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| Title An extreme environment |
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Rev. Ki Dong Kim was born on June 25th, 1938, in a small farm village of Seosan, Choongnam, as the fifth child of Jung Han Kim, his father, and Young Yee Jung, his mother. His grandfather was a millionaire of Chaewoon, Nonsan, but his fortunes rapidly declined and he died of pent-up anger. Ki Dong Kim's father left his hometown, and Rev. Ki Dong Kim was born in Seosan.
When he was born, the family was living in extreme poverty. He grew up eating the roots of trees and weeds as daily food. When he became 14, he left his hometown and supported himself through school. For 8 years, working in the daytime while studying at night. By the time he was 17, his general privation was so severe that he developed memory loss and other signs of malnutrition. The strain of his poor diet was too much for his lever, he developed jaundice which caused his face turn yellow.
His poor diet, of mostly vegetables, had depleted his bodily resources until all came crashing down, after he ate radish fertilized with human manure. Unconscious and dying he had no money or resources for medical treatments.
But God was watching him. One of his father's friends advised him to boil wormwood in water and drink it, and he started to drink the bitter wormwood water. Everyday he did so for months, and surprisingly, he was healed of diseases.
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| Title Entrance to Christianity |
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Yet, he did not know how to preserve life. When his father died, instead of his order brother who was absent from home to study, young Ki Dong Kim became the head of his family. In spite of his struggle he couldn't overcome the poverty and there seemed to be no future for him. Although he passed the crisis of death, he again decided to die. But one day he was moved by ringing church bell he went to church for the first time on October 20th, 1957. It was Sunday. He wanted to know whether or not God existed. If it was impossible to escape from such a desperate situation, he wanted to know about his identification.
The first sermon he heard was a sermon titled "fishers of men". He was not deeply moved by the sermon and the service came to the end. But there was one thing surprising. After that service, the decision to die faded away and an attachment to life came strongly forth.
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| Title A youth concentrates on reading the Bible and praying |
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Ki Dong Kim started to attend early morning prayer meetings the very next day, and after prayer meeting he swept the church yard. After a few days he attended a revival meeting which was held at a nearby Presbyterian church. The preacher of the meeting emphasized the necessity of repentance. New to Christ, he experienced the merits and deep emotion of Jesus' precious blood. At the same time he started to speak in tongues as a gift of Spirit, after which he continuously prayed 9 hours and saw visions.
At the evening meeting, before preaching, the preacher indicated Ki Dong Kim and said, "What he spoke is other tongues. If you receive the Spirit, you will speak in other tongues". Then he showed related verses in the Bible. That moment he was shocked by the fact that what he experienced was clearly written in the Bible. So as soon as the meeting ended, he asked an elder to lend him the Bible for a week. The elder pleasingly permitted, advising that Ki Dong Kim had to read the Bible many times because he had received much grace, and guided that "If you are to read the Bible, read it in regular order from Genesis to Revelation".
In such manner he started to read the Bible. He read the whole Bible in a week because it was borrowed and had to be returned at weekends The next week he borrowed another person's Bible and read it in the same manner. In this way he read the Bible 42 times during his first year as a Christian, and continued reading the Bible up to 75 times in his first five years as a believer.
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| Title First healing |
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In spring of 1958, young he returned to home after attending a meeting at Sungjoo Mountain, Boryoung. Just then a woman came and begged him to save her 2-year-old daughter. The woman said that when she was praying, she heard a voice saying that she must find him. He did not doubt her statement, but he didn't know how to heal the sick. He only remembered that Lord healed a blind man by touching him and remembered the verse, "And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons they will speak in new tongues and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." (Mark 16:17-18).
He followed the woman and saw a pale baby who was waiting for death. He continuously prayed in his mind. 'Lord, if it is true that you said to this woman that you would use me as your servant for healing, please let me know. I've never healed any sickness.¡¯ That moment he saw a vision, in which he, wearing a white gown, was standing in front of the Lord. By that he was encouraged and placed his hand on the baby's side. He began to pray earnestly from the heart repeating over and over. "Lord, I want to see your wonder in this baby. Please respond to my prayer. Then I will thank you." After his prayer the baby's eyes opened wide. All signs of illness were gone, she was cured!! A baby who had suffered for 3 months was healed in a day.
This was the first time he healed the sick. Several months later he healed a family of 5 people, who were dying of typhoid, by placing his hand on their forehead and praying.
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| Title Poultry farming which God took away |
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He opened a poultry farming with the stockbreeding skills he had learned in Yesan Agriculture High School. Marvelously, he was supported by his neighbors with many things, like building materials and chicks, which were necessary for the development of a poultry farm. With this assistance, he opened his business with ease, but was burned by debt.
In those days his church, Yesan Methodist church was in great difficulty because of chapel construction. In spite of twelve times of joint contribution for construction, there was no progress and members, who were exhausted and fell in temptation, left the church and the number declined from 700 to 170. So he decided to give contribution for construction. After three times of contribution, he was on the verge of bankruptcy.
In addition to that, while he was arguing against his old brother on Korean-style sacrifice ceremony for commemoration
of his father's death he spitted out that God would take away our poultry farming. When he woke up, he found out that all the poultry was dead.
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| Title Desperation and marriage |
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For two and a half years after his poultry farm went bankrupt, heaven seemed to be closed to him. Noe of his prayer were answered. He tried to find a job, there was no wrok and there was no change in his life. Again, completely desperate, he wanted to die, but even death avoided him.
Meanwhile, just before the bankruptcy, he had not and become engaged to Soon Kang a sunday school teacher from the Yesan Methodist church. Though he was in financial difficulty, she encouraged him with love and waited for his restoration. One day, when he sought to die, his fiancee announced to him their wedding date. His fiancee, who knew his situation, thought that she must stabilize him by all means.
On March 31st, when he was 25 years old, he got married to Soon Kang. Their marriage was solemnized by Dr. Seok Young Jang.
To receive more a clear vision of his life, Ki Dong Kim decided to engage in 40-day-prayer and left for Pyoung Taek on the day after he married.
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