Sung Hoon Park 1972 –

We were living in Seoul with our two little boys when we heard about the Bruderhof. My wife, Soon Ok, had worked at Samsung headquarters and then become the director of a daycare center. She was working on her master’s degree. My parents are animists but I had become a Christian, studied theology and education, and worked at a publishing house. We owned a nice house and a car.

On the surface we were happy, but underneath, our marriage was almost broken. We were both so busy, and I was burned out and depressed. There was a desperate emptiness in my heart: I was hungry for a real Christian life.

At work, I was involved in publishing books from the Bruderhof that said they loved one another, but I was skeptical. Everywhere I looked there was such a big gap between what people said and the way they lived.

But, during our first visit to Woodcrest in New York we learned that if we opened our hearts and followed our hearts, God could work. We sold our house and car and got rid of our expensive laptop and camera. In return, we found joy! We found out what is really important: love and family. God healed our marriage: I could apologize to my wife, and she could forgive me.

People might think living here is not easy, especially for a Korean. There are so many cultural differences: language, food, dress. But God is so much bigger than that. I wish many, many other people – Asians, Europeans, people from all continents – could find their way to this life and joy.