Acts 26:18 – “..to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.”
The following is testimony of Grace Park of London, England concerning how Almighty God worked in her life by His grace to bring her ‘from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that [she]..receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith’ in Lord Yeshua the Messiah, Son of the living God.
Grace, how long have you been saved?
29 years. I was born again at 21 years old.
In your own words, what does “saved” mean and where in the Scriptures do you derive your understanding?
It means acknowledging that you are a sinner and welcoming Jesus as your Saviour and Messiah. The basis of this is particularly from John 1:10-13, ‘ He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.’ This is basically saying that the true Light, who is God, came into this world but the world did not receive Him. That was me. I knew Jesus as God since from a very young age, but I did not receive Him as Saviour until the age of 21 when I was convicted of my sin and then welcomed Jesus in my life.
Grace’s background
Can you share with us about your family background?
I was born to South Korean Christian parents in South Korea and have two younger brothers. All my family are Christians. At the time of my birth, my father was an Assistant Pastor and went on to lead churches in South Korea. These were generally small churches and he led church congregations one after another. What I remember from my childhood is that there were lots of difficulties and struggles within the church as well as in the family, the disagreements and conflicts, and people acting against my father. However, seeing all this at a young age did not really have a negative impact on me concerning believing in God. I always believed there was God and Jesus was my Saviour, and that I was a sinner. There was never a moment I can remember that this was not the case. Based on this basic faith, I got baptised when I was 18 but I came to see that I did not have a personal relationship with the Lord at this time.
Having been born and raised in a Christian family, clearly you knew there was a God. What were your thoughts and feelings as a child when you thought about God?
As mentioned above, there really was never a time I did not know about the existence of Jesus. As I always believed there was a God and for me it was like breathing the air– I did it without thinking about it. (We take having air for granted – we don’t consciously appreciate it. )
Growing up I attended Sunday School every Sunday and knew all the bible stories. I was part of the choir and played piano at church from a fairly young age. I really enjoyed going to church. All my friends were there – it was a familiar and comfortable part of my life. No more no less. My problem was that even though I had this knowledge of God in my head, I did not know Jesus personally. I had no personal relationship with Jesus.
When did you become conscious of the Gospel of Lord Yeshua, that Messiah died for your sins, personally?
It was only when I left home to go to university in Seoul, South Korea, that I became convicted of sin and personally convicted that Messiah died for my sins.
Grace’s Journey to Faith
What was your journey to saving faith from then on? How did God work in your life to bring you from head knowledge to the light of the saving knowledge and salvation of Lord Yeshua the Messiah?
Whilst studying at University I lived with my aunt and attended a church recommended to me by my father and remained with that church throughout that time. It was a different type of church than I was used to in terms of its large size and well established and I was a bit apprehensive as I had been so used to being in my father’s church. Initially I thought I could just melt into the background and attend unnoticed. It turned out that the Pastor knew my father so rather than just hiding away as I had thought, I was publicly introduced to the whole congregation! Being that I was a Pastor’s daughter, I was asked to be involved in the church, so I became involved in serving, including teaching Sunday school, choir and became a committee member for an adolescent group. I was glad to be useful. Part of being a committee member involved arranging the programmes, bible studies and camps.
During the third year in Uni a significant event happened. As part of the committee for the adolescents, I was part of the team arranging a bible camp. Although I was involved in the arrangements for it and it seeming to go well, I felt unable to enter into it all and felt outside of what was happening. Inwardly, it just felt like another programme to me. Afterwards, on the three-hour journey back, it was decided that we would all share our testimony – what we learned during the camp, how the Lord Jesus spoke to us etc. In my mind I was thinking, “here we go again, I’m going to struggle because I don’t have anything to share”. (It always felt difficult whenever I was asked to share my faith or personal testimony because I just knew some facts about Jesus, but I didn’t have any personal encounter with my Saviour.) We were paired up and the person I was paired with was also a committee member. After he heard me saying a few things, he said to me, “Grace can I tell you something. I’ve been watching you through the camp. I noticed others responding to what was going on, but I didn’t see you committing yourself to what was going on.” I was really surprised – I had never been criticised in my life before about my faith! As a Pastor’s daughter I was used to being praised at church for being good. He was the first person who told me where I was at and made me feel that there must be something not right with me. I was disappointed and even got angry. I responded with a comment about not judging someone’s faith but what he told me really bothered me – quite a lot!
