This place was 99.9% lost.
Even the house where I was born was about to be sold away.
If it had been sold, that would have been the end of it all. 
We were at the point of receiving the money after selling the house, but if we had done that, I would not have been able to come to this place ever again.

I myself did not even have one in a million thoughts about coming to this place at that time.
I told Beom-seok to paint the house before its development. He said that he hated coming here more than he hated dying.
Because I went through terrible hardships [living here], the place was desolate and blocked by front and back mountains, and its field became so gravelly after having been plowed so much, and  because the field was so dry, it did not work out even after planting crops.
Therefore, I tried to escape out of it whatever way possible because it was a place without any hope.  

Thinking whether there is any need for us to just remain living here in foolishness when all the other pastors that lived here escaped,
I did not come back having made a determination in my heart to not even set foot here, thinking that people will say “because things did not work out in Seoul, those guys came back to live here again”. 

However, it is now different.
Now that I have changed this place, even the outsiders don’t think of moving their ancestors’ graves from here.
Because this area is so good now, people don’t want to even move their ancestors’ graves.
It has turned out that way after this place has been made.  

Even a person that is worth nothing, when that person is made for ten to twenty years, even kings will go after them.
Likewise, I have continuously developed even this place like that.
It became a shining place because I polished it.
So pray every day  with gratefulness for us being given this place by saying “God, thank you so much for giving us a good place like this.”  

From the morning message of September 21st, 1996

이 장소를 99.9% 뺏길뻔 했습니다.

생가도 팔아먹을 뻔했습니다. 집을 팔았으면 끝났습니다.

팔고 돈 받기 직전까지 있었는데 집을 팔았으면 여기에 다시 안 들어왔을 것입니다.

그 당시는 나도 여기 들어오리라고는 1/100만 도 생각을 안했었습니다.

범석이도 이곳 개발하기 전에 이 집에 가서 페인트 칠하라고 하니까 죽기보다 싫었다고 했습니다.

하도 고생을 하였고, 오면 앞뒷산이 막혀서 삭막했고, 밭은 하도 갈아 먹어서 자갈밭이 되었고,

메말라서 곡식을 심어도 되지를 않았습니다.

그래서 아무 희망도 없는 곳이라 어떻게든 빠져 나가려고 했습니다.

이곳에 살던 다른 목사들은 다 빠져 나갔는데 우리가 바보같이 살아 남아있을 필요가 있겠느냐,

“저놈들 서울갔다가 안되니까 또 들어와서 사네” 할까봐서

아예 발을 붙이지 말자고 하고 안 들어 왔었습니다.

그러나 지금은 달라졌습니다.

이렇게 해놓으니까 외부 사람들조차 묘지를 안 파갈 정도입니다.

지금은 너무 좋으니까 묘지도 안파가려고 합니다.

사람이 만들어 놓으니까 그렇게 됩니다.

코를 질질 흘리는 아무것도 아닌 사람도 10-20년 동안 가꾸면

왕들도 구미를 당기고 쫓아 다닙니다.

그렇듯이 이런 장소도 내가 계속 닦은 것입니다. 닦았으니 빛나는 장소가 된 것입니다.

이곳을 주셨다고 맨날 “하나님 감사합니다. 이런 좋은 곳을 주셔서”라고 기도 하십시오.

1996년 10월 21일 아침말씀 중