I Met Jesus at the Shop

By Hong Soon-mi

It didn’t seem that life could get much worse. My husband was stricken with bone-marrow cancer. Then his parents died. I had to pay for my mother-in-law’s funeral on my own and then take on responsibility for my family’s livelihood.

Image © Pacific Press

Sometimes I didn’t even have 1000 Korean won (U.S.$1) to pay for my son’s school supplies. My salary wasn’t enough to cover my husband’s hospital bills. Every day, I worried that I wouldn’t have enough rice to feed my family. I wept. I felt so alone.

Then I met Park Yeon-sook. She wasn’t a relative or even a friend, but she tried to cheer me up. She saw that I was struggling financially, and she gave me additional work at her shop in Hanam, a suburb of South Korea’s capital, Seoul. The extra money helped pay for living expenses and hospital bills.

I was so grateful for the work. But I noticed something unusual about Yeon-sook. She seemed happier than other people. I thought this was strange, but I was greatly moved by her joy.

As I got to know her, I saw that she went to church on Saturdays. She didn’t worry about the income that she lost by closing her shop once a week. I was an atheist, but I wanted to go to church with her and find out why she had such joy and peace.

Yeon-sook never invited me to her Seventh-day Adventist church, but I resolved in my heart to go. So I started studying the Bible on my own. As I learned about God, the peace of heaven came into my life. I gave my heart to Jesus and joined West Hanam Seventh-day Adventist Church, where I now serve as a deaconess together with Yeon-sook.

There are many things that I don’t know, but I believe in God from the bottom of my heart. Yeon-sook never spoke to me about Jesus a lot, but I saw Jesus in her life. The same Jesus whom I met through her life is living in my heart today.

This year, my husband and son also were baptized and joined the Adventist family. It doesn’t seem that life can get much better. Thanks be to God for reaching my family through Yeon-sook and her shop.

This mission story illustrates Mission Objective No. 1 of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s “I Will Go” strategic plan: “To revive the concept of worldwide mission and sacrifice for mission as a way of life involving not only pastors but every church member.” Learn more at IWillGo2020.org. This quarter, your Thirteenth Sabbath offering will support two mission projects in South Korea. Read more about Yeon-sook next week.

Produced by the General Conference Office of Adventist Mission. Find more mission stories at adventistmission[dot]org

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