23. The Remarkable Testimony of Brian Park: From Worldly Success to Supernatural Encounter with Christ

A Life of Emptiness Despite Worldly Success

In the past, I had absolutely no knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I was born into a Buddhist family in Korea and immigrated to the United States when I was in 8th grade.

After immigrating, I went through middle school, high school, a prestigious university, and upon graduation, I was preparing to go to law school. But instead, I ended up joining Merrill Lynch, a world-renowned investment bank, where I worked 18-19 hours a day.

Within a few years of joining the company, I rose to the position of vice president. To my knowledge, I hold the record of being the youngest vice president in the company's history.

At the age of 26, I had reached the position of vice president at one of the world's top investment banks.

Just a decade prior, I was an 8th grade student in Korea with a shaved head who couldn't speak a word of English. But a decade later, I had become the youngest vice president at this globally renowned investment bank.

Naturally, from the moment I became vice president, immense wealth followed. The annual salary I received at the time was an amount that even if ten of my friends pooled their earnings together, they would not be able to touch.

There were times when the money I earned in a single month was an amount that most people would not see in their lifetime, and there were also times when I spent it all in a single month.

As a result, I became quite arrogant, often boasting that making money was the easiest thing in the world.

All I had to do was wake up in the morning and go to the office, and I would earn unimaginable sums of money that others could only dream of. I would spend it freely and enjoy many things that the world admired. I had achieved what people commonly call the "American Dream."

I had achieved success and fame at an early age. Whenever an article about me appeared in the Korea Times or other newspapers in the US and I received praise from people, I was filled with pride and thought to myself, "That's right. I am indeed such an amazing guy," living with a heart full of arrogance.

And with so much money, I was able to acquire quite a few things I wanted. One of my passions at the time was cars. In my garage, there were cars that most people would never have a chance to drive in their lifetime, cars with names they couldn't even pronounce.

But I didn't just keep them for a long time. If I got tired of driving one, I would get rid of it. Or if it got even slightly damaged in an accident, I would discard it completely. That's how I went through luxury cars, treating them like disposable items, buying and discarding them repeatedly.

I had thought that if I made a lot of money, I would be truly happy... I had experienced earning a great deal of money... but there was no real happiness. I had always thought that if I graduated from a prestigious university with impressive credentials.. my life would be overflowing with joy, but when I actually experienced it.. there was no joy at all.

Apart from the prestige of a well-known university, I thought that if I landed a good job, earned a lot of money, drove expensive cars, and received praise from people, my mood would soar and I would be overflowing with joy, happiness, and satisfaction...

But in reality, as time passed, such things became increasingly absent from my life. Even if there was a momentary joy at first, as time went by, that joy grew fainter and fainter.

From a young age, the message I always heard from my parents was "Study hard. Excel in your studies. Go to a good university. Get a good job." So as a student, I studied diligently.

Initially in middle school, I couldn't speak a word of English. But I studied hard, got into a top American university, worked diligently, and rose to a certain level (vice president at an investment bank). But it was then that I finally realized that while my parents' advice wasn't completely wrong...

From that point on, I began to understand that the worldly values my parents had instilled in me were "not entirely correct." After becoming vice president, I bought and drove multiple luxury cars, but there was no true satisfaction or happiness in them.

So I kept thinking "How can I be happier, experience more joy, indulge a bit more?" I started drinking even more of the expensive liquor I was already drinking. I was already smoking cigarettes, but I increased it to two packs a day. But even drinking two bottles of liquor in one sitting.. did not bring me happiness.

"This isn't working either. There must be something more." So I started using drugs. Up until I met Jesus at the age of 36, for 21 years prior to that, I engaged in drugs, smoking, and drinking almost every single day without fail.

But American society is a bit strange. No matter how I lived my personal life... people didn't care. As long as I made a lot of money for the company and my performance was high, these people didn't care what I did.

With the money I received from the company (salary+), I truly indulged to my heart's content. But even so, I didn't feel happy, so I continued to engage in money, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and other pleasures, living day by day. But even then, I saw no breakthrough in my life.

As a result, I gradually lost sight of my reason for existence. I had come this far and people said I was successful and had made it, but I realized "This is not it!" As this disillusionment set in, I became depressed. I even attempted suicide twice, but that didn't work out either. As a result of doing so many different things, my body (health) deteriorated significantly.

When I was in college, I injured my back while lifting weights and suffered from a herniated disc for 16 years. If you look at my left lumbar disc on an X-ray, the L4-L5 discs are missing. Even now, if I get an X-ray, the discs are not there.

So for 16 years, I suffered from the pain of bone rubbing against bone. I had a tumor on my left heel, causing me to limp when I walked. And because I drank so much alcohol, I had ruined my stomach and liver, suffering from indigestion. Due to acid reflux, I couldn't eat kimchi, which I loved, for over 10 years. I had so much stress throughout my entire body that I developed alopecia areata and lost all my hair. I had a skin condition where I developed hives all over my body. I was in so much pain throughout my body that the first thing I did upon waking up in the morning, before even getting out of bed, was to light a cigarette. The next thing I did was start taking painkillers.

