By observing him you will learn specifically what it is to live in Word and Prayer. Members at the Pyungkang Cheil Church have been observing him for over 10, 20, 30, and 40 years. That's why they are so certain that the History of Redemption series, which has been unveiling mysteries of the Bible that are thousands of years old, is the fruition of such a life.

Over fifty years ago, he placed his life at stake and began his prayers at Mt. Jiri. The trigger point came when he was an evangelist in his thirties. He decided on the mountain seclusion when he found himself unable to answer a young adult’s question: “How the does the blood of Jesus save mankind?” Mt. Jiri is known for its long winters and unmelted snow even during June. He dwelt in a cave too small to protect him from the rain and winds. He was surrounded by ice for 8 months in a year, being so deep in the mountain where cold waves grip the long nights with chilling temperatures as low as -20 to -30°C. His life experience in Mt. Jiri molded a routine that continues to this day; he still bathes in cold water every single day despite his advanced age.

His foods were pine needles and raw rice. “I’d take raw rice and soak them in water, and after 5 hours, the rice grains would swell. I ate it with pine needle and (black, course) salt . . .” He spent 3 years, 6 months, and 7 days, traversing life and death through the unimaginable cold and hunger and dreadful solitude on Mt. Jiri. Today, many of the younger generations have visited the cave in solemn determination to experience what he experienced. But in most cases, they would shake their heads and descend saying, “I can’t bear even one night!”

Only by prayer and the Bible! This was his life on Mt. Jiri. He could only pray when the sun set, and when the sun rose, he had nothing to do but to read the Bible. “I watched the sun rise while praying and the sun set while reading the Bible.” Despite such extreme conditions, he fasted for 40 days. It was truly a life-threatening battle. At last, a beam of light shined. “Let God be found true, though every man be found a liar” (Romans 3:4). He recalls, “Whenever I was enlightened by the word of God, I beat my chest in contrition for my ignorance and rebellion against such an amazing world. It was as if a blocked spiritual path had opened up like a highway! Being so overjoyed, I danced like a mad man in the mountains.”



From this point, the recording of the “History of Redemption series” began. He began to write down the words on long arrowroot leaves and skewered them onto bush clover stems. Then he went down to the village (Ham-yang) once every several months for paper and copied the words onto the paper. The village people who saw him mistook him for a North Korean guerilla fighter. These faded, brittle-to-touch manuscripts that mount to a height of an adult remain today as a living testimony of those days.

He has kept his vow from Mt. Jiri to pray for 3 hours and read the Bible for 2 hours daily to this day. The fact that he has read the Bible over 1,800 times is apparent in his sermons in which the Old and New Testaments find their perfect fit under a single overarching theme. His sermons begin with the Bible and end with the Bible. Regardless of the topic, he penetrates down to the sermon’s core with the Bible verses. He still continues to emphasize the mantra, “Return to the Bible.” Ever since the publication of the History of Redemption series, Christian and theological societies have all agreed to the staying power of Pyungkang Cheil Church. At the base of such strength stands a true shepherd who is watchful in tending his flock. What are the duties of a true shepherd, the leader of a church? It is to solve the problems of the souls by prayer and the Word of God. It all starts off with preaching the Word through sermons. His sermons are simply powerful. The first key to his powerful sermons is that they are flawlessly prepared with utter devotion. He states that he has never neglected a single sermon preparation ever since he began his ministry. There is an unchanging principle in his preparation for the sermons. Although he has preached countless times and is confident of his unrivaled status when it comes to the Bible, every time he prepares his sermon, he does it from the standpoint of complete unawareness as that of a newborn baby. Such preparatory work reflects the responsibility of a shepherd who is firmly determined not to lose even a single soul. Indeed, the author’s sermon abounds in grace every time it is heard, even when heard over and over again. In today’s high-tech computer era where computers search all biblical verses, he always looks up every verse in the Bible, takes notes, and highlights it. The Bible quickly wears out due to his tears, sweat and touch. Secondly, his sermons are all the more powerful because they are confessions of his own faith that has sublimed through his experiences in life. Such dynamic testimony of the living God would be impossible without the inspiration and fullness of the Holy Spirit. One without the life of thanksgiving cannot powerfully proclaim a message of thanksgiving. A sermon on uprightness preached by a person who is not upright will certainly impart no inspiration. Can a preacher without conscience inspiringly preach of pure consciousness? His powerful, vivid messages never fail to transport the listeners to the actual scene and move them with deep inspiration each and every time they are heard. Sometimes, the words will forcefully penetrate into their hearts like a sharp edged sword with precision.

And what about his life of prayer? He confesses, “I pray more for the congregation than they pray for themselves.” Such affirmation reminds the members of the Pyungkang Cheil Church of Prophet Samuel’s sermon: “Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you” (1 Samuel 12:23). The past 50 years of his life demonstrates that the basis of his strength and authority as a minister and a believer did not stem from his own words and writings, but from his everyday lifestyle.

These past 50 years evolved into an everyday-scene at Pyungkang Cheil Church where pastors, evangelists, and church staffs pick up rags to clean the bathrooms, use a shovel to dig the ground, or go up to the rooftop of a building to clean and repair. He taught them through his own “sanctuary centered life” and ministry in which a leader does not lord over others, but serves the needy and underserved. Even now, he only sleeps for few hours a day. Whether at night or before the dawn, he would wake up and sit at his desk whenever spiritual inspiration arises, and he so often prepares sermons or writes books past 2 or 4 o’clock in the morning. Many of those around him testify that they have regularly witnessed him suddenly rise from his meal table and go back into his library; there, he would be so immersed in the Bible that those who had followed him in would have to come out alone after having waited for a long time.
The congregation has seen him move and work ceaselessly for the church and its congregation for the past few decades. Such experiences led them to an assurance that their hardships and sufferings will never be overlooked by or distant from their pastor. Their conviction is more so because he too was from a generation that had survived through extreme hardships and severe poverty. “I starved for 2 days and went to minister at a house, then I felt dizzy and was about to collapse. I went to fill my stomach with tap water, and then I saw rice in a bowl for the dog. I took the rice and rinsed it under the tap water and ate it quickly before anyone could see. Afterwards, I had nothing to envy in this world, and my eyes were brightened again.”

Such endeavor and exemplary life fueled the church’s growth to a church with over 70,000 members and without any financial flaws or hereditary successions to this day. Currently, the church can be described as a mega-church with 100 branch churches established all over the world, including the US, Japan, Singapore, and Indonesia. These churches were not built by the power of a megasized church; they had been planted and cultivated one by one with meticulous care and effort during the periods of his great hardship. Now his disciples still minister and work from what they have seen and learned from his examples.

“I love the congregation members as my own children. It is my purpose in life to pray and preach. God gave me good health so that I could complete this duty.” Since the Pyungkang Cheil Church congregations are well aware of the suffering, adversity, and dedication undertaken by a pastor to reveal the mysterious words of the Bible to the world, they are joyfully and willingly growing as his coworkers in faith.
What is the greatest blessing on this earth? A believer with a deep reflection on the matters of the soul will answer that it is meeting a true shepherd. With his perseverance that kept his race on an upright, good path of the Word for the past 86 years, the remaining History of Redemption series will certainly be written to its completion.