The Blind Korean Pastor

(A Summary of Rev An Yo Han’s Autobiography by Wendy Teng)

 

Birth and Childhood

An Yo Han was born in October 1939, the third child in the family. He was given the disciple’s name, John, while his seven siblings were given ordinary Korean names. To his father, who had come to the Lord late in life, John was a special gift from God, and his father dedicated and offered him to God to be a servant of the Lord.

Since young, John considered his father “an ever-present obstacle blocking the bright sunlight from shining towards him in his green pastures.” His father also dedicated himself to the Lord and studied in Pyongyang Theological Seminary and became a Christian minister and served in a small country church. The salary of his preacher father was hardly enough to take care of the family and John resented the poverty and lowly life of his father and was angry with the church for their mistreatment of their minister and his family. He was determined to remove this obstacle, and rebelled against his father’s dream of him being a minister of God. He openly resisted his father and his church whenever he was home on weekends or summer vacations. He enjoyed school as that was where he was away from home and church and could pursue his own dreams. However, though he caused much trouble to his father and his church, his father never ceased praying for him.

A Prodigal Son

After John graduated from high school, he entered the Foreign Language College in Seoul, Korea, majoring in French, to pursue the career of a diplomat. His decision to be financially independent from his father made him free from his father’s dominance. He need not struggle against his father anymore but could seek his own future with complete freedom.

However, his father did not give up on him. Upon his graduation from college in February 1962, his father asked him to come home immediately. His father persuaded him once again to fulfil his dream by asking him to tie a stone to a string and then to swing the stone around as hard as he could. His father then explained to him that like the stone which is tied to the string, he cannot escape from God’s will. His father told him that God had chosen him from birth to be His servant. John was astonished by his father’s unceasing prayers for his return! As he pondered over the God whom His father served, a seed of faith seemed to grow within him. After a week of consideration and prayer, he obeyed his father and registered to study at the new Seoul Theological Seminary. However, his seminary life was short and it ended in 1963. He struggled for several months and finally decided to quit seminary. He did not believe the Bible and could not preach about a God in whom he did not believe. Thereafter he went through three years of military service and enjoyed his freedom from church. He was discharged from military service in 1966 and started working as a Korean and French Instructor and as an interpreter in the Eighth American Military Army. He was drawing a high salary and was very happy.

In 1970, the Military Institute for Foreign Languages in Monterey, California, was in need of a Korean language instructor and the Eighth Army recommended John. John felt that he was in luck and his dream of a diplomatic career was going to be realised. Before his departure, John found a bride with the help of his parents and was happily married. He and his wife looked forward to their trip to the USA.

Becoming Blind

While waiting for the day of their trip to the USA, John suddenly felt something was wrong with his right eye. For no reason, it became worse. This was the beginning of the longest ordeal in his life. John was devastated to find out from the doctor that his right eye might gradually go blind. Owing to his eye problem, he postponed his trip to the USA. Hoping for a lucky turn of fate that he might get better, he sought treatment. John began his endless visits to all known eye doctors in the country in search of a cure but to no avail. Meanwhile, his first baby girl was born. When he could not meet the deadline after the third time, the Eighth Army found someone to replace him.

John also sought the ancient Chinese doctors and tried countless methods of treatment but nothing worked. One long year passed and 1972 came. His second daughter was born in April. About the early summer of 1972, John became nearly blind in his right eye, and his left eye started having the same symptoms. It was evident that he was going blind—“The thing that I had dreaded most had come! I felt as if both my body and spirit were bound together and thrown into the dark hell of despair. I was on the road to death all alone. There was no one who could walk with me; not even my own mother, my wife or my two loving daughters. I screamed out, ‘Oh, God! Why are you going to take the light away from me? What have I done to deserve this?’ Sinking deeper into despair I cried unto God, cursing Him and at the same time imploring Him. Of all people, why me? Why? Why?”

Financial problems arose after three years. Without an income, all the savings were used up to look for cures for his condition. He had to sell his house and move his family to a smaller place. John’s friend recommended him to be a French teacher at St Paul’s Catholic Girl’s High School in Nonsan, Choongnam Province. Deep inside him, John was hoping that God would have mercy on him. John persevered in his teaching job until it became impossible for him to teach. When he returned home for summer vacation in 1974, he confessed everything to his wife, and resigned from the school. By 1975, his left eye was nearly blind too. For the sake of his family and his promise to his older daughter that he would not be blind, John sought treatment from a lady who specialised in “needle treatment” and became unconscious. His mother finally took him home. On April 16, 1976, John became totally blind and also deaf in his left ear.

