Deacon Dongmyun Shin (14-2 Parish, 3-3 Men's Mission)

After attending Friday all night service for the first time Became reborn as a true Christian and received strength by Dr. Jaerock Lee's books His family has become one in truth by offering family service

Though I had refused to go to church despite my wife's plea for a long time, in winter of 1996, I became a member of Manmin Central Church considering it as a Christmas gift for my wife.
One Sunday in June 2000, I had an accident while enjoying mountain-hiking. While climbing a steep mountain I accidentally lost my balance and fell down. Two years later, I had a similar accident again. I was getting scared of going hiking.
Eventually I stopped going hiking. Instead, I was able to focus on my faith and church works. Definitely, it was the fruit of love and care of my wife and my group members of the Men's Mission.
For the first time I attended the Friday all night service in 2006 and I was quite impressed by the member's serious and earnest attitude during the service. 'What are these people doing at this late hour, not even sleeping at home?' Up until that time I had gone to church just habitually, but now I had come to have a hope of being reborn as a true Christian.
I began to read Dr. Jaerock Lee's books to arm myself with the words. I experienced an unexpected change of my heart. For instance, I came to have a confidence that I could keep all the commandments if I truly love God though I used to think it was impossible in this world filled with sins and evils.
In the midst of God's grace, I tried to check the family member's faith. Thinking of our children who will soon grow up to be adults and leave our protection, I was concerned. Though they started their life of faith since the days of Manmin kindergarten, their faith was dependant and weak. So we needed something to plant faith in their hearts.
Finally I came up with having family services. I was reminded of what Senior Pastor did after he met God. His whole family was able to grow in their faith and receive blessings through offering of family services.
We started our family services in the living room with praises at 11:50, Saturday night on July 5, 2008. I prepared the message and my wife, my daughter and my son took turns in praying and singing special songs. At first it was very unnatural. I had long called my son 'Euisup' and my daughter 'Youngae' so when I tried to call him 'brother' and her 'sister," it was uncomfortable to me.
Preparing for the message, I read the summary of the sermons in the weekly bulletin and while reading it, I myself felt my faith growing. Through having a debate about our life of faith, we all could share our thoughts about faith. When I heard my son say "I repent not having paid offerings and I will give half of my first paycheck" I thought having family service was a very good decision. Now we all enjoy offering family service together and I feel that the trust and love among us has grown as well. I give thanks and glory to God who blessed our family to be filled with His grace through the family service.