I came here on December 22nd of last year, the darkest evening of the year. With a lot of snow, a white world greeted me. Though I like snow and winter, a blizzard with gusts of wind scared me. I’ve had never experienced so much snow before. Oh, the winter seemed never ending!

I remembered the poet Shelly’s Ode to the west wind, “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?” At last spring came, oh what a relief!

The reason why my husband and I planned to live in the states, as the last stanza from the Robert Frost’s poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, says “I have promises to keep, miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep.” I thought I should do something for my kids before I die.

Since my daughter, Mina came to America to study when she was very young; we have lived apart for 20 years. We meet once a year only for one month and it was too short for us. So I decided to come here and finally got a green card. I wanted to help her, my nice son-in-law and two lovely granddaughters. But, I got it wrong. I was given a lot of blessings instead of giving them. I’m so grateful for everything. I’m surrounded by church families and I’m thankful for my son-in-law. Many nice and kind people showed me beautiful hearts. Some gave me rides to women’s gathering in terrible weather, some took me to museums, concerts, gardens, farms and quilt shows. I’m so grateful for them and blessed by them.

In March, I started One to One Discipleship with Jean as part of a church study. Marcia and I became disciples of Jesus Christ. At first, it was hard for me to memorize the bible verses and do the homework. I had to do double the work because I had to translate English to Korean and Korean into English. But time went by and I was having a lot of fun and God was touching my heart. So Monday, our discipleship day was not a blue Monday anymore. I started looking forward to Monday’s discipleship and Wednesday’s prayer meeting. They guided me into another peaceful world. Prayers have become a big part of my life. My life has changed a lot. Everything around me seemed so blessed. I can never forget the first day of our discipleship, it was peaceful and quiet, and we started with Jean’s prayer. Time went on and we shared not only our faith but also our daily lives, such as birds, bears and flowers. On April 20th, Jean invited me to a very special convention. It was called BCNE Women’s retreat and there were over 400 women in attendance. There the speaker Debbie, who is serving as a national leader within the crusade, is the founder of Neighborhood Bible Studies. She emphasized the importance of memorizing bible verses and applying them to real lives. She showed us ways to be kind to our neighbors, thereby opening their minds to the love of Jesus Christ.

Through the discipleship study, the words of the Bible came to me just like a sound from heaven that was heard by the believers in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, 2000 years ago. His words changed me. I became born again of the Spirit to be assured of my salvation. While I was reading the verses, so many anxieties and fears that often made me uneasy disappeared like the dew in the morning under the sunshine.

I think this conviction is a kind of miracle in my life. Now I conclude my testimony with my favorite verse Psalm 23. Amen