(A Mustard Seed) Training of Faith through No-Money Trip

Pastor Ock Soo Park's Testimony

I had lived struggling, worrying whenever I faced difficulties because of lack of faith that God is together with me even after I received salvation. But the missionary who trained us in the missionary school taught a life of faith completely different from what I was accustomed to.
He told us “Don’t bring money from home or try to earn money. Do not insinuate to the other people that you need money either.” And he told us “You should eat food, take the bus and buy notebooks to make notes.” The economy of Korea was not good then; it was the early 1960s and we expected that we should be able to eat chocolates, sandwiches or drink coffee as we are being trained by an American missionary who should have lots of money. But he never gave us anything and only told us to “Ask God for everything.” So we had to skip meals frequently.
As a matter of fact, we were praying to God but we had a vague heart without having faith that God will really give everything we need. Even while we were praying, our heart was full of human thought “Won’t somebody send some money?” or “Won’t dad send some rice from the house?” Sometimes we got some food but were confused and not sure if really God heard and responded to our prayer or people just had sympathy on us.
One day, the missionary told us “You are going on a no-money witnessing trip from next Monday. Pray and prepare for it during this week.” On the next Monday morning, the missionary and we sat together. Missionary said he was also going on a mission trip for the week and prepared a big bunch of Korean flyers. Before we depart, the missionary was putting his hand in his pocket and we thought “Ah he is going to give us money for the trip.” He took out some money and put it down before us. It was a small amount of money, less than 10 dollars. And he said “You do the same thing.” Not much money came out of the pocket of other missionary students but a significant amount of money came out of my partner who used to be a pastor of another church before he received salvation. How bitter was it to me! Missionary instructed one person to put all that money into the offering box and gave each team the destination they were being sent.
“Come back after one week. I am not going with you so I may not know what you are doing. But God knows it all. Never beg or ask for help to the people and ask God only. If you are truly the servants of God, He will surely help you.”... Read More