Elder Park Jong-il
When I was a sophomore in college, I was evangelized, and around the time I was graduating in my senior year, my grandmother passed away. My father had already passed away when I entered college, so my grandmother was even more affectionate toward me than my mother was. When she passed away, I felt unsettled, so I went to Wolmyeongdong to clear my mind. At that time, there were no buildings or the Natural Temple yet.
When I arrived in Wolmyeongdong, Pastor Jung Myung Seok was working together with his disciples. Seeing him work felt very unfamiliar to me because, at that time, he was a religious leader followed by many people, yet he personally worked from start to finish.
Having been in an organizational society before, I was used to people in high positions giving orders and delegating tasks. That’s how things normally operated. But Pastor Jung would personally cut trees with a sickle, stack stones, clear dirt, shovel, and do all the labor himself. Usually, when someone of high position participates in work, they show a bit of effort and then leave. But he would work alongside everyone from morning until the end of the day. To me, that was strange. I thought, “Why would he work so hard like that? It’s not even his own farming land.”
Later, when I was in China, there was a time I was able to be near him. He was repairing a house, and usually, workers clean up only after finishing all the work, knowing it will get messy again the next day.
But that evening, after work was done, Pastor Jung came to the worksite. Without wearing gloves, he used his bare hands to sweep all the dust into a dustpan and clean up.
So I asked him,“Teacher, why are you cleaning like this? There’s still a lot of work left to do tomorrow.”
He replied, “I’m so, so thankful that God gave me this house. I can’t express how thankful I am, so I clean like this.”
At that moment, I realized, “For Pastor Jung, gratitude toward God isn’t only when something is first given. It continues until the very end.” When you think with gratitude every day, you take care of what you’ve received. If you truly value something, you’d even touch a flower gently and wipe each leaf. I felt that Pastor Jung’s heart of gratitude toward God was deep and genuine.
When I worked for a shipping company, I was on cargo ships traveling overseas for more than 10 years. Because I was away, I couldn’t attend Sunday services, and there was no one to share the Word with me by phone. After 8 to 10 months, I would get vacation, and only then could I go to church once.
Not being able to practice my faith made me lazy, and I began to do wrong things because everyone around me did the same. In places like Southeast Asia, temptations would come.
From the perspective of my faith life, this became a heavy burden on my heart. I repented to God and thought, “If I ever meet Pastor Jung Myung Seok, whom I respect the most, I want to confess like in a confessional.” When I saw him in China, I thought, “This is my chance,” and I decided to tell him everything and repent.
After the morning meeting that day, I went up to him.
“Teacher, I have something to tell you…”
“What is it?”
“Actually, because I’ve been on ships for 10 years, although I didn’t do anything extremely bad, I’ve seen and done some wrong things. I want to repent.”
I shared with him some of the things from my past. After listening to everything, he suddenly took my hand, looked me in the eyes, and said: “You love the Lord, don’t you? Then that’s enough. Just do well from now on.”
Even during difficult times, I always had the heart, “God and the Lord will be with me. The Lord will help me.” Hearing his words and realizing that he understood my heart made me so thankful. Being reminded of His love made me repent even more.
“I must live better from now on.”
“If the Lord loves me this much, I must do better!”
That feeling has never left me, even to this day.