I think of myself as a pilgrim who has been running vigorously down a narrow path looking for a way to recover hope from my childhood days. I live with confidence that I have become a man who has lost the world but found heaven.

If there are people who would like to see the sun even just once, then most likely these people would have been blind since birth. Also, among those many people who desperately want to see the sun, some must have lost their eyesight through an accident or negligence. People with healthy eyes sometimes take the sun for granted and forget to be thankful because they live in a bright world. On the other hand, people who are blind tend to long for the sun since they always live in total darkness. They are a group of people with tragic quality of life, living a lonely life which is nothing short of walking through a landmine field. They can feel the sun by using their other senses: sound, smell, taste, and touch instead of sight. Nevertheless, it is impossible to fully understand the great existence of the sun in everyday life. How happy would they be if for once they can see the glorious world of the sun and hear the sound of nature whispering quietly?

I live with a terrible tragic of losing my eyesight during the Korean Civil War from a grenade explosion. I wake up in the morning always longing for the rising sun that I used to see when I was a child. To me, the sun represents my parents’ love and the greatness of the soul that gave me hope to find God.

How can we ever replace the life-like sun? Having examined myself in light of the Bible, speculated the height and the depth of life, and realized the purpose of life and happiness, in gratitude I would like to share my faith journey of 70 years since becoming blind.

First of all, I would like to thank countless number of people who helped to raise, educate, and shape me into a leader.

Secondly, thanks to God’s grace, various institutions including Siloam Eye Hospital, Siloam Welfare Center, Nursing Home, and Sullivan Learning Center among others have transformed the lives of so many people from that of despair to hope by caring for their eyes, restoring vision, and cultivating leaders with scholarships. In addition, the noble work of supporting people with multiple disabilities who have difficulty adjusting to both school and home was carried out to help them live as active persons. Also for elderly people with visual impairment who have nowhere to go, the nursing home provided a shelter. I thank those people who have helped with all these things.

Thirdly, all these works of changing despair into hope were made possible through the love and support of the churches and my co-workers. So, I worshiped God each morning and delivered a message to leave trace in this world about God’s great love and the untold generosity of those around me. I kneel down and give my gratitude from the bottom of my heart to God and those people who have supported me to write about a message of hope in this book, “The Sound of the Morning Sun.”