If I didn't take 20 Tylenol or similar painkillers from the moment I woke up until noon, I was in so much pain throughout my body that I couldn't even move. That's the miserable state I was living in day by day, with my health completely ruined.

What good is money, my friends, when your body is in such pain? What good is money? I was living my life completely aimlessly, day by day, and the emptiness was beyond description.

On top of that, I had a very violent temper. My personality was extremely aggressive and quick to anger, so even when talking to people, my violent temper would flare up and my fists would fly, landing me in jail 8 times. Almost all of it was due to assault. Normally, I am a very gentle person. But after drinking and using drugs to my heart's content... not only was my body ruined, but my personality also started to change strangely.

As a result, there was one year when I got into so many car accidents that I had a total of 19 accidents. Even then, my ribs were fractured and I was injured, but somehow, miraculously, I survived each time. I got into car accidents, but I didn't die.

As each day passed, I realized that making money was not the purpose of life. As each day passed, my life began to sink deeper and deeper. Exhausted by the emptiness, I wandered in search of truth. At that time, what I was most curious about was...

"What is my reason for existence after all? Why am I alive? Am I alive just to make money?"

"Surely I was born to do something greater than myself, greater than my own existence. That's why I studied and worked..." But when I actually looked, I was living only for myself, for my own pleasure, for my own sake. In the midst of that despair, I started going here and there, trying to find some kind of answer.

As a result, I ended up meeting some Christians. Whenever I met them and heard about Jesus, in my heart I thought "How absurd their faith is."

"How can you obtain salvation by believing in someone (Jesus) you've never met?"

So at that time, I had a very wicked and nasty hobby. That hobby was to meet Christian believers and engage in long debates with them. During the debates, I would point out how absurd and trivial their faith was, trying to get them to leave the church and Jesus. At that moment, I felt a great thrill.

"See, that Jesus you believe in is fake."

While persecuting those who believed in Jesus, I also greatly looked down on and despised Jesus. However, my life continued to sink deeper into evil and darkness each day, unable to escape from alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes. I used so many drugs that my heart stopped twice and I died briefly. But miraculously, I woke up again. And so the days went by.

"What is the purpose of my life?"

A Supernatural Encounter with God's Presence

It was the night of June 17, 1994, when I was thirty-six years old. I was driving with my brother to a convenience store to buy coffee. My brother went into the store and I was waiting in the parked car when someone approached my car and asked,

"Do you believe in Jesus?"

Normally, I would lie and say I believed in Jesus to avoid the bothersome evangelistic talk. But that particular day, I was in a bad mood, so I bluntly answered that I didn't believe. Then the person said, "May I pray for you?" and I absentmindedly told him to go ahead.

Then the person told me to repeat after him.

"Jesus, wash away my sins with Your blood and let Your Holy Spirit come upon me."

It was such a cliché saying that I had heard so many times, but I ended up repeating after him absentmindedly. After the prayer, I asked out of curiosity who he was, and he answered that he was a pastor. He just happened to see me while passing by on his way to a nearby meeting. He handed me a flyer for the meeting, and after he left, I crumpled it up.

After my brother, who had gone to get coffee, got back in the car, something inexplicable suddenly happened to me. Uncontrollably, I began to wail and hot tears streamed down my face. The tears were so hot that I couldn't drive.

After stopping crying for a minute or two, this time, unknown words began to pour out of my mouth involuntarily, unrelated to my will. After that, my entire body began to tremble uncontrollably, independent of my will, and I felt as if something was leaving my body.

This phenomenon continued for 20 minutes, occurring once every minute. My brother, who had no idea what was going on, asked me what had happened. I told him about the pastor I had met while parked and showed him the flyer. Then my brother was startled and told me something. He had a dream the night before in which our father appeared and told him that someone would tell him something the next day. And the person my brother saw in his dream was the very pastor on the flyer.

After something had escaped from my defiled body over 20 times, for the first time in my life, I felt the sensation of being truly clean. It was a peace beyond description.

That is how I met Jesus. On June 17, 1994, while I was driving on the road, Jesus, whom I had persecuted so much, came to my car.

I had a personal encounter with Him, and even after that, for six hours, I experienced supernatural events. To the extent that no matter what anyone in this world says, I cannot deny Jesus. I had a precise personal encounter with Him, and from that moment on, my life began anew.

The moment Jesus met me, by God's unilateral grace and His mighty power, He helped me quit alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs in an instant. And the pain in my back that I had suffered from for 16 years, God healed it in just 2 seconds. The tumor on my left heel also melted away before my eyes as I was listening to God's Word. He completely healed my acid reflux and everything else. He healed all the pain in my body and the hives that covered my entire body. And God restored my hair that had fallen out due to alopecia areata.