When I got back to my aunt’s that night, I really struggled with what he said but I knew deep down that it was the truth. The following day was a bank holiday, and I was alone at home. I knelt on the sofa in the living room, and I started praying to God. This was unusual for me as although I prayed to God occasionally when there was an issue, I haven’t really prayed about my faith. It was like the real me facing the real God. Initially, I started praying about that man, pouring out my complaint to God that he judged my faith, thinking God would be on my side and tell me I was good enough. But then I had a vision of Jesus being crucified on the cross and people crowding around saying “crucify Him, crucify Him!”. I saw myself in the crowd and I was really puzzled about why I was there – the event of the crucifixion of Jesus took place 2000 years ago so why was I there? I saw myself shouting the same thing! Why? Why was I doing this when I thought I loved Jesus, when I have always been in church, when I thought I was a good Christian, even others said so, what was wrong? Then I saw Jesus looking at me, He didn’t say anything, but I could see His gaze on me, that He loved me even at that moment. There was no condemnation, only compassion. I faced the reality that I was a sinner, tears ran down on my face and I asked God to forgive me and I was forgiven.
After this experience, things did change. I started studying the Bible at home myself. Until then I only studied the Bible at church, but now I read for myself and started praying by myself. As I continued reading the bible, the Lord spoke to me every day through the Scriptures and I was filled with the Holy Spirit.
When did the assurance of salvation come? When did you know you were saved? Can you describe how that felt?
This came at the same time I was born again just as described above.
In your own words what is repentance and its connection with salvation?
Repentance is when you are truly convicted of your sins – not just for what you have done but for who you are. It’s knowing that you are a sinner, that this is something you cannot correct personally neither can anyone else solve this problem for you and that God’s forgiveness of this is given by grace, through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This is the connection of repentance to salvation for all people who are saved.
From then to now
Since then, can you share a little bit about how the Lord Yeshua has worked in your life?
After coming to know the Lord Jesus I continued with my university studies, still attending the same church, then returned home to my parents. I studied Early Childhood Education at Uni and began work as a nursery teacher. There was a particular reason for this as I had the desire to serve God and His people through my work even though I wasn’t born again at that time.
We used to have various visits by missionaries in our church when growing up. On a particular occasion, I was deeply impacted by the talk the missionary gave. I was a teenager at the time and struck by the pictures of needy children. He pointed out that the children needed someone to preach the Gospel to them. He ended his talk with the question: “Can it be you who can go and share the Gospel with them?” It seemed to me that the children were asking me personally to come to them and that’s when the seed of the desire to be a missionary was implanted within. This desire led me to choose my course at university.
I didn’t know how to be a missionary and began to pray about this towards the end of my time at Uni. The man who had criticised me following the bible camp was in the same church and we started talking more after the episode and shared our vision. I discovered not only that he had a calling to be a missionary but he had been praying for me and also for his future wife. He said he had a confirmation from the Lord that I was the one. Did I refuse? No, of course not. We got married in 1997. As my husband already knew that he was called to serve among Jewish people, and I didn’t have any fixed ideas of which people group I was to serve, I was happy to follow him and work alongside him reaching out to Jewish people.
What has the Lord done in your life since then?
There wasn’t anywhere we could learn how to reach out to Jewish people in South Korea so my husband initially wanted to go to America or Israel to learn about ministering among Jewish people. Both these options were difficult for various reasons and eventually we thought the United Kingdom. We began by learning a little English first and through a contact in the UK, we moved to London where my husband began his studies.
