Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" (John 11:40)

Part 1. God¡¯s saving grace

I was born in 1965, in Kumsan, Korea, which is famous for its ginseng. When I was 3 years old, my mother died of cancer. My stepmother often made me do housecleaning and dish-washing. But I was not good at housework. She used to scold me severely, saying, ¡°I predict your future your husband will kick you out.¡± Whenever I heard her scolding, I cried a lot. I thought that if I had lived with my mother, my life would be much happier and my family would be much better. To escape from my miserable life, I entered a commercial high school. Then I got a job right after graduation. But I still felt miserable. I used to comfort myself that I was an able person, but I found myself as a loser and a member of the third class. So I decided to go to college hoping to have better life and be happy. It was little late, but I could enter the Han-Nam University in 1985. By the grace of God, I began to study Bible during my second year of my college. Through John 5:6, "Do you want to get well?" I deeply repented of my fatalism. Through faithful Bible study, God helped me to accept Jesus¡¯ world mission command. Especially he helped me to pray for Russia.

Part 2. My missionary life, the life of learning Jesus

In August 1992, by his grace, God established my house church with Msn. Paul Oh. Then we were sent out to Minsk as a missionary family. In the beginning, we had five missionary families. But soon all missionary families, even the chapter director¡¯s family, left Minsk because of their job and health problems. Finally, only my family was remained in Minsk, and Msn. Paul Oh was appointed as a chapter director in July 1996. But one year later, 20 native shepherds and sheep all left our ministry. To me, Minsk was not my mission field anymore. It was the place full of failures and wounds. I wanted to leave Minsk as everybody did. But God gave us John 11:40: ¡°Then Jesus said, ¡®Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?¡¯" Through his words, God comforted us and gave us faith that we could begin our ministry all over again.

In 1999, at the beginning of our new ministry, we were facing the real issue -- my 3-month VISA status almost expired. I couldn¡¯t do anything but pray and wait for God¡¯s leading. If I couldn¡¯t renew my VISA and had to leave Belarus, I really wanted to accept this as God¡¯s direction. But God helped me to get a job as a Korean teacher in Belarus National University. Then I could renew my VISA just one week before it expired. It was the amazing work of God. I didn¡¯t give my address to anyone at the university. I didn¡¯t even visit the university to apply for the job. But the university looked for me through people and called me. Through this event, I realized that God really wanted my family to remain in Minsk. I accepted this as God¡¯s direction with tears and thanksgiving. But the moment of joy was short. Still, I had to fight against my negative thinking and loneliness. I knew that I had to depend on the words of God only and grow spiritually, but I couldn¡¯t overcome loneliness. I was fearful that my life would perish in Minsk in the end. Nobody would know about me. Sometimes I envied people who left Minsk freely. But God gave me John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.¡± Through this word, God encouraged me that my life would never perish in Jesus.

In 2000, by the grace of God, we began to invite new sheep again and do discipleship ministry. In 2003, God even blessed us to establish a house church between a native shepherd and a shepherdess. Through this house church I was encouraged and comforted a lot, but they also left our ministry in 2006. This time I lost all my strength and couldn¡¯t get up. But God was still faithful to me. Through 1 Corinthians 16:13, which says, ¡°Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong,¡± God gave me new spiritual direction. Practically he helped me to depend on only God no matter what situation I was in. God also encouraged us to go fishing faithfully and serve any students with his broken shepherd¡¯s heart. When we did so, God sent brother Suk-Young Hong and sister Ra Hen Kim among Korean exchange students. They came to Minsk mainly for language study, but through Bible study, God bless them to be changed and be born again. They brought brother Ura, sister Vitoria and Lilia. Now they are having faithful weekly Bible study with us and attending worship service. We pray for them to meet Jesus personally through deep Bible studies and have calling to serve God's mission through the Moscow summer Bible conference in the coming August. We pray for them to be the new foundation of student ministry in Minsk.

Until now God has trained me to grow in faith through struggling with the self-supporting issue. We are not able to support ourselves because of the low income. But God has fed us and supported us in the past 16 years with nothing lacking. So many times I experienced the living God through my daily bread training. But I often despaired because of this training. In Genesis, as God had trained Abraham and made him a father of many nations, I believe that God has trained my family in the same way so that we may grow as a mother of Belarus. God wanted us to endure hardship and have faith in him.

When I look back on my missionary life in Minsk, actually God has blessed me much more than training me. God blessed me to be a Korean professor. God blessed me to get a green card. God blessed us to receive prayer and financial support from our UBF co-workers. We could purchase a place to have worship service. Also God blessed me to get a Ph. D in March last year. My thesis was on Korean foreign economic policy, its progress and development policy. As a university employee, I didn¡¯t have to pay any tuition for the Ph. D program. My monthly salary was so low that somehow I wanted to get compensation through my Ph. D program. My professor had been very interested in the Korean economy and its development. But he couldn¡¯t find enough data for Korea. He said that my thesis would be a great help for the students who major in economics in Belarus. Even though I majored in economics in graduate school, I didn¡¯t know anything about the Korean economy. Writing my thesis in Russian was humanly impossible. I had lots of stress and headaches. I wanted to give up many times. But when I came to God in prayer, God gave me his wisdom. He sent me many able people and helped me to finish my thesis. Especially my thesis was reviewed by a Belarus economic research organization. The committee members really liked my thesis. They said that my thesis would be very useful for Belarus and could be the model of Belarus¡¯ economic development. Through this I deeply accepted that God called me as a Bible teacher and shepherdess for college students in Belarus. I really thank God for revealing his glory even through me! Many times I lost faith in God. Many times I doubted God¡¯s love. But I thank God who has helped me to remain in Minsk. Thus far, God has blessed me to learn the life of Jesus. I pray that God may help me to renew my calling and have God¡¯s vision through the Purdue international Bible conference.