The hair you see on my head now is not transplanted. It's my own hair that has grown back. What I'm even more grateful for is that God restored my health. For 30 years, I had always taken pride in my health and lived that way. But when I was completely immersed in the world, my health had deteriorated miserably to rock bottom. But God met me, healed me, restored me, and then restored my health and even transformed my appearance.

I am now 55 years old. But people mistake me for being in my late 30s. In fact, I am healthier than most people in their 30s as I travel the world testifying about Jesus. He restored my health. God did it all.

What's even more amazing is that I'm not boasting about myself, but boasting about God. This month alone, I have nine meetings. As a result, I fast every evening. I fasted this evening before coming here, and many people wonder.

"How do you have the strength to preach like this while fasting in the evening?"

God does it. God did it. God continues to hold me and works amazingly in my life. I am now living in God's grace and blessings.

My wife and I always talk about this together. My wife and I are the people who have won the lottery with the lowest odds in the world. We won a lottery with odds of 1 in 7.3 billion. They say the total population of this world is 7.3 billion, but among those 7.3 billion people, there are probably no people as happy as my wife and me.

There are quite a few things in this world that money can't buy. I've experienced having money... But there was no happiness. I had nice cars. There was no joy. I had a good educational background and a good job... But there was no peace. However, God restored the joy, peace, happiness, and hope that money cannot buy, so I now go around testifying to that joy.

I am not teaching you "religion." I am simply testifying about the Jesus I met.

Just the Jesus I met that day. If you meet Him properly, even just once, just once (repeated for emphasis), God will transform you. Just as God transformed Saul into Paul, just as He used him greatly as God's servant, just as He brought glory to God, my hope is to share about the Jesus I met as I travel the world. If you meet Jesus even just once, you too will live a life that brings even more glory to Jesus than the Apostle Paul or myself, becoming a more influential witness. That is what I desire. That is why I go to meetings.

With that one hope, I am now traveling the world testifying about Jesus. What I'm also grateful for is that as I travel the world, I do it at my own expense. I testify about the Jesus I met while traveling at my own expense. I am truly rich. How am I rich, you ask? I don't have much money right now.

But our Father is rich. Because our Father is rich, I am truly rich. If I turn my pockets inside out right now, I may have less money than you. But that doesn't matter. Because our Father is truly rich, with His backing, I live each day like this.

The Spiritual Gifts Received After Meeting Jesus

What I am grateful for is that after meeting Jesus in such a way - I did not go and find Him, but He came and found me - I started attending church. For about 3 weeks, I was what they commonly call a "Sunday-only" believer. I just carried my Bible and went to church. But after about 3 weeks, I had a thought within me, "Since I'm already doing this, I should try going to the Wednesday evening service."

Later I found out that it was the Holy Spirit leading me. I went to the Wednesday evening service. There, people were praying out loud, and without realizing it, my tongue started to become strange. It turned out that at that moment, God was enabling me to speak in tongues.

People often say this, that tongues "broke out." But friends, nowhere in the Bible does it say tongues "broke out." It just says they spoke in tongues. Don't let your tongues "break out," just "speak" in tongues. That day, I simply began to speak in tongues. After that, as I continued to pray to God in tongues, I didn't know, but then I saw that in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, there are gifts of the Holy Spirit. God manifested all nine gifts of the Holy Spirit through me at once.

From then on, whenever I prayed for someone... God healed them. Whenever Iprayed for someone... God restored them. Truly amazing things, starting from prophecy, God enabled me to do so many things through me.

At first, this was good for me, but then it became a bit uncomfortable, so I went to see my pastor. The pastor confirmed that these were indeed gifts, but told me not to be tilted toward the gifts, but to fellowship with and meet God through His Word. From then on, I continued to meet God through His Word, grow day by day through His Word...

And in that same year, on October 7, 1994, I was called as a servant of the Lord. After completing seminary, I planted a church and served in church ministry for a while. But I realized that my calling was as an "itinerant preacher." So I closed the church, and for the past 8 years, God has established me as a revivalist (itinerant preacher) traveling the world testifying about Jesus.

What truly amazed me was, "How can a person like me believe in Jesus?" They say there are 7 wonders of the world. For me, there are two personal wonders that are even more amazing than those.

• First, how can a person like me be saved? This doesn't make sense. Truly, I live each day gratefully enjoying that grace, realizing how high, deep, wide, and abundant God's grace is. But an even greater second wonder is, how can a human being like me, filthy, ugly, and deserving of death, become a pastor and go around testifying about Jesus? It's truly a wonder.

And so I have hope.

When I see that a filthy, worm-like creature like myself who deserved to die met Jesus like this and now testifies to Jesus' life, I gain hope thinking about how much more greatly God will use all of you who are fundamentally more beautiful and have more faith than I do. With that one hope, insufficient as I am, I now travel the world testifying about Jesus. My hope is that if you meet the Jesus I truly met even just once, just once, your life will be completely turned upside down. You too will testify to Jesus with your life and become a witness of Jesus. Because of that one hope, I am now traveling the world testifying about Jesus.