Pastor Park dedicated Himself To God Since He Was 18

When did God forgive your sin?

I was eighteen. I began to go to church when I was very young. I used to cry out all the time trying to repent and confess my sin. As I was attending a technology school in Seoul, I got in trouble and had to return to my hometown without a diploma. I was very embarrassed.

At the same time, I struggled to find the way to wash away my sin. Everyday, early in the morning, I asked for God’s pardon for my sin, but nothing happened. One day, I visited a pastor and asked, “I am a wicked man. What should I do to wash my sin and have faith?”

The pastor replied, “Pastor Park, you are young, that’s why. I sent my two daughters to another city for their study, and I have no idea what they are doing there. From now on, try harder to overcome any temptations by faith. You will eventually be blessed.”

Finally, I decided not to go to church, thinking that I was not among the chosen people, and that Jesus and I had nothing in common. However, when the church bell rang on Sundays, I could not help but attend the service. For about one year my heart was troubled.

One morning in 1962, I went to church as usual and cried out, “Lord, I am a sinner. Please forgive me.” After I finished praying, I began to think that my sin had already been forgiven. I was at peace.

Right after that, I was driven to read the Bible, and I actually liked it. So many times I tried to read the Bible, but I could not. The Scriptures sounded new and different to me. “Jesus washed my sin away. How wonderful!” My heart was changed. (He was born again at this precise moment.)

[Here he received a phone call.]

A month later, I wanted to give something to God, in appreciation of what God had given to me. First, I thought about money, but parents in the country did not give pocket money to their kids so I had no money. Before I was saved, my friends and I would steal bags of rice from my father and sell them for pocket money.

Could you not steal some money to offer God?

I didn’t want to give that kind of money to God. One day, I knelt down to pray at the church. “Lord, thank you so much, but I don’t have anything to offer you. The only thing that I have is my body, but what can you use me for? I know I am useless, but if you don’t mind, I want to offer myself.” (this is God giving him the spirit of obedience in Ezekiel 36:27)

At that time, I had never imagined that I could be a pastor. I just wanted to spend my life helping children and doing chores at the church. In the country, there were many houses that had only female residents. I could be very happy helping them to maintain their houses by doing chores such as building their fences.

About a month later, by God’s grace, I had the opportunity to go to missionary school. There were some born-again missionaries among the foreign missionaries. They realized that most of Korean churches were only formality. “What a disaster. Let’s start a school to raise born-again servants of God.” The missionary school started with seven or eight students, and I was one of them.