We had been warned in Korea that it would be very difficult to find a good church because of the liberalism that had swept the UK. We have been praying to find a church for two months. One day one of our friends invited us to an Open day at All Nations Christian College where my husband met a Jewish believer. He heard our desire and recommended our present church to us. He knew the Senior Elder who at the time was also the chairman of a ministry among Jewish people and who would therefore be able to assist us. We were amazed to find out the church was within walking distance from where we lived! At that time, the church was really small, and our English was quite poor, but the Holy Spirit confirmed to us that this church preached Jesus and we felt the presence of the Lord. There was even a Messianic Jewish lady in the congregation. We were sure that it was the Lord’s guidance.
Can you share about the ministry you are in now and how you came to know the Lord was calling you into this ministry?
We could recognise some obvious needs in the church and when I offered to help by playing the piano during worship this was welcomed by the Elder. My husband started helping out from the beginning and did whatever was needed and we were both really happy to help. The Jewish believer in the congregation in particular was so kind and welcoming to us and we enjoyed lovely fellowship in the Lord. She now has gone to be with the Lord and I can’t wait to see her in near future!
Not long after our joining the congregation, a conflict arose leading to some of the core members leaving. My husband and the Elder had lots of conversations about how he might serve the Jewish people and although an opportunity arose, he felt he needed to support the Elder and the ministry and began to officially work for the church. After we obtained our missionary visa, the Elder counselled my husband that rather than going to Israel – which was our desire – we could serve Jewish people in the UK. Believing this to be the right course we decided to stay.
Having trained as a nursery teacher I soon found work in a nursery and primary school in Jewish setting during the week. In church, as I wanted to serve wherever the need was, I began to serve at the Sunday School. Later I also began to serve the youth group.
I also would say that praise and worship has been an important part of my calling to serve. Through hymns, God really speaks to me and I believe that others experience the same thing, therefore it is a heart desire to serve God’s church in this way. Currently I oversee the music ministry and organise the hymns for our times of praise and worship as a church congregation.
More recently I have begun serving the church through the women’s prayer fellowship group. This was also a need-led initiative. It was not natural for me to lead an adults meeting but no-one else was willing to lead so I stepped in when asked to do so.
What is your heart’s desire for these ministries?
I appreciate that people recognise the gift of the Holy Spirit given to me while leading the worship for main Services on Sundays and my heart’s desire is to encourage and comfort people through the hymns.
Concerning the women’s prayer fellowship ministry my prayer and hope is that it will be one way for the women to come closer to God and for us to love one another.
I also see my secular work as part of my ministry. As the only Christian in a Jewish school, I can’t share the Gospel as I would like to, but I have come to realise why I am there: to show Jewish people that Christians love them. Sometimes I do struggle as things are not always easy, but I pray and hope that I am faithful to the calling for the Jewish community in this way and God opens up the opportunities to share my faith in Jesus our Messiah.
Within the will of God, do you have any particular hopes for the future that you can share with us?
My husband and I are still praying and seeking the Lord for our future. We do believe that there is more for us to do, but we are waiting on Lord Jesus. Our hope therefore is that we would follow the Lord’s leading and to ensure that if and when our time comes to leave the current church, that there would be others in place to serve and support the Jewish ministry. In addition, our hope is that wherever the need is, Lord Jesus would use us – whether in the UK, Korea, Israel or elsewhere – and especially among Jewish people. The draw to Jewish people came the more I read the bible, interacted with Jewish people and pondered on their deep need to know their Messiah, Yeshua.
Last words
Can you share a Scripture passage through which the Holy Spirit has really encouraged, strengthened or instructed you in your walk of faith in Lord Yeshua?
The Scripture I would like to share is 1 Corinthians 13:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
There is a song based on this which I have been singing recently. It is because of the reminder it is to me to love – including when I’m praying for my children, and also when working with the children in school. It also convicts me at times as being something I need to continue to learn.
Finally, how can sisters in the faith of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah pray for you?
Please pray that I may finish the race of faith well. I know that even though you do things for the Lord, you cannot do it in your own strength – you really need the Lord’s strength to fulfil the Lord’s will. For me, to finish the race well means that the Lord’s way will be my way and to do everything with love – because without love, everything is nothing.
Leave a Reply