Fragrance of Zion

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

With Love in Every Word

You have to walk a long way to reach the summit. Although it’s hard to walk up the steep path, if you keep on walking, you can feel the joy of standing on the top of the mountain. My journey of faith has been like climbing the mountain. The path was rough sometimes, but those rough paths made my soul healthier, and helped me enjoy more blessings and joy. My mother believed in Buddhism, but I always liked the word “God” ever since I was young. I believed that heaven where God dwells must exist. So whenever a new school year began, the first thing I did was to find a Christian in the class and go to her church…

Gwon So-young from Suwon, South Korea

The Opportunity to Restore Love

“Is God coming down?” When I was a child, I mumbled to myself, looking at the sunlight emerge from the gray clouds and shine straight down on the ground. Though nobody taught me, I was convinced that God exists for sure. So I went to a Protestant church since I was in elementary school. After becoming a university student, I was eager in my religious life; I even played the guitar on the street to preach. However, as time passed by, the sermons which were like cloud drifts in the air didn’t touch my heart at all. Whenever I did something for the church, I felt empty in the end. When I saw the secular life of the church members…

Shin Se-hee from Seoul, South Korea

Song of Life Flowing to the World, Taking the Radio Frequency

At 10 p.m. on Sunday is when people leave behind a joyous holiday and prepare for the next day. At this peaceful and starry night, the red light of On Air is on at the studio’s screen, and the radio airs for three hours, lightening up the world and reviving souls. It is New Song Radio. Beautiful and magnificent melodies of New Songs and fragrances of Zion which arrived from all around the world flow through the radio frequency, and make us feel God Elohim’s grace that spreads even to the opposite side of the globe. New Song is the music of the saints who want to give glory and thanks to God Elohim for Their love and salvation. New…

New Song Radio Broadcasting Team from New York, U.S.

Mother’s Love, the Turning Point of My Life

I was born in an unreligious family in Finland. While swinging on our yard in my childhood, I used to think there would be a time for me to die. I couldn’t bear the thought at all and was hard to accept the fact that I wouldn’t exist some day. I always wondered why I was on this earth, what the purpose of my life was, and what would happen to me after death. And these questions grew stronger as I became a teen. However, their answers could not be found anywhere. After I graduated from vocational school, I went to the U.S. to experience new things as an au pair. After months, I could speak English fluently. On one…

Petra iida Emilia Ruokojärvi from Helsinki, Finland

Until One Soul Is Led

Before I met the truth, I tried many times to have faith in God but it didn’t come to me. I thought, ‘Having a religious belief doesn’t seem my thing. Would I meet God after death?’ Frustration came along with many thoughts. Every day, I would ask myself, “At the end of this life, what will happen to me? Where will I go?” I put all my time and efforts into my studies, consoling myself that those were what I needed to do; but something always felt empty and I was not happy at all. When I was planning my future, I could not help but think that everything was meaningless. I wanted to find something that could bring me…

Maria Cleofe Cuchillo Gutierrez from Lima, Peru

Coming Close to God

When I was in my first year of middle school, I learned the Bible deeply at Zion. Actually, I started to go to church with my family when I was a child, but that was my first time to study the words of God seriously. I had been always proud of myself, thinking I knew the Bible to some degree even though I was young. However, the prophecies of the Bible and their fulfillment made me feel as if I had never experienced the Bible before; the Bible was full of testimonies that I couldn’t deny, and God truly existed. I was so happy to be able to completely believe both in God and the Bible that I wrote a…

Lee Pyung-hwa from Seoul, South Korea

To the New World of the Gospel

“Do you want to hear some words of wisdom?” My friends asked me as we walked back from school on the last day of our junior year in high school. Seeing their eagerness, I wanted to hear them. One who lived close had run to his house and brought his Bible, and they explained the truth about Heavenly Father and Mother and God’s regulations. The words of God were amazing and undoubtedly certain. That very afternoon, I went home and highlighted every verse I had been taught, not wanting to forget even one point. The next day, I was scheduled to leave to boot camp in high school, so I was not able to go to Zion right away. However,…

Nathalia Salvatierra-Abuid from Morgantown, WV, U.S.

A Flower of Love Bloomed in the Garden of Trials

For more than ninety days, I had to stay in hospital to get my back treatment. If you think it’s short, it is a short period of time, but when I was lying down, not moving even an inch because of pain, time passed slowly as if it stood still. I was also distressed, learning that I had to receive outpatient treatment for a long time even after I get discharged from hospital. Even before I was hospitalized, I had already been weakened from sadness after losing my loving family three years before without any preparation. I could barely endure without being completely devastated because I understood the spiritual world and God encouraged me with an invisible helping hand. But…

Park Du-yeon from Changwon, South Korea

What We Need for Communication

I started working when I was a sophomore and learned that social life was not easy. Stress from relationships was indescribable. But the people of the Church of God, I met through my sister, were different. It was joyful to do anything together with them who were like angels. About a year after I received the truth, I volunteered for the overseas mission. I lack preaching experiences, let alone overseas experiences, but I made such a decision with conviction that God is in Zion and everything we do in Zion has God’s blessing in it. The mission place was Sydney, Australia. Several Korean young adults were working for the gospel in Australia with the ambition to establish a church in…

Ju Su-jin from Sydney, Australia

Return to God

When I was young, I worked out in the sea for a few years. Whenever I was out in the sea far from the land, I felt like I was growing away from God. Strictly speaking, I’d already grown away from God because I, once a fervent Protestant churchgoer, had stopped going to church; I didn’t really know what true acts of faith were. However, I hadn’t forsaken my faith; I always had a thought at the edges of my mind that I would return to God some day. To put my resolution into action, I quit my job in the sea and started an ordinary job on land. However, I couldn’t adapt myself to my life on land and…

Chu Myeong-guk from Changwon, South Korea

The Worry That I Had for Nineteen Years Has Turned to Joy I Cannot Contain

“ . . . You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.” Jn 16:20–21 “Grief turns to joy,” “The pain of giving birth to a child is tremendous but when the baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy.” These are the verses that I liked and read often. I experienced the power of these words through my mother who was born again as a child of God Elohim nineteen years after she first heard about the truth. Mom…

Seo Mi-gyeong from Seoul, South Korea

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

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

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

Looking for the Narrow Gate That Leads to Life

Around 2008, I began to notice all the signs of various disasters around the world more and more frequently. I had heard that such disasters were prophesied in the Bible as the signs of the last days. I came to think about my life and about salvation, and came to the conclusion that because I did not know God nor God’s will and was not living a life following God, I would not be able to go to heaven. My search for God and for the truth began. I began looking up videos on the Internet, visited bookstores, and stayed for hours in the religion section. I joined a Catholic club on my university’s campus and asked the club leader…

Carly Dinnie from Middletown, CT, U.S.

My Son’s Talent Show

On the day when I moved to the new home, I quickly unpacked all the stuff and was preparing to attend the Third-day service. Then, my husband received a pleasant call from a member; he told us to come to Zion close to our new house because there would be a dedication service. The person who cheered for joy the most was my fifth grader son in elementary school. As his wish was to meet Heavenly Mother even once, he jumped with joy at Mother’s coming to bless us. My son’s love for Mother was so big that his eyes welled up with tears by just thinking of Mother. He helped us preach to our family or acquaintances by showing…

Eom Jin-suk from Seoul, South Korea

Nicole Weber from Parsippany, NJ, U.S.

One sister performed pansori, a Korean genre of musical storytelling, and sang an English New Song in the form of pansori at Carnegie Hall. It’s completely different from American music, especially for those who have never appreciated folk music or theatre arts. Many brothers and sisters attended the event. As the pansori chronicle continued, the show’s host informed us that a typical pansori performance takes eight hours but we would experience several parts that give a better understanding of Mother’s love. The sister eagerly wanted to not only preserve Korean culture but wanted brothers and sisters in the U.S. to realize and appreciate Heavenly Mother’s love. Thanks to her sincere efforts, those who had never flown to Korea could learn…

Nyanong Koung from Lincoln, NE, U.S.

Since I began my journey of faith, I’ve sought for wisdom from the words of God, and I’ve studied the Bible to know God whenever I had time. But sometimes there were some parts that didn’t make sense to me. Then I just kept praying to God to help me understand the Bible, believing the words, “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3). I truly believe that Jesus is God who came in the flesh, and I was baptized at a church. But they didn’t study the Bible thorougly. They didn’t go beyond speaking about love and being a good person. I wanted to realize more…

Normisha Boyd from Salem, OR, U.S.

Over a month ago, a little girl kept on following us while we were preaching. When we delivered the word of God to others, she listened closely. I thought, ‘Why is she following us?’ Moments later, we approached the apartment complex where she lived. She then ran ahead of us, yelling, “Mom, mom!” Again I thought, ‘Is she trying to hinder us?’ Then her mom came towards the door as if she was expecting us. We shared with her that Heavenly Mother came to the earth to give us salvation, and she invited us into her home to my amazement. Though we had little time, we shared with her about the Second Coming Christ and Heavenly Jerusalem Mother. Like this,…