There was a deaconess and her son who faithfully attended the early‑morning prayer service. The father was an honorary deacon, and the son was an active, serving lay-deacon. Every dawn, the two of them would sit in the front and back pews of the sanctuary and offer their prayers to God.

One day, it seemed the son had even more to say to God than usual. The father finished praying first and left, while the son remained in deep prayer for quite some time before finally heading out.

We were also about to leave after finishing our own prayers when the father suddenly rushed back into the church, out of breath, saying he needed to call home.

“How in the world could this happen? My son just left me behind and drove off!”

“Oh my! He must have thought you were already in the car!”

While he was using the payphone, a troubling news story I’d heard recently flashed through my mind—