While I was driving him, all the way I thought about how I could start a conversation with him about God. Hearing my testimony, he was deeply moved and eventually accepted Jesus. He was the first Japanese to accept Jesus into his heart as Lord and Savior. After that, we met more than once in the city when I went to study seminary. Once he invited me to his apartment, and treated me well with different kinds of foods. By the time I got to his place the table was pretty packed anyway. There was a different kind of food that I was not familiar with. And then after a while, he flew home. After that the line went dead. …
Through the love of Christ, I've learned to forgive and bless people even if they don't deserve it. I am very grateful to God that I can forgive and love and experience the abundance of God's love, which I do not deserve. This is simply the grace of God manifested through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The love of God is poured out on me regardless of whether I want to or not. This is nothing other than the promise of God given to our spiritual progenitor Abraham. God forgave my sins, and in confirmation of this, he gave me peace and joy. How can we not forgive those people who have wronged us like He can. Jesus still forgives and is ready to accept anyone who repents of their sins.
When the commander Bonaparte Napoleon was defeated, finding himself alone on an uninhabited island, he realized the truth about Jesus and his love. His love is more powerful than the weapon with which he tried to conquer the world. He wanted to conquer the world with arms, but Jesus conquered the hearts of people with his unique love and justice.
Through this story I came to a conclusion that Christianity is not just a fictional religion, as some claim, but the truth that leads us to the true God. All who believed in Jesus Christ were reconciled with the Heavenly Father on the basis of the sacrifice of the Son of Christ and they become children of God. This is the highest privilege that humans can experience in this life.
For example: let's say that the president of a country has a son. To him, the president is just a father, but to others, he is an inaccessible person. Despite the fact that not every citizen has access to this president, the president's son can easily enter his office, even ask his father for money. That is the attitude of a person to God, just like the son to the president. A son can at any time turn to his father for help, so can we. All we have to do is to ask in prayer to meet our needs. God is always ready to take care of our needs.
I remember by any chance, in Australia I got a book “Escape from Buchenwald” written by Zinchenko. After God orchestrated his escape from the concentration camp, he became a famous Christian who has traveled extensively around the world by preaching the gospel. . In addition, he has made a huge contribution to missionaries. The book was very exciting that I was able to read it in one breath.
The story of this book focuses on how God miraculously saved this man whose life was hanging by a thread. He could have been killed at any moment, but only thanks to the intervention of God he was able to escape from the concentration camp. If you come across this book, I highly recommend that you read it, it's worth reading it.
The Collapse of the Soviet Union. 1991
In the early 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country found itself in a very difficult economic situation. As a result of it, most of cutting- edge enterprises closed down, and at the same time the vast majority of people have lost their jobs. A new wave of change has begun abruptly throughout the country.
At that very moment for the first time in the country the first and the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected. In order to lift the country out of the fallout of the crisis, he began a new political reform of the country so called a perestroika and glasnost. In connection with the new political reform, freedom of speech came to the country and some restrictions on movement around the country have been removed. …
The Sakhalin Island that had been considered as a strategically important military objective for many years was classified. Therefore, in this regard, no one could cross the border of this island without the permission of the Soviet government. Only the inhabitants of the island with Soviet nationality could freely move around Sakhalin and from the island to the mainland and back. As for the rest of the citizens of the USSR, they could not cross the border of the island if they so wish. As for me, although I lived and was registered in Sakhalin, I could not move freely out of the Sakhalin Island as well as travel through it since I did not have Soviet citizenship.
Despite the fact that the parents had the opportunity to acquire Soviet citizenship, they chose to maintain stateless persons, hoping that they would someday return to their homeland. Due to the fact that they renounced citizenship, it was not easy for our family in our life, as for all ethnic Koreans living in the Sakhalin region. At that time, there was a harsh law on violations of the passport regime. In case of the violation of the passport regime, it was strictly suppressed and punished by the legal authorities, up to and including imprisonment.
I knew people, many of whom were serving sentences for violations of the passport regime. Therefore, it was not easy for me to move from one area to another. The island, being considered closed for many years, could not withstand the pressure of new political publicity, and opened its doors.
However, Sakhalin, which seemed to never open its doors, under no circumstances, with the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, the island's doors could not withstand the pressure of the so-called policy of perestroika and glasnost, at last it wide opened. In addition, Sakhalin was elected as a free economic zone, which attracted many foreign investors from the countries of the Asian Pacific region.
No sooner had the island been proclaimed a free economic zone than a stream of foreigners rushed there so that it was impossible to stop them. Only could God do that! Together with them are the Protestant missionaries.
Once after the daily work was done I came home to find many guests whose faces I did not know. At first, I could not understand what was going on in my house. Why are so many guests gathered at our home? What brought them to our house, I was very interested to know. It turns out later I learned from my mother that the missionary guests came from South Korea.
That's how it got all started. As soon as I open the door, a tall missionary approaches me, his height was less than 2 meters. Although I was not familiar with the guest, he spoke as if we knew each other well. He began by saying that I need to believe in God and repent of my sin, then I can go to heaven. Frankly speaking, I did not like their approach, as they imposed their idea on me to accept Christ. They were completely unfamiliar to me, how I could trust them. On the one hand, I was glad to see them, because the room was filled with a warm atmosphere, which we lacked, but on the other hand, I was not ready to accept what they imposed on me. In order not to offend them, I pretended to accept their offer, and behaved appropriately. However at the start, I wanted to observe them for who they are. The first impression they made on me was pleasant and inspiring. As far as spiritual life is concerned, I saw the purity of their hearts and zeal to evangelize, in contrast to other faiths. They began to gain some attention with their sincerity like a magnet. And I thought that maybe through them I would be able to fulfill my dream – to go to Korea.
I had a big selfish plan for the future, to fulfill my father's will to go to Korea.
As a child, I remember my father during his paycheck, came home drunk, and harassed us with his own conditions – who are you going to live with? Naturally, we answered him with mother. In response to this, he got cross at us l and behaved very aggressively, and it happened that he forced us to undress to our underpants, and kicked us out the door despite its cold outside whether in summer or in winter. It was tolerable in summer because it was not cold, but in winter it was unbearably cold, so we answered that we would go with him. Then suddenly he became soft and nice that invited us into the house by taking care of us with food and talked about his homeland. He said that he was on Sakhalin not of his own free will; he was forced to come when he was 20 years old by the Japanese authorities. The Japanese gave severe orders to young Koreans who had not yet turned 20 when they were forcibly mobilized to serve in the army of Japanese imperialism. Listening to him for hours, we ourselves did not notice how the dream was sown in our souls.