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게시물: Blog2 Post

3. 'The Lord' who saved me on the brink of death - Tenor Yim Ung kyun


I dated girls and sometimes skipped classes and that's how my life in university went on. At school, I was known to be hot-blooded. I was a student who'd jump into a job when I wanted to, but would just overthrow everything if I thought [no, not this].

But even those days were the peaceful days. During my third year, our household got totally ruined with the Oil shock. As the export paths were blocked we got dishonored and the bailiffs drove in. That's where the sufferings started. I still respect the president's of small and medium enterprises. It's because I've been watching the pains my father went through while doing business for 10 or more years. There was always worries about money and my mother had to say words of want to friends and family. My father would always say, "How much do small or medium enterprises earn? The staff has to eat and live as well."

I can remember the day we got bank robbed. During the morning, our father called onto us and said, "We're going to be dishonored". There was no other countermove we could make. We scraped together all the money in the house to get only 17 million won. First we took that money to take our father into refuge. That day, my mother sat at the stairs staring blankly for many hours. Be no wonder, the money lenders and bailiffs started coming in. My mother, brothers, and even my younger brothers decided to split up and find a way to live on. I was the only one left at the house.

It was 3 months until the auction that I had to live alone watch over the house and be harassed by the money lenders. There was only me and our old sheperd dog for my family. Even the dog died of hunger. At first I fed it anchovies left over at home, and the bread that I bought for it. But soon I had no money to eat myself. It was the middle of winter but I couldn't even dream of heating. During the day I had to face the money lenders, and during the night I would shiver in loneliness laying my body on the cold floor.

Whenever I thought of our family all scattered, my heart would feel smarted. I had no idea where my father was and my mother who went to Taegu has fainted with shock. After I dealed with the house I got a rent room in the poorest part of the city. And I started performing on stage during the night.

My first job was at a restaurant that had classic performances. Once at the restaurant I met the Dean of the Music College. I was prepared for getting scolded when I greeted him, but instead of scolding me he patted me on my shoulder and said, "Mr.Yim, Keep courage and live with ardor." At that time my monthly payment was 12 million won. Right now, that money would be about 100 million won. Big money. I sent the money to my mother for the medical bills. So��I was always getting on stage on an empty stomach filled with water. In the end, I got ill. After 3 months of living in the poor neighborhood I got the typhoid fever.

To become ill without money is really an impossible thing. Although Professor Gae-Sook Park stood to vouch for me and got me swiftly hospitalized, I feeling uneasy. Later when an admission officer came for me I would hide in the bathroom. Finally my older brother sold the big English Encyclopedia that the bailiffs didn't take.

I've barely settled the medical bills when I got ill again. This time it was serious. When I was close to death, I called upon God once again. This is the God I'd turned from after the minister had falsely accused me for something when I was in fifth grade,  saying, "I'd rather believe in a rubber shoe."

I had pleaded and prayed all night and after I fell asleep, the next morning I was miraculously cured. That day I decided to offer the rest of my life to my Lord. That vow has remained firm until this day.

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