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Chicago UBF
March 20, 0214

GOD HAS USED ME AS A PROFESSOR SHEPHERD

John 12:24 “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

My name is Samuel Park (formerly Timothy Park). I was born as the fourth of eight children in Oakcheun, in the Province of Chungcheungbuk, on September 16, 1945. When I was 15 years old, I got a chance to read John’s gospel and I was moved by one word from John 8:32, “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But when I entered my high school, I suffered from deep depression due to not knowing the meaning and purpose of my life.
I barely graduated from high school and in 1965 entered the department of history at the Chungnam National University. One day in September that year, I cried out in despair: “God, if you really exist, please save me!” Then I felt the presence of God vividly, and believed in Jesus whom God sent for all human beings. At that moment, I had an experience to cross over from darkness and death to light and life.
After I was discharged from the military service in 1970, I returned to school and could concentrate on my major, and then in 1974 I entered the department of western history at Humanities Graduate School, Seoul National University. At the end of February 1975, I attended a Genesis Bible Academy in Chongro UBF (called Chongro graduates meeting), and received God’s grace through His Word. Then the Lord helped me to commit myself and continue to attend the Bible studies and Sunday worship service. The Lord helped me to learn and follow him. In 1976, the Lord established a house church with a devout, diligent, and beautiful sister, Hannah Park. The Lord helped me to obtain an MA degree in 1978 and to serve the Lord and the gospel work as a high school teacher and a lay-shepherd.
Above all, at the summer Bible conference in 1979, through Romans 10:9-10, I realized that my deep inner problem lay in believing with my heart but not confessing with my mouth that Jesus Christ died for my sins. At that time, I repented with tears that practically I had lived a self-centered life without Jesus Christ. Then I decided to take the way of the Lord’s cross, and at that moment I accepted His grace which filled me with joy and peace because of the forgiveness of my sins through the Lord’s precious blood. God gave me the conviction of salvation as a born again new creation.
Since then, I boldly proclaimed the Lord’s gospel. But as a high school teacher, I couldn't help my students to enter the top universities in Seoul; therefore, I had to resign in February 1982. But my wife and I prayed and trusted in God's sovereignty and goodness, although I became unemployed. Then the Lord helped me to get a part-time professor job during one semester, and then led me to be a full-time professor of western history at Jeju National University.
When we arrived in Jeju, there were about ten brothers and sisters in Jeju UBF. For 13 years, the Lord used my house church to cowork and serve the gospel work fully with each of four young staff shepherds. God blessed Jeju UBF so that there were more than 100 Sunday worship service attendees and nine house-churches established. Since then it became an independent, missionary-sending chapter.
Many years before, I had made a vow that I would serve the Lord and the gospel work full-time, if the Lord helped me to get a PhD. God urged me to pioneer Hanla UBF with one family in April of 1995. In August that same year, the Lord also helped me to pass my doctorate dissertation on the theme of “Renaissance Humanism.” The Lord has used me as a lay staff shepherd and Bible messenger, and my wife as a Bible teacher for 18 years in Hanla UBF pioneering ministry. We proclaimed the gospel to many college students, and made relationships through one to one Bible study and fellowship, and then helped them to believe in Jesus as their Savior.
My oldest daughter Eunhye and her husband James Lee are pioneering Chungcheung UBF full of the Holy Spirit and passion. Our second daughter, Jihyae, was a faithful and fruitful shepherdess in Yunhee UBF, and now with her husband shepherd Jungeun Lee is serving Boston UBF, pursuing post-doc courses. Our youngest daughter, Missionary Paulina, is serving UIC campus ministry with her husband Shepherd Jacob Kim in Chicago. Shepherdess Kyunghee Lee, whom we brought up for ten years, was given away in marriage at Ahnseung UBF.
Earlier in 2010, we had to send out Shepherd James and Eunhye's family to Cheungju to pioneer a new UBF church there. At that time, I decided to serve with a martyrdom spirit the Hanla UBF ministry. Then the Lord helped several sheep to remain: Kyungim Nam, Hoseung Yoon, Hyungho Kim, Kiwoo Lee, and Sangdeuk Lee.
But after much prayer, my wife and I decided to serve the last Sunday worship service at the end of July 2013 and to send those who are growing in Jesus to Jeju UBF. Especially during the 2013 “So Loved, so Love” conference, I joined an interest group session called “Praying for NK”, and heard the good news that there is a way to enter NK if one becomes a US citizen. I decided to come to the USA as a silver missionary with a vision of becoming a missionary to NK.
As I prepare myself to be sent out as a silver missionary, I am holding on to John 12:24 and desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ who was a kernel of wheat that fell to the ground and died. Outwardly, though I look gentle, I have a fatal weakness to be angry at small things. I want to crucify my passions and desires by depending on Jesus’ blood and the grace of the Lord’s cross and die to myself fully so that I may be a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies.
Until I enter the kingdom of God, I pray that I may not only study church history but also be faithful even to the point of death by not losing my identity as a gospel worker, a one to one Bible teacher and shepherd, by preaching the gospel. We hope that in God's right time, God may lead us to NK and help us to proclaim and teach the gospel there. Amen!

One word: Be a kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies

Prayer Topics
1. We may meet the God of America newly by overcoming barriers of English, culture, and old age
2. We may not lose our identities as one to one Bible teachers and shepherds
3. I may have God's wisdom and understanding to study church history
4. We may go to NK and proclaim and teach the gospel there in God's time

by Samuel Park