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“Why not go to a cemetery?”
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Chapter 7 - “Why not go to a cemetery?”
During May of 1963 I attended church service worship every Sunday. What I wanted was the worship service and I was blessed by it a lot. But there was a problem when I had thought about and wanted to act like the way the sermon said, but the change was difficult. This had become a thorn in my side.
I tried to listen to Christian radio stations and even read the Bible at times, but I couldn’t really get the act together. So I had sent a letter to Pastor KyungJik Han around December about this problem of ‘same-stance belief’.
The Pastor replied with his own writing. He wanted to meet personally and speak to me about the problem of my faith, but because it was towards the year end, with lots of other important duties he had, told me that during the early stage of Christianity is always hard. He said he would speak with the educational department pastor about this problem. He had a lot of active duty because it was a large church but even with that I still thank him for looking after me.
First I called Pastor SunYoung Lee of the Educational Department. When I went to visit the first thing the pastor told me was about his conversion to Christianity during college. After which he spoke to me about reading the Bible daily and meditate about it. During that time we didn’t have “Daily Life Bible Study”. The booklet the Pastor gave me was written by a Japanese pastor but translated showing the importance of reading the Bible and why it was necessary without losing interest. After I finished and returned, I was given other basic Christian belief guidebooks.
I was given a homework that I still remember
The pastor told me to visit cemetery at set times. This was an excellent way to learn what life is like. So I visited MangUri Community Cemetery, April 19th Memorial Cemetery, Doctor ByungOk Cho’s Cemetery (a famous politician), and many others. Even during a winter storm when the snow was knee deep, I still went and visited. I profoundly learned that a person has a life and dies. People who had their tombstones, some had nothing, some were rotten ones, reading also the date of birth of and death written with paint, and had thought a lot. Some died old, some young adults, some adolescent, and some very young. I saw with my eyes and imagined that one day I was going end up into the cold ground and be buried. So how do live in this world and then what happens next? I was mesmerized about what happens after we die. The answer was “When I’m here I shall live properly and live in the heavens when I die.” After I returned from the cemeteries and returning the book, I had a discussion with the pastor of the experience.
One day I was returning a book when the pastor called the church library.
“I will introduce a young man so let him borrow some books.”
I think it was because he had lent the entire available beginner Christian walk guides and wanted me to move on to the next stage. The library’s location at that time was not the YoungNak Presbyterian Church’s current library. The original location was located next to the Children’s Ministry building. The library was on the 2nd floor that looked like a house. The librarian was Mrs. YounKyung Hyun (Kwonsanim – similar to female elder). After the introduction from the pastor and was led to the library, she gave me a warm bottle of milk. Now day’s bottled milks are very common. But during that time milk in glass bottles were collected. Not to mention it was rare and expansive. I still remember the love and care that was through the warm bottle of milk on the heater. Later on, she became a mother-like figure in my walk with Christ and was an encouraging person.
About a year and half before I went to military I read a lot of books about church. Church history, martyr’s life, book about theology for layman. I must’ve read about 60 books. As I read I grew in my faith with God. At the same time I joined the “Nelson’s Extension Bible Study’. It was through the Navigator Missionary’s bible study guide that was summarized and much simpler and wasn’t really new. But to me it was eye opening and a lot of help. As a test mainly for memorizing the Bible, I was to send a written exam of the required verses. If I had a wrong answer, it was corrected with a red pen.
The Bible study group that fit me for my age was the college Bible study group. I was still too young to join the young men/women group. When I join the college group I ran into a problem because I wasn’t a college student. During this time we wore a simple uniform and badges by law made by the Revolutionary Government. Our group of 30 students, many of them had famous named universities. They were glad that I still came even though I didn’t go to a college. Even thought I wasn’t a college student they still greeted me with warmth. But it made me feel more like instead of encouragement, felt like sympathy. Our Bible study group teacher was YunSae University Theological Department professor SangHee Moon. Seeing him wearing the Tam’OShanter was a bit interesting of memory.
Even though he taught us the bible, it felt more like a theology class lecture. It was fit to those in college and grew up in church, but to those who were new in Christ like me was hard to swallow some of the subject matter. The theologian’s names were no meaning to me and hard to understand some of the theological vocabularies. After while I stopped going to the Bible study class.
While this was happening I was in a class to be prepared for baptizing. About next year I was baptized.
After I was baptized, the church needed Sunday school Bible teachers and there were classes open, so to be a Sunday school teacher I joined the class. (This was for more opportunity to learn more about the Bible but I couldn’t finish because of the mandatory military service.)
(January 2011)
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YoungNak Presbyterian Church World Gospel Mission 
“Why not go to a cemetery?”