Park Hyeon-man (박현만)

Daejeon (대전시), Korea

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In Defense of Jeong Myeong-seok (정명석)

Jeong Myeong-seok (정명석), pronounced jong myong-sock (officially Romanized until 1999 as Chŏng Myŏng-sŏk and after 2000 as Jeong Myeong-seok) is the controversial leader of a new religious movement generally known as Providence (religion).  His Korean name is not 중뮹석, as the old Romanization of his name, Jung Myung Seok, would suggest, but 정명석.   His Western name is Joshua Jeong, or, using the incorrect Romanization, Joshua Jung.  He is also known as Seon Saeng Nim (선생님), the Korean word for teacher, as R for Rabbi, the Hebrew word for teacher, or as Pastor Joshua. 

Wol Myeong Dong (월명동)

Wol Myeong Dong (월명동), often misspelled in English as Wol Myung Dong (월묭동), is the birthplace of Jeong Myeong-seok (정명석) and a central gathering place for Providence, which is Seomni or 섭리 in Korean.  Here is a link to a satellite map of Wol Myeong Dong.

One of the centerpieces of the Wol Myeong Dong natural temple is the rock landscape.  Before its successful completion the rock landscape collapsed four times when the earth holding the rocks in place destabilized during winter storms. 

Please find below a testimony by Pak, Hyeon-man (박현만), given on 2001-03-20 and translated by Bo-yeon (보연), which I (Charlene Yo) transcribed. 

Pak, Hyeon-man (박현만) is the team leader of the Wol Myeong Dong (월명동) construction  crew.  He is a dancer of Korean traditional dance by profession and had been involved in the Wol Myeong Dong rock landscaping project for 8 years at the time of his testimony. 

The picture shows myself (Charlene Yo) in front of the rock landscape. 

Park Hyeon-man’s Testimony

During development of the rock landscape the most dangerous rock to position was the one placed right below the twin rocks.  It weighed 14 tonnes (14000 kg).  This rock was not the heaviest one among all the rocks but the most life-threatening one to drop into the designated place.  Because this rock was so dangerous to position, the crane driver refused to perform the task. 

So I, the captain of the work team, who had been working for 8 years with Seon Saeng Nim in the development of the rock garden, climbed up to the driver’s seat and hoisted the rock off the ground.  Seon Saeng Nim did a last-minute prayer to God and Jesus for their help and protection.  The rock was tossing in the mid-air because of its tremendous weight.  30 workers in the back of the rock were pushing it while Seon Saeng Nim was pushing it from the front.  Then Seon Saeng Nim dismissed 100 workers standing by on the right and the left side of the rock. 

Suddenly, a sound roaring like thunder coming from the sky startled everybody.  The sound was so loud that while pushing the rock, Seon Saeng Nim, myself and all the workers looked up into the sky to see where the sound was coming from.  While we were all looking up into the sky, the rock slightly rubbed against Seon Saeng Nim’s arm and exactly slipped into the intended spot.  It was a near-death experience when none of us noticed how the rock slipped into the designated spot while we were all looking up into the sky.  To everybody watching, it felt like a near-death experience as well.  This was indeed a miracle.  It was such a life-threatening task to place this 14 tonne rock.  Without God’s protection we could not have made it.  After this rock was successfully positioned sometime in 1996, the rock landscape near it crumbled another 3 times. 

The rock landscape crumbled 4 times, in total.  Every time the rock landscape collapsed, Seon Saeng Nim and the workers who toiled with him day and night cried.  We were so heartbroken that we could not bear to see the crumbled landscape, for all our hard work, all our devotion to a common dream, all our sweat and tears had drained away in water at the crumbling sound!  Seon Saeng Nim is small in physique but strong in mentality.  He does not give in to tribulations or difficulties.  After the rock landscape had collapsed for the 4th time, he held his tears and went into his container room to pray, meditate, and read the Bible.  He did not eat or sleep but only prayed, meditated and read the Bible. 

Then a couple of days later, he came out of his container room and said to the depressed workers, “Let’s work again to rebuild the crumbled rock landscape.  Let’s give thanks to God and Jesus for their love and protection.  When we met the eyes of near-death doing such huge and life-threatening construction work, God protected our lives so we did not even get hurt.  None of us is getting harmed performing such dangerous labor.  It is all because of God’s and Jesus’ protection.  Let’s work again and give thanks to God always, because there is a reason why the rock landscape crumbled.  God exposed what we did not do correctly during the construction, so that we can fix it and prevent any life-threatening situations or human errors unforeseen to our naked eyes from happening again.  God knows everything and foresees what would be happening to us if we did not fix what we did not do correctly.  God loves our lives, so let’s do it again with a much stronger mentality and a more grateful attitude.  This time let’s do it right; let’s do our work more diligently, thoroughly and properly.  And no matter how many times the rock landscape has crumbled, my heart doesn’t crumble.” 

At the 5th time, Seon Saeng Nim and the work team successfully set all the rocks and finished the construction of a splendid world-class rock garden. 

Why place huge rocks to build a rock garden?  Why build the rock landscape?  People may ask such a question.  Seon Saeng Nim said human lives don’t last for long, at most, 70 to 80 years, while rocks last for 1000 years.  Rocks, in the bible, are used to describe man, so when a huge rock is splendidly placed, it means a precious life is beautifully restored. 

Among so many tremendous boulders, there is a rock on which Seon Saeng Nim inscribed.  The inscription reads: “LOVE LIFE!”  Visitors that came to the rock garden seeing the inscription were so moved and amazed.  Inscription experts came and analyzed his handwriting and concluded that his handwriting is so full of tremendous inspiration and mental strength that they believe no one else in the world could match it.  Such handwriting could only come from a person of strong will, integrity, sincerity and amazing mentality. 

During his prayer training in Wol Myeong Dong, Seon Saeng Nim came out with the mentality to love lives, not only his own life but also others’ lives.  He loves even people who misunderstand him and treat him wrongly.  He says, “I must love everyone because Jesus said 2000 years ago that we must love our brothers, neighbors and even our enemies.  Jesus persevered to live such a great and righteous life 2000 years ago, so I must follow what Jesus has taught us.” 

Seon Saeng Nim says, “Our physical life on earth is so short that to leave some legacy for the later generations to see, God initiated this plan to build the rock landscape, and my body is just used by Him to do what He wants to do.  When we all pass away and leave this world, the later generations and descendants, when coming to this rock garden, will get to know how deeply God and the Lord Jesus love mankind by using our hands and feet to build this rock landscape.  While our bodies perish, this rock garden will remain.  And even though we leave this world going to the other world, God’s love and Jesus’ love for mankind remain on earth till eternity.  With our sweat, tears, devotion, and lives on the line, this rock garden has been built to symbolize the eternal love that God and Jesus have had for all mankind.”

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