It is God who Sent them to Meet Us at 3am

During my training in the army, God changed my heart to go abroad as a missionary after I was discharged from the army. It’s good to go overseas as a missionary, and God gave me the heart to visit churches and preach the Gospel so that those who suffer in sin can be freed from sin. Going abroad as a missionary was not easy, but staying and working in Korea was not easy either. I often asked myself, “Where must I work, and in which way must I go?” These were questions to which I had no answers.

That summer, I was invited as a guest speaker at five different children’s Bible Schools and was able to preach the Gospel there.

The first church I went to was in the Kyungbook Sobo Boksung-dong area in the countryside. The next church was in Yongin, Sahu-dong. The third church in was at Namsa Middle School where I held a Bible seminar. The fourth church was a little further from the Namsamyeon Namsa in a town called Waeim. It’s been so long that it’s hard for me to remember all the details.

But I do remember that the schedule was very tight. I had to depart for my next Seminar at Waeim right after the conclusion of the Bible seminar at Namsa Middle School because the seminar at Waeim was scheduled the following day. We departed for Waeim at midnight when it was dark with our guide. This was during the monsoon season so the rains had flooded the streets and navigating was difficult. Our guide previously made this journey four years ago and at times, couldn’t remember the path. We got lost several times! At one place, I gathered everyone together. Our team composed of five witnessing members and six guides. All of us were holding bags, but the ground was wet and we had nowhere to put the bags down to rest. So with the bags in our hands, we prayed to God. “Father God, we are lost. Please show us the way.” Even though we eventually found the way to Waeim, we did not know how to find the home of the minister at Waeim who had invited us. We had to pray with regards to this problem, since we could not wake up the villagers to ask the way. While praying, I had the heart that if it is our loving God who is leading us, we will be able to find the way. “Once we arrive at the village at two or three AM, it would be nice if someone would be out to greet us. God, this is something so easy for you to do.” The heart to pray this way continually arose in my heart.

Another part of me thought, “Hey, don’t be foolish. Who would be waiting for you at two or three AM? Even God wouldn’t. In thinking such foolish thoughts, you’re going to embarrass yourself in front of your team.” While praying, a fight arose in my heart.

God does have the power to send someone to meet us, but I doubted whether or not God would listen to my prayers and actually send someone. If God would only listen to my prayers, I would be happy to say, “God has listened to my prayers!” But if that wasn’t the case, that would be embarrassing in front of the brothers and sisters, and I was worried that I would seem like someone who only said vain things. However, strangely, God held onto my heart and led it, so I did pray.

“God, please forgive the fact that I don’t have faith. It’ll be two or three AM once we arrive at Waeim, and we don’t know the home of the minister who invited us. Please send someone to come out and meet us. You have more than enough power to do so.”

Although nobody said it out loud, I felt like the people traveling with me were saying, “Let’s see. Who would come out so late at night?” I actually felt like I could hear them saying, “Let’s see.” When I ended the prayer with an “Amen,” I had the heart to say, “That’s right. From now on, I’ll live believing in God like this. I may seem foolish, but I like having faith to believe in God,” and my heart felt at peace.

After the prayer ended, nobody spoke of my prayer. It was the monsoon season, so the night was dark and cloudy. We got lost several more times and eventually arrived at the village around 3am. In front of the village was a Rytiphlaea tree, and under that tree, a few youths were playing. They stuck out their necks and stared as we appeared from the dark with a bunch of things in our hands. Then, after they saw the man who was our guide, they said, “Oh, hello. What brings you here tonight?” The guide answered, “I’ve brought the guest speaker. We thought we’d be late if we departed in the morning, so we decided to make the journey the night before.” It turned out that they were youth members of the church that had invited us. They led us to the minister’s home. On the way, the youths carried our luggage, and I thought, “God, you are truly my God. I’m very embarrassed that just a few hours ago I was unable to fully believe in the Lord who lives and works this way.” I was completely moved.

Suddenly feeling curious, I asked the youths, “It’s almost 3am, what were you doing under the tree?”

“We thought that a grandfather, who attends our church would pass away last night, so the whole church’s congregation was gathered at his deathbed. But he did not pass away! The room was so stuffy and hot that we came out to get some air, and that’s when you came.”

I felt deeply that it was God’s doing. Thinking about it, the atmosphere would be disorderly if there were to be a funeral at this tiny church in the village during the Bible seminar, so once again, I prayed as I walked. “Father God, please don’t let that grandfather pass away during the Bible seminar.” We began the Bible seminar in the morning, and until the very last day of the seminar, we did not hear news of the grandfather’s death.

Adam was tempted by Satan into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Ever since, the spiritual world became hazy through our eyes. People depend on the visible materialistic world and their own ways rather than living with the heart to love God and the spiritual world. Satan has killed off our heart to believe in the invisible, and he degraded us into people who believe only when there is proof. But one thing that I am sure of is that although it may seem unstable to put our destiny in God’s hands, we should believe and rely only on God, He will never disappoint us.