After becoming totally blind, his wife and his children abandoned him and John was left to face a world of darkness and the uncertain future alone. He attempted suicide twice. In his second suicide attempt, he suddenly lost consciousness and fell to the floor. Then he heard someone calling his name and the voice seemed to fill up the room. Surprised, John opened his eyes and saw bright light shining in his room and sweet smelling fragrance filling it. The voice continued to shout his name, commanding him to get up. Frantically waving his arms, John asked over and over again, “Who are you?” “Where are you?” The voice answered, “I am Jehovah your God. Don’t say you are all alone because I am always with you. You will know that you are not alone. Read page 320 of the Old Testament; it belongs to you.”

New Found Faith

In his utter despair, the Lord reached out to John and gave him Joshua Chapter One, commanding him to be strong and of a good courage as God was with him and would not forsake him. This new found faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and dependence on God filled his heart with joy overflowing and gave John the strength and courage to overcome his blindness and depression. John was assured that God would help him find His plan for his life. With this assurance, he packed a few personal belongings and a transistor radio, and left the house to start his pilgrim journey to seek God’s will and purpose in his life.

John had to endure hardships and humiliating experiences as he ploughed through the streets to find God’s will for his life. There were many obstacles along the way—stumbling on a stone, running right into the electric pole, bumping his forehead—but the contempt and sneering of heartless people was harder to endure than the actual struggle of getting around. Only the faith that he had that he would find the light at the end of the tunnel kept him going despite the adverse circumstances. The Word of God, “Be strong and of a good courage, I will not forsake you” gave John the hope to move on, trusting the Lord to lead him to the light. God finally led him to the Seoul train depot where his long journey came to an end.

At the train depot, there was a group of people—newspaper peddlers, shoe-shine boys, and porters—and they accepted John as one of the unfortunate people just as they were. Gradually, John experienced the kindness shown to him by the poor and lowly people. God revealed to John His will for him in his life through a newspaper boy named Jin Yong. John realised that he could serve the Lord in this lowly place by sharing his education with Jin Yong and the boys and teaching them God’s love and His words.

Going to Seminary

The Lord opened the way for John to be equipped for service. With the help of Jin Yong, John was able to find a Braille school and learned Braille in Korean and in English. Later, he learned Japanese, French, Hebrew and Latin. John needed a seminary education in order to be a Christian worker and that was the next challenge.

When Fall came, it was too cold to stay at Seoul train depot and Jin Yong took John to Noryangjin train depot and introduced him to his friends there to take care of him. Through Bang Wool, the shoeshine boy, John was able to sleep in the tea house. John listened to the religious English program through the transistor radio and copied the addresses of the organisations which offered counseling and wrote to them his personal story. In the early part of February 1977, John received the long-awaited letter. It was from Tom Frances, General Secretary of the Foundation of Helen Keller, which was also called the Milton Association for the Blind and they were willing to finance his seminary education. John enrolled himself in Hankuk Theological Seminary in Sooyoori, Seoul. He visited his father before school began and told him this good news. John finally fulfilled his father’s wish for him to become a minister of God.

Church for the Blind

When he graduated in the year 1979, John established “The Promotion of the Blind Association”. He later started the church for the blind and on the last Sunday of June 1979, they held their first “New Light Church” service. John’s parents attended his first service. Later on, his friends from the train depot volunteered their services in the church for the blind and in this way they were also blessed by the Word of God, coming to church every Sunday. Offerings came in and they were used for the publication for the Braille magazine, the “New Light”. John then worked on starting an evening school for the poor and lowly, the boys from the train station.

John concluded his autobiography with this prayer, “Thank you Lord for my blindness. You took away my physical eyes which will decay with this body when it dies, but you gave me the invaluable spiritual eyes to see the truth. Thank you for calling me into your service. With all my heart and strength I will serve you where you planted me until the day you call me to heaven. I truly value my unique ministry, Lord! Just give me the strength to carry on your work and help me to obey Your will until the end.