In the year 1962 in June, I had received an invitation as a revivalist, in the state of Chungnam, that is, in the western area of the HongSeoung County, at YangGok Methodist Church. I went to lead a revival crusade there. On the desk of the local pastor at that church, there were one or two books there, coarsely put together and worn out. I picked up one of these worn-out books. The book that I had grabbed was a book written by pastor Jong-Ho Byeong. This book was titled ‘The Complete Works of Pastor Yong-Do Yee.’ The book that I had picked up was just the first volume out of ten volumes. This particular volume consisted of pastor Yong-Do Yee’s collected letters. As I opened the first page of this volume, I opened up the book to the page containing the letter that had been written to a person named Yeong-Seon Yee. I, then, briefly read the contents of this letter. I did not even read more than the first dozen lines.

The letter stated: “My dear brother, I ask you to live for the Lord. If you eat, eat for the Lord.If you drink, drink for the Lord.And whether you sleep or are wake, do it for the Lord. If it is not for the Lord, then do not even eat, do not even drink, and do not even live. Yong-Do Yee.”

The most spiritual book that I had ever read after the Bible was this very book. By the time that I had read this book, my eyes were filled will unending tears. This letter that pastor Yong-Do Yee had written was as if it had been written to me. At that very moment, the question came to me, “What is the work that the servant of the Lord must do? What is the mission that the servant of the Lord must carry out?” With continuous tears, I had ended up reading the whole book.

At that time, the pastor of that church had said that I could keep the book if I wanted, and he wanted to give the book to me. But I insisted that I would only borrow the book, and after a few days,with my own hands,I had managed to completely copy the contents of the entire volume into my own personal notebook. So,in this way, I could carry with me in all my revival crusades, the collected volume of letters written by pastor Yong-Do Yee. During that whole time, I would every night read that book. Each time that I had read it, tears would run down my eyes.

Pastor Yong-Do Yee was a humble servant of God, he was a man of literature, and he was a patriot. When he was 30 years of age, he became a pastor, and at the age of 33, he passed away. The work that he had done was a mere three years. At the time of his ministry, the revival crusades of pastor Yong-Do Yee, whenever he had held them, were the most powerful and of the first-order in all the area of South Korea. The Methodist seminary students were reported to have so been overwhelmed with tears whenever they had heard his sermons that they could no longer study.

Yet even then, he remained a humble and constantly-praying servant of God. He eventually was condemned as a heretic by the Presbyterian denomination. He was even excluded by the Methodist denomination. However, those who had heard and seen him face-to-face could never deny how much of a respectable and admirable saint and pastor he was. His other name that they called him was “Se-mu-one” (“He who sees but does not speak”). Therefore, I also, if I was ever to receive slander and condemnation just like he did, desired to put into practice“the Semuon”. I eventually adopted this same name. Furthermore, I also made this decision: to live my whole life and eventually die like pastor Yong-Do Yee. With this in my heart, I would, afterwards and always live most diligently.

There were even the days when, if you had even mentioned pastor Yong-Do Yee’s name, they would threaten to kill you. Yet another saying spread that, since pastor Ki-Dong Kim had received the influence of the heretic pastor Yong-Do Yee, then he himself was without a doubt a heretic. Yet while pastor Jong-Ho Byeong was still a seminary student and had taken momentary lodgings with the family of pastor Yong-Do Yee, he had conceived of the idea to write into a book the 3 year ministry life of pastor Yong-Do Yee. He had prayed to God this prayer: that he could reveal and expand pastor Yong-Do Yee’s devotion to God into a 10-volume work. He had prayed this prayer, and he did this work. He passed away at the age of 80 years.

Within these volumes, pastor Jong-Ho Byeong had written: “I have also met the man called Semuon, who was just like pastor Yong-Do Yee.” By stating this, he had included my name in his writings. Pastor Jong-Ho Byeong was a professor of Physics in Seoul National University. What kind of honor and glory could anyone hope to receive just like this?

Semuon