First Entry

Q: What factors of your native culture have informed your religious world view? Explain the impact of these factors.

I moved to the United States of America in fourth grade, second semester. Before that, I lived in Korea as a Christian, and I kept my faith throughout the six years of my life in America. The fact that the countries that I have lived in have freedom of religion was a blessing, yet it was not exactly the inspiration to my faith.
When I was young, I did not know that there were people who did not believe in the things that I believed in. My father is a pastor, and the advantage was that I grew up in a home with a strong Christian background. Never in my life was I not surrounded by bibles; never once I questioned going to church on Sundays for worship. I knew most all the stories in the bibles. Church and God was my thing. I thought this was how things were supposed to be: Church on sundays, prayer before every meal and before going to bed and reading Bibles. This was my world, until I was six.
Our family moved to a small townhouse in a place called 'Sangdodong'. There I met a friend. She was very different, very much apart from the world that I had came from and grew up in. I was shocked to hear that she had never been to church, never heard of the twelve disciples, of King David, Esther, and Jacob. She did not know Christ. I was a shock to her as well- she watched me go to church every sunday morning, filled with curiosity in her eyes. I thought that she was the strangest person yet encountered. But the problem was that there were more of people who lived in "her world" than mine. The new neighborhood that I had moved to lived people who were mostly atheists, buddists and non-christians. For the first time in my life, I wanted to make them understand "my world".
My young age added to the frustration that I felt. Why don't they go to church on sundays? Why don't they know that you need to pray before every meal, every night before going to bed? These little things were bigger than my daily chores for me, yet they did not keep any of the "must-follow" rules. The friend once asked me, "who is Jesus?" I was utterly out of words. She did not know my world-she lived in a very differnt one. Where would my little knowledges of stories of Esther, David, Jacob and Peter stand with such ignorance? Where do I start to explain? Then, at the time, I did not know that it was because she just simply had never heard of them. I was just angry.
I tried to take her to church with me one sunday morning. She never made it to the church though. She had asked me again, "Doesn't Zus rule the world?" and I just got so angry that I threw her out of the car even before the car's engine came alive. I remeber my mom, from the driver's seat, looked back and said, "Grace, she just doesn't know Jesus as much as you do." She said to bring her back next week, but I never tried agian.
I regret until this day, even as I refresh my memory in writing this blog entry. What would she be doing now? Had I tried convincing her to come to church with me one more time, would it have made a difference in her life? I was six, and I was not ready to be exposed to a world besides mine. Accepting was the most difficult; I did not want to believe that there were people who existed without the knowledge of Christ. I am blessed to be accompanied by God. Never had he left me in the ignorance. He choose places for me to be, for our family to stay at-a place where he is very near. Maybe I'll get to see her one day. Then, I'll tell her that I'm sorry. Maybe I'll even get to ask her to come to church with me. I am ready now.
"Grace, would you like to come to Church with me?"