God’s purpose is revealed

It’s not often that the Lord ‘tips His hand’ and allows us to see things from His perspective and what He has in mind. Perhaps it’s an occasional reward for faithfulness or more likely when an intimate ally is ready to see it, when their heart has been prepared. 

There is a wonderful story about a seminarian Mang Eui-Soon , (not sure of his denomination) from Seoul in South Korea at the beginning of the Korean war that gives an insight into this. He was a man of prayer, barely in his twenties and had a particular fondness for ministering to the sick in the hospital attached to his church. 

The invasion of south Korea was fast; the north Korean army overwhelming the South by sheer weight of numbers and in days many found themselves behind the lines. Mang Eui-Soon and his companions hid and tried to make their way south through the countryside to safety. 

Their journey was not easy; first they were captured by the invading army and tortured for days as suspected spies. After being released they continued their journey only to be captured again and pressed into service carrying munitions and cooking for the North Korean army. They escaped and pushed south where they eventually met with the South Korean and American forces who arrested them and sent them to a Prisoner of War camp assuming they were NK spies. So he was placed with the captured NK soldiers and later their Chinese allies. At first he tried to convince them otherwise (as did many of his south Korean acquaintances outside the prison camp) but then he began to realize in prayer what the purpose was. 

As North Korea and China were both atheist countries, cut off from the world behind the iron curtain, he began to see God’s purpose. As he put it “they are not enemies invading our country with rifles, but sheep that God has driven along” He realized that “God had started the work of salvation on billions of Chinese… we have to sow the seed of the Gospel in their hearts” 

For years then he worked tirelessly in the camp and its hospital to reach out to the NK and Chinese prisoners and brought the Gospel to them, even constructing a church inside the camp. He had to dodge his own release even after the allies sought to set him free so he could remain with those he was evangelizing. Before the end of the war, after which the POW’s were to be repatriated to NK and China, he died in the camp and most attended his funeral. He brought so many to God by his persistence and kindness and then they returned to North Korea and China, no longer combatants but as evangelists, sowing the seed in their home countries where it continues to grow in secret.

Miracles in Naju ... a story from Korea

On the day we first visited Naju, the Blessed Mother was weeping lots of tears of blood through her statue. We cried loudly for a long time, repenting our sins and our indifference to her, who was actually so close to us all the time.

Since then, we have visited Naju frequently, filled with the desire to see the Blessed Mother. On October 19, 1990, we attended an overnight prayer meeting for the first time. While listening to Julia relaying the Blessed Mother's messages, I could not control myself and wept so much, repenting my sins. When Julia prayed for me at the end of the prayer meeting, I felt her hand as hot as an iron as she touched my chest. I also felt an intense pain on the left side of my chest, which lasted until the next day. But, on subsequent days, my health improved visibly every day. 

My diabetes, which had afflicted me for thirty years, was gone! I stopped all the medication, but felt as light as a feather in my body. Now I can eat anything: rice, candy, chocolate, etc. My twenty year-old arthritis was also cured. Before, I had trouble bending my knees. Excess water had to be drained out of my knee joints. Now, it is all history. My mother had her first stroke in October 1991. She was in a hospital for three months. But, on May 1, 1992, she had another stroke. Doctors said that it was hopeless. The whole family (there are twenty-five of us) gathered, expecting the worst. But, because my mother loved the Blessed Mother in Naju so much, we informed Julia. She came at about 10 p.m. on May 3. We were shocked, when we saw Julia begin praying for my Mother's recovery. Everyone had already given up hope. My mother remained unconscious. A while later, as Julia continued praying, my mother opened her eyes and, looking at Julia, said, The Holy Water! and, Forgive me.

Julia prayed so fervently. She prayed for each of us, too. She left a little past midnight. My mother continued to recover and ate some food. By daybreak, she became fully alert and spoke clearly. All of us were in such a shock that we could not even speak well. Our nine brothers and sisters were all married, but had different religions. We had lots of distrust and tension in the family. Now we cried and repented. Instead of blaming each other, we all admitted our own faults. This was truly an amazing miracle. We embraced each other and cried loudly asking for forgiveness. 

We offered up our endless gratitude to the Lord and the Blessed Mother for the restored peace in our family. In fact, my mother was always sad about the different religions and tension among her children and offered rosary prayers for each of us from 3:30 a.m. every day. God allowed this grace of conversion and restoration of peace in my family because of the prayers by my mother .Through Julia's prayers for each of us that night, my eighty-three year-old father-in-law was cured of an intestinal inflammation, which everyone had said was incurable. Four others were cured of various sicknesses like ulcers, arthritis, and pleurisy. My whole family converted because of these amazing miracles. We all came back to the Blessed Mother in Naju and began a life of prayers.

Those who are forgiven much, love much ..a story from Korea

Recently I visited Fr. Raymond Spies in Anyang. He told me that, when one goes to Naju, he should not go just to see the Blessed Mother's tears and tears of blood but to reform his life based on her messages. I would like to introduce one soul who has become a new person thanks to the messages from the Blessed Mother of Naju.

I first learned about Naju through the Blue Army in 1987. It was before the Chapel was built. I wanted to do some good work and guided one poor soul to Naju. She was a 17 year-old girl by the name of Theresa. She quit school during her senior year in the junior high school (9th grade) and began leading a dissolute life. She not only smoked and drank but was into narcotics also. She was suffering from severe hallucinations. She became a prostitute. Her parents spent every day with tears and pains. People were avoiding her and deserting her as a delinquent person. I brought her into my house, thinking that she was Jesus or the Blessed Mother.

After we came back from a visit to Naju, we were reading the messages together. She asked me what sacrilegious communion (mentioned in the message on June 5, 1988) meant. I explained it in detail and asked her to examine herself. She said that sometimes she hid some of her sins during Confession because of shame and received Communion sacrilegiously. She shed tears of repentance. She has been reading the messages every day and makes frequent confessions. Before, when I asked her to pray the rosary together, she was trampling the rosary down. Now, she prays fifteen decades for the conversion of sinners. She is changing every day through the messages. She says that everything has changed 180 degrees.

Before, she almost went to jail several times for stealing, but now she refuses to take gifts of money, saying that she is afraid of committing sins if she had money. She does not watch TV or video any longer. She says that she promised to the Lord and the Blessed Mother not to watch TV or video. She is leading a life of offering up beautiful roses to the Lord and the Blessed Mother by making sacrifices and reparations, saying that she had more sins than anyone else. She is making strenuous efforts to practice the Blessed Mother's messages. She prays the rosary fervently for the teenage girls who are committing sins as prostitutes without knowing that they are committing sins. She says that she will spread the Blessed Mother's messages to those girls, too.

Gabriella Chang, Inchon