💌 424. The Landlady's Family Named Their Dog Jesus.

After tearfully bidding farewell to the grandfather and grandmother in Gunseo, I moved to Naju with my mother and four children. The process, from spending the entire day searching for a house to the exhausting tasks of moving, unloading, and settling in just two days after finding a place, brought overwhelming suffering—a pain that seemed to surpass even the agony of death. While managing my four children was burdensome enough, the numerous potted plants of my husband, who loved growing them, posed an even greater challenge.

I did my best to wrap and pack them carefully to prevent any breakage, moved everything without breaking anything and all of them and had to load them onto the truck by myself, and the numerous potted plants alone were enough to fill a whole truck. However, with my limited time left in life, there was nothing I could not do. With a firm determination that even if I were to die on the way, I must prepare to settle into our new home for my family. This, I moved with all my strength, practicing Semchigo as if I were not in pain, earnestly praying to God for help.

I exerted my utmost effort to wrap and pack the plants carefully to avoid breakage. I managed to move everything without any damage. I had to load them onto the truck by myself, and the numerous potted plants alone were enough to fill an entire truck. However, with my limited time left in life, there was nothing I believed I couldn't accomplish. I held a determined conviction that even if I were to face death on the way, I must prepare our new home for my family. With this resolve, I moved forward with all my strength, practicing Semchigo as if I were not in pains, and earnestly praying to God for help.

I did not know how I managed to complete all of it but even while loading and unloading all those belongings one by one, I kept praying to God. "God, even if I die and am no longer in this world, please personally lay Your hands on everything for my family and look after them." With such trust and reliance in God, I somehow accomplished it.

I barely managed to enter the new house without collapsing. The house had two rooms but there was no well, so I had to draw water from a distant pump, which was exhausting and overwhelming especially for me who was in a weakened state. With many children and little money, we managed to rent this house with difficulty; what more could I wish for! However, the best part was that the landlady shared a small vegetable garden inside the house with us, allowing us to plant vegetables there for our consumption.

Thanks to that, my husband could freely cultivate the flowering trees and potted plants he cherished so dearly and we could plant enough vegetables to sustain ourselves. Additionally, as we were able to grow fresh vegetables personally in the garden which were good for our health, we could eat them whenever we wanted. How wonderful it was! I was so grateful.

So, I did not have to go to the market and we could reduce our food expenses, making it all very, very good in many ways. Despite the excruciating deadly pains, I thanked God for the positive aspects rather than focusing on the inconvenient, trying to make my life in the new house enjoyable. My condition was severe with excruciating pain to the extent that it would not seem strange even if I lay down all day long but I did my best in every circumstance given to me.

Then, one day, I was very startled to hear the landlady’s family call their dog. They were calling the dog Jesus. They must have had very bad experiences with church goers. I was so surprised and heart-broken that I asked the landlady, "Ma'am, why is that your family came to call the dog Jesus?" The landlady, who was always beaming when she saw me, suddenly wore a serious expression and replied.

"Oh, do not even mention it. My sons were severely exploited several times by those who go to church." "Oh, my!? what happened?" "My sons were taken advantage of terribly by pastors and elders who were well known in the church. So my sons have been through a lot. Every pastor and elder they met was the same. That was why my son would say to me like this;

“If you attempt to apprehend a thief or wrongdoer and randomly select someone at the church, then that person is surely the thief or the wrongdoer." "Oh, So, is that why your family named the dog like that?" "Yeah, We hate church-going people so much that we named the dog Jesus.
Then, I was reminded of those churchgoers who had been kind to me, an ill person, when I had lived in Gunseo, Yeongam. So I said.

"Ma'am, it is not like that. There might be some people like that among those who go to church but there are also good churchgoers." When I said that, She extended her hand and moving it, with a stern expression, "Oh, that is enough. Stop talking about it." I was deeply saddened that every churchgoer was misjudged because of a few elders and the faithful who had greatly hurt others.

It broke my heart to think that those who were supposed to manifest the glory of Jesus ended up, rather, blaspheming and nailing Him to the Cross. Moreover, after hearing such words from this landlady, it became difficult for me to dare to talk about my plans to attend the Catholic Church. "Oh God, please have mercy on me. I want to receive baptism which I did not get six years ago. 

At least from now on, I want to quietly conclude my pitiful life within the embrace of God by attending the Catholic Church. God, please open the hearts of the landlady and her sons wider and completely so that I may go to Catholic Church” I prayed quietly, entrusting the landlady and her family to God.