggs during incubation. This bare area is fluid-filled and highly vascularized, making it possible for the birds to transfer heat directly to their eggs when incubating. This featherless area on their chest that they press against the eggs to keep them warm is called a brood patch. In most birds, a brood patch on the abdomen is automatically developed, but woodpeckers pluck their feathers from their own bodies. Moreover, their beaks…

Giving Time to Save Life

A three-year-old son of a man living in Germany had leukemia. The man had to go to the hospital for his son’s treatment, but he could not quit his job because of the medical expenses. For a while, taking his leave of absence, he went to the hospital. However, he used all his leave of absence, so he was worried that he might lose his job as he requested unpaid leave. Then his company officials and colleagues helped out. The employees voluntarily worked overtime on behalf of their colleague. More than 700 employees worked overtime for two weeks, making their work hour 3,264 hours and 30 minutes. Each person worked about five hours more to fill in for him with…

Finding My Friend and Heavenly Family

I was Chinese but naturalized as a Korean citizen. In the beginning, it was very difficult for me to accept the truth of the Church of God because I had not followed any religion for a long time. However, I had often read the Bible, thinking it was a good book, which helped me determine to believe in God. I could agree with the words the church members taught me because it was all from the Bible. For a while after that, I couldn’t go to church because I had to go to China. Even after I came back to Korea, to be honest, I felt burdened about going to church, so I purposely avoided contact with Zion members. However,…

Kim Gyeong-ae from Ansan, South Korea

How to Overcome a Tsunami

When a tsunami is generated, where should a ship escape to if it is already out in the sea? People generally think the ship should quickly go toward land where there is a port, but it is safer to go out into the open sea as far as possible from land. That’s because the closer it is to land, the shallower the water gets that the waves become dramatically high. But in the offing, the waves do not rise high. In fact, when a tsunami hit Fukushima in Japan in March, 2011, the ships that fled to the port were swept away, broken and sunk by the waves, but the ships that went far to the offing were able to…

When Do You Give Up?

Someone asked a famous salesman, “Does someone like you get rejected by a customer, too?” “Certainly! I haven’t had a day of rejection since I started work.” “Then how many times do you get rejected before you give up?” The salesman replied, “I don’t give up before the other gives up.”

Happy Workplace

One of my acquaintances helped me search for a job. I liked my new job because I already knew someone there and colleagues seemed nice. Since I was there to work, I thought I might as well do my best, and paid attention to even the things I didn’t have to. But strangely enough, I felt happier than tired though the work was not easy. While working until late at night, my eyes hurt and I felt tired, but I was excited while cleaning and was just happy even when someone said something not so pleasant to hear. Soon after, one of our Zion members started working here as well, and the atmosphere of my workplace became much brighter. I…

Baek Seon-mi from Jeonju, South Korea

Match of Faith

In most sporting events, it is difficult to predict victory or defeat until the final whistle blows. A team outscores the other in the beginning, but it might be defeated with lack of persistence. On the contrary, a team seems likely to lose, but it comes from behind with a dogged fighting spirit and concentration. The touching scenes remembered by sports fans are usually displayed at the last moment of the match. It is not different in the match of faith that is played right before the completion of the Bible’s prophecies. Although you’ve done well so far, the victory might slip from your grasp when you relax your attention. On the contrary, you can get an amazing result by…

Motive for Voluntary Services

One foggy morning, the members from Santiago and La Florida, Chile, gathered to participate in the blood drive despite the cold weather. The hospital was very crowded with more than 400 volunteers. So, some of us had to move to a different place to be able to donate blood. People wondered how we could be so willing to do the voluntary service. Whenever we were asked about our motive for voluntary services, our answer was the same always: “It is to spread Mother’s love to the whole world.” Where will be the next place for us to answer this again? We’re very excited!

Jose David Ancamil Rocha from Santiago, Chile

Liebig’s Law of the Minimum

There is a law called Liebig’s Law of the Minimum. This was announced by Justus von Liebig, a German chemist. It states that the growth of plants is controlled not by the total amount of available resources, but by the scarcest resource. An image of a barrel—often called Liebig’s barrel—can explain this law: Just as the capacity of a barrel with staves of unequal length is limited by the shortest stave, so a plant’s growth is limited by the nutrient in shortest supply. Although a man is healthy, if one of his organs is not good, his lifespan is shortened. No matter how smart a student is, if he or she doesn’t get a good grade at one of the…

Organizing Skill

There are many objects and lots of information around us. However, do we need all of them? If we think about this matter carefully, we can easily realize that we don’t need them all. Liz Davenport, a famous organization consultant, explains that workers spend about 150 hours a year just on searching necessary information or objects. In fact, everyone frequently wastes much time on searching for things at home. Experts explain that we can have more time for ourselves to spend on what is valuable by saving time spent on searching for things, and they pass on the knowhow of organizing things and information. In summary, their instructions come down to “Set your priorities and put things and files within…

A Fruit Taught Me Patience

I went out to preach the gospel at Osasco Center and met a lady near the subway station. She lived in Itapevi, about an hour and a half away by car from Osasco. She had visited many churches, but she had not attended any of them because no one taught her the Bible correctly. When she heard the truth about God the Mother, she was very interested and said, “It is testified in the Bible so clearly, but how come no one taught me this until now?” She wanted to know more about the Bible and to meet again on Sunday. A few days later, I headed for Itapevi to meet her as we had agreed. I took the train…

Jeon Myeong-hui from Sao Paulo, Brazil

Give a Cheerful High Five!

High five is an action to celebrate victory or to express happiness in which two people raise one arm each and hit their open hands together. Sports players often do high fives to improve teamwork during games. A study says that the teams with good results often had a light physical touch like high fives, handshakes, and hugs among the players. Another study says that the students whose teachers patted them on the back or arm to encourage them participated in class activities nearly twice more than other students. Just as you clap your hands unawares when you’re excited, clapping makes you feel positive, refreshed, pleasant, and even confident. Clapping hands is good for health, too! Tip Do high fives…

A Boat Waiting for High Tide

Steel King Andrew Carnegie kept an old painting in his office. The painting he treasured was neither a masterpiece drawn by a famous artist nor an antique that was highly worth possessing. It was just a humble painting of a boat on a sandy beach. When he used to be a traveling salesman in his early days, he found this picture in the house of an old person and politely asked for the picture. At the bottom of the picture was a sentence that read, “The high tide will come.” The boat that seemed abandoned was waiting for high tide. Just like the boat that will row out to the sea when high tide comes, Carnegie had the firm belief…

100

The highest point on most exams is 100. When expressing something that is satisfied or full, the number 100 is used in a percentage. Even at 99℃, the water stays still, but when it reaches 100℃, it boils. So the number 100 is the final goal that cannot be surpassed or the highest score with no fault. There is a final goal for us as we work to save souls. Until all the prophecies of the Bible are completed, we must do our best to fill ourselves with 100% faith and 100% passion for the gospel, and change into a 100% beautiful character, so that we will complete the God-given mission of the gospel. It is difficult to accomplish the…

For Perfect Product

A person drops a cell phone from one meter high, puts it in a 360 degrees rotating box continuously, and even pours water on it. What is more, a person who weighs about 100 kg (220 lb) sits on it or presses on a button over 100,000 times. The reason the cell phone is tortured this much is because of the quality test done by the cell phone company. In order to improve the quality of the product, this company files customers’ complaints, examines the usage pattern, and adds to the check list. Moreover, an airtight container company repeats flipping hinged lid over one million times as well as shaking the container with liquid in it for over 24 hours.…

Grit Score

At Harvard University, they had a study on 130 students. They designed a study and asked students to run for up to five minutes on a treadmill with the maximum speed set. Running was over just in few minutes, but the study lasted forty years. The research team had longitudinal studies on the participants every two years to check their recent state. As a result, the study confirmed that their level of vocational achievement, social satisfaction, and psychological adjustment were proportional to the grit score. Grit is a psychological term expressing patience and enthusiasm of pushing a little bit more when they reach the limit. It is found that the students, who received higher grit scores by not giving up…

Human Body, the Greatest Gift

A single car has about 25,000 parts, and a Boeing 747 has over 45 million parts. Then, what about the human body? Our body has about 10 trillion cellular tissues, 25 trillion red blood cells, and 25 billion white blood cells, and the tongue alone has 9,000 taste cells. The heart which weighs only 300 grams beats over 100,000 times and pumps 7,200 liters of blood a day and flows continuously through blood vessels in the body at the speed of 216 km/h (134 miles/h). Every day, the lung breathes in and out nearly 20,000 times and breathes in 10,000 liters of air. The brain which is 2.5% of the body weight has 14 billion nerve cells and 7 millions…

If You Desire Eagerly . . .

“. . . If you want to do something, desire it eagerly.” I had spent a long time as a fruitless branch although I had always fed on the nourishing sap from God who is the vine. I wanted to deliver God’s words to my family and friends, but I had no courage to preach to them and I just thought that they might not be God’s children. When I saw other brothers and sisters receiving the blessing of bearing fruit abundantly, I deliberately tried to look away from myself who was lacking in boldness and prayer as well, and I used to comfort myself with the belief that I would be blessed with fruit someday because I kept God’s…

Ji-ye Lee from Daegu, South Korea

Wrong and Different

8 What is it? It looks like a driving course to a traffic manager. It is a code to those who work with equipment. It is the number eight or the infinity symbol to a mathematician. Everybody is right. Nobody is wrong. The answer can vary according to perspectives. There are seven billion people on the earth, but none of them look the same. Even twins look different. It is not just about looks. We all think differently, speak differently, and act differently. Being different doesn’t mean it is wrong. People may not agree with you. The way some people speak may be unpleasant to your ears. Their behaviors may get on your nerves. But if you think, ‘They’re just…

The Goodness of a Person Spreads

I believe everyone has ever, at least once, been attracted on the street to sweet smell of new bread wafting through the air. This smell of bread does not only stimulate people’s appetite but also make people kinder. The researchers at the University of Southern Brittany in France recruited eight volunteers and let them drop one of their belongings outside a bakery and a clothing boutique. As a result of about 400 times of experiments, they found out that when the volunteers dropped items outside the bakery, 77 percent of strangers stopped to help recover the lost item, but only 52 percent of strangers helped outside the clothing store. A similar experiment had taken place before, and it showed that…