Enlightenment

Happiness That I Learned in the Military

When I joined the military, my parents didn’t look sad while seeing me off. I entered the training center, thinking, ‘It’s good that my mom and dad didn’t get too emotional.’ But on the day we had the completion ceremony of the basic training, my parents ran to me, looking like they were about to cry, and gave me a hug. That was when I realized that my parents were actually hiding their feelings at the admission ceremony. Ever since that day, I tried harder to get myself adapted to the hard trainings, thinking that they would be very concerned if I couldn’t adapt myself there. I called them four or five times a week at least to ask them…

Kim Seung-hyeok from Busan, Korea

What Is Important to My Mom

When I came back home from meeting my friends on a Sunday evening, my mother had several layers of bandages on her pinky finger. “Mom, what happened to your finger?” “I got a little cut while doing something.” Glancing at it, however, it wasn’t just a little cut, and so I asked her to see a doctor quickly. But she said it wasn’t serious and she could go tomorrow. She said so as if nothing really happened, so I thought she was okay, but that was not the case. When I came home after work the next day, her condition was really bad. It was not just her finger; her whole hand was wrapped in bandages. When she went to…

Lee Sun-mi from Seoul, Korea

Home & Mother

On a day off, which I don’t usually have, I was busy doing all the house chores that had piled up and didn’t even notice my phone was ringing. I checked my phone later and found there was a missed call from my mom. “You called me?” “Yes, did I wake you up? Did you get up?” “Of course! Look at the time!” My mom felt bad that I had been working part time for a few years to help with my children’s education fees. She said that her neighbor gave her some big and nice radishes and so she made diced radish kimchi for me and sent it. She asked me to call her to let her know when…

Kim Hyang-sun from Uijeongbu, Korea

Lost Memories

When I was a kid, I liked animated TV shows a lot. Whenever I came home after school, I was always excited to watch them, and whenever they ended, I felt so sad. I tried to figure out how to save those episodes so that I could watch them over and over again, and I learned about video recording. There is a square hole on a video tape. When I covered that hole and recorded the show, what was originally recorded was deleted and the animations were recorded over it. We had various kinds of video tapes: my kindergarten talent show, bowling guide, foreign movies, my parents’ wedding, etc. I started recording animations with them. Of course, I was only…

Hong Sun-tae from Gangneung, Korea

Mother’s Errand

I am the second child in my family; I have an older brother and a younger brother. We live in different parts of Melbourne in Australia, and our parents live in Adelaide which is nine hours away by car from Melbourne. We cannot go visit our parents that often due to our work, but our mother travels such a long distance whenever we get sick or something happens, and she looks after us. One day, my older brother got a flu. My mother would have made a trip to my older brother’s house right away, but she was also sick and busy taking care of something else, too. Late at night, my mother called me. “Yeon-uk, could you make some…

Jeong Yeon-uk from Melbourne, Australia

The True Rest

There is something that many workers do when they receive a new calendar. It is to count holidays. Holidays give that much happiness to workers. To me, as a person who has just started a career, the autumn season of 2018 was one of the happiest moments in my life. It was because I could rest for seven days: five days for national autumn holidays, one day for National Foundation Day of Korea, and one day for Hangul [Korean alphabet] Proclamation Day. I got back to work after the long vacation. I started to work with a determination, “I will work hard from today since I got a good rest,” but I found it difficult to focus on work. I…

Lee Jae-uk from Sacheon, Korea

Birthday Cake

When I was young, my family suffered financial difficulties. To make a living for seven children, my mother used to do hard work such as repairing walls, floors, and toilets. Since she could not afford to hire an employee, she had to do it herself. I was the youngest daughter, and I was ashamed of my mother who did rough manual labor. My mother also used to mend bags, sewing all night, for a small factory in order to buy food. I remember falling asleep, listening to the noise of her old sewing machine. Even though we were in a tight situation where we had to worry about meals, I was immature. “I’ve never received a birthday cake,” I complained…

Suzana Machado Botton from Porto Alegre, Brazil

The Regret of a Death Row Inmate

I came to deeply realize how brutal the sin I committed in heaven is and how great God Elohim’s love is. As our Bulawayo Zion is situated near National University of Science and Technology, we have been granted the grace of meeting different kinds of people from different walks of life. One day, I met an old man as I was waiting for the appointment to study with new members. This man started walking towards where I was seated, carrying a plastic bag filled with old books and clothes. When he arrived, I greeted him, and after that, he just started to narrate the story of his life as follows: “My son, I am sorry to bother you but I…

Shava Macdonald from Harare, Zimbabwe

Mother’s Love Is Special

Some say that our life on earth is based on love. In fact, when you look into how a person is born into this world and grows over time, that sounds right, because we are all connected with one another through love while taking care of and giving help to one another. We can find various forms of love as in the relationship between a boyfriend and a girlfriend, between friends, between parents and children, and between brothers and sisters. Besides, there are people who love money or their possessions. Then, what is the essence of all forms of love? I personally thought love sprang from selfish motives. I thought, ‘If I want to protect someone, it is because I…

Bayasakh Oyunbat from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

The Most Beautiful Fingers in the World

When I was an elementary student, I was led by my aunt to a big hospital. When I went there without knowing the reason, I saw someone I was familiar with in a patient gown. It was my mom. She was happy to see me but soon, she screamed. “Ouch! It hurts.” When the doctor poured antiseptic on her hand wrapped in bandages, she said it hurt but she smiled at me as soon as she saw me. Since she smiled, I didn’t take it seriously though I saw her fingertips stained with blood. Mom left the hospital in one month. I received a call to meet her before going home, and waited for her with excitement. She came a…

Ahn Ji-yeong from Kaohsiung, Taiwan

The Day We Ran Out of Sesame Oil

I was about to make bibimbap for dinner when I stopped in my tracks—I’d run out of sesame oil. I thought about substituting perilla oil, but a quick check of the fridge showed that it was gone too. I was surprised; we had never once run out of oil before. In a hurry, I texted my mom: “Mom, we’re completely out of sesame oil. Could you send some—either sesame or perilla is fine.” Whenever I asked Mom for something, a package would show up at my doorstep within two days, without fail. But this time, even after a full week, nothing arrived. A few days later, my younger sibling called me late at night. She’d spoken to Mom and told…

Gwak Jeong-ah from Hwaseong, Korea

The Greatest Coordinator

When I was young, my mother always bought me clothes that I loved. Not only my clothes, but also other items that my mother bought me, such as my shoes and belts, fit me very well at all times. I felt good whenever I stood in front of the mirror, wearing the clothes she picked for me. As I became an adolescent, I wanted to buy my style of clothing. After saving some allowances, I went to the store alone to buy clothes for the first time in my life. While looking around with excitement, a mannequin that was wearing a neat shirt and pants caught my eyes. ‘Wow! That is my style!’ I couldn’t take my eyes off the…

Tapiwa Toruvanda from Harare, Zimbabwe

Say, “I’m Sorry,” Before the Sunset

When winter passed and spring was about to begin, lockdown was issued in all cities in the U.K. It was an action taken to prevent the spread of the virus as the number of confirmed cases and deaths increased every day due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. As I started working from home, I was able to have more time with my family. It was really good at first. However, as time went by, I started being in conflict more often with my husband. As we felt comfortable with each other, we spoke less carefully, which ended up hurting each other’s feelings. One day, we raised our voices a little while arguing over something trivial. While trying to ignore…

Kim Du-ri from Manchester, U.K.

Unconditional Remission

The accounting and financial sector often deals with debts. A debt is a loan amount plus interest, and debt interest is calculated at an interest rate associated with an allotted time. In the case of an individual who has a huge debt that he cannot repay, there is a way to recover his personal economic activity. It is debt relief [cancellation]. The debtor will pay only a certain amount of debt and the remaining debt will be forgiven. This causes the creditor to lose the amount of debt that is forgiven because it is not repaid. Of course, there are many complex requirements for a debtor to be relieved of his debt, and his claim may not be accepted because…

Elias Américo Massicame from Maputo, Mozambique

A Prisoner in the City of Refuge

Clank! A blunt iron gate opened with a dull sound. A documentary captured the lives of prisoners in a women’s penitentiary. ‘How are their lives?’ My attention got focused on TV. Thirty minutes a day for exercise! It was the only time when the prisoners could see the sun. They laughed and talked. Some exercised while others just sat in the sun. If they did not wear uniforms, they would just look like ordinary women, not prisoners. A prisoner asked the reporter if her face would appear on TV. She didn’t ask because she minded it. “It doesn’t matter if they send me back home.” She laughed, but it sounded sad. It was four in the morning. The prisoners who…

Cho Eun-yeong from Ulsan, Korea

The Flames Will Not Set You Ablaze

Around five o’clock in the early morning when everybody in my family was sleeping, a loud sound like a car crash woke me up. While I was still half asleep, something like a gunshot was heard. Fully awake, I woke up my husband. On the outside, I heard a few gunshots and people screaming and a motorcycle zooming. It became more and more chaotic. My husband and I were so confused, not knowing what was going on outside. My husband said, “There must be a fight outside. You might witness a scary scene. Never go outside.” Soon after, we heard people coming towards our yard. I was scared; some people might be surrounding our yard to harm us. My mom…

Celine Dharshana Solomon from Setapak, Malaysia

Even While I’m Sleeping

Some time ago, I read an article about a mother taking care of her sick son. Her son suffered from a disease that caused respiratory problems followed by muscle contraction. The doctors who diagnosed his disease told her that he only had eighteen months to live. She took her son back home, and began to massage his chest as often as possible to relax his muscles. Even while her son was sleeping, she didn’t stop massaging him. The problem was when she needed to sleep. She took catnaps, but even while she was taking it, she couldn’t fall into a deep sleep, worrying that her son might die from the shortness of breath. So, the maximum hours that she could…

Wei Wei from Philadelphia, PA, USA

A Kid Who Cannot See the Stars

The sound of kids’ laughter never ceased in a vacant lot in my neighborhood. Kids played there, forgetting about their hunger, and whenever it became dark, they gathered to count stars and look for constellations. Everybody enjoyed it except for one kid—me. “There are so many stars up there. You really don’t see any?” “Look! Connect those stars. They make the Big Dipper. It looks just like a ladle, just as we learned it at school.” “…” Whenever my friends asked me all these questions, pointing at the dark sky, I couldn’t say anything. They said the stars shine beautifully in the dark night sky like scattered jewels but those were just something I could only imagine. Why can I…

Jang Hui-won from Seongnam, South Korea

When We Look with the Eyes of Love

I ordered a clothes rack to organize my dressing room. The clothes rack arrived a few days later. Although I didn’t have time because of my night work, I put the rack together and started organizing the room. I wanted to finish it quickly, but I got tired when I was halfway done, and so I left it like that for several days. One day, my husband came back home and frowned, looking at the dressing room. “Why did you stop in the middle of organizing the dressing room? Do you feel good if the room is messy when you come home after working all day?” In this kind of situation, normally I would say, “It could happen if I…

Park Eun-jeong from Chuncheon, South Korea

A Novice Shepherd’s Realization

I was born and raised in one of the coldest northern states in the U.S. where the temperature went down to -40℃ (-40℉) in winter. It was hot in summer; it reached up to 38℃ (100℉). My closest neighbor was 1.6 km (1 mile) away, and I never really got to know them at all. In North Dakota, my dad had a farm where he sowed grains and raised hogs, cattle, horses, chickens and turkeys. One time, I asked my dad why he didn’t raise any sheep despite rich pasture for grazing and plenty of hay for the long winter. He just said that sheep were not the kind that he would enjoy tending. As I had no first-hand experience…

Alan Sayler from Houston, U.S.