Title: Loyal to Death
Contents Text Revelation 2:10, "Be faithful to death"
(Hymn 216 The precious body of the saint)
Sermon: Missionary Lee Kun-ho
- Pastoral Correspondence-
It has already been over 3 years since I met Sister Jo 00, and we are entering our 4th year.
I still vividly remember the dark face, skinny body, slightly tall stature, and only the twinkling eyes. For the first 2-3 days, they searched for me, and from then on, I stayed up all night reading the Bible with my eyes closed for 1-2 hours a day, and in the morning, I was asked questions that I did not understand. Along with the new believer course, I taught about 10 hymns. And we sang that hymn together whenever the time came and memorized it in our heads. We taught to pray, we taught us to pray and worship together, and we worshiped together. We didn't have time to stay together. It was because I was worried about the food and safety of the daughters I had left behind in my hometown and had to return home quickly. After 10 days of being together, we had to say goodbye. And we sent the sister back to their hometown, promising to meet again next spring. At that time, I didn't know it would be so difficult to meet again a year later.
I've tried to meet with you several times over the past three years, but things haven't worked out.
Each time, I had to return to my hometown with regrets. He must have had so many things in life that he earnestly requested that he send the Bible first every time. We asked to send a lot, but we couldn't send much because of safety issues. The Old Testament was too thick to be sent. Only a few copies of the New Testament were sent. And sent some material for food.
Would it be an exaggeration to say that I hadn't forgotten the sister's name for the past few years? Whenever there is an article about the land in the newspaper or on TV, whenever I eat at the table, whenever the wind blows on a cold winter day, whenever I sit down to pray before the Lord, that name comes to mind first. It may not have been possible to pray every day, but it is always alive in my heart as if it were my child.
This time, I brought two people to work as workers, waited over a month to meet me, and tried many things, but I couldn't meet, and I have to return to my hometown with regret and sorrow.
Still, God has fulfilled some of our prayer requests over the past year. He has new people to help the sister and he has given him a Chinese phone to make direct phone calls to.
That number recently allowed me to speak directly to the sister on the phone for the first time in three years.
Through that sister, God has saved well over 30 families over the past three years.
Hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ from him, they said that they now have peace in their hearts, even in the midst of hunger and oppression. They said that they did not have a Bible, so they cut out 6 or 7 pages of a New Testament and read it in turns. They know only 10 hymns, but they sang that hymn every day and endured each day. When the members she cares for are reading the Bible and asking about the Old Testament or how to understand the Bible, which she thinks cannot be applied in real life, she is frustrated because she does not know anything and how did she do it 4 years ago? I should have learned more from my teacher, but I regretted not doing so.
When that sister left to meet me, the members of the congregation went to meet the teacher and asked God to ask when unification would be possible. It is probably because it is long and difficult for them to endure each day now, like 10 years or 100 years.
I told him over and over again that he just had to be patient, that the day would come soon, that it was certain that there was not much time left, and that God would surely restore the land quickly.
I don't even know when that day will be. But they had to say so hard because what they needed now was “hope.”
When will that day come?
What can we do for them now?
Today we must do what we can for them.