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 considered working in the sea again to say nothing of returning to God.
My plan stopped as I heard that the ship I used to take for work sank and the whole crew died. Realizing that truly human life cannot be predicted even a little, I never considered going back to the sea.
I was finally able to return to God after I got married. My wife started going to the Church of God, and I was led into the arms of God. Around that time, I had been weary physically and spiritually because things were not going well for me, and the words of the truth comforted me greatly. Thanks to that, I really liked the time to meet God. However, it was hard to keep all worship services due to my work.
I prayed to God to help me keep all the Sabbath worship services, and I got a new job. It still required work on Saturday, but it gave me a little more free time, which allowed me to study the Bible more and preach the truth to my co-workers as much as I knew. While doing so, Father and Mother’s sacrifice and love were engraved on my heart more and more, and I started burning to preach the gospel. I kept thinking, ‘What can I do to repay God who loves a sinner like me so much?’ I thought that the first thing I should do is to keep God’s decrees faithfully.
After praying earnestly, I told my boss that I wanted to keep the Sabbath worship services on Saturdays even if I had to work on Sundays. The result was better than I had anticipated. My boss approved of me keeping worship services on Saturdays and coming to work on some Sundays only when there was a lot of workload, saying that I’d been a hard worker. I was overjoyed. My experience to be able to keep God’s commandments, more precious than pure gold, by depending on God, encouraged me to grow stronger in faith.
Before I met God, I gave my family a hard time. My personality from working in the rough sea and my habit of indulging in pleasure caused so much pain to my parents and wife. People who knew me and even I never expected me to change. However, God Elohim is truly God the Creator who is able to change everything. While I was learning how much compassion God shows a sinner like me and how much God loves me, I changed little by little. As I repented of my sin through Father’s words and put Mother’s Teachings into practice one by one, I was acknowledged at work and was also able to quit my bad habits.
After gaining confidence that everything is fulfilled in God if I eagerly want it, I began to boldly preach to my family and people around me. As a result, I was given my mother as a fruit. My mother is the one who engraved on my heart the deep love of Heavenly Mothers even a little bit. My mother had felt bad all her life for not having given more to her children even after giving us all clothes and food. Her utmost love and sacrifice were enough for me to understand our everlasting Heavenly Mother’s true love. The best filial act I could do for my mother, who helped me find God easily, was to help her meet God, and my mother was willing to accept my filial act.
A heavenly family member I found at work, too, was a gift from God. He is my co-worker whom I got close to because of his bright personality. However, I sometimes felt that he had hidden pain behind his laughter. I thought that he was going through something, and sure enough, one day he came to me and told me what he was going through.
While comforting him, I preached to him about the love of God Elohim who heals our wounds. He stated to believe in God after listening to the truth. He visited Zion and received a new life. Later, I found out that he was going through an extremely hard time that he was thinking he couldn’t take it anymore. I believe that God led his footsteps to me to save him.
Just like him, I met the true God when I was having a hard time and received comfort that the world could not offer. I am thankful to God and ashamed of myself as well that I’m not repaying God enough for His grace.
There must be still many souls in the world who are longing to go back to God. I will preach the gospel with all my strength and offer even a little bit of comfort to Heavenly Mother, who’s anxiously looking for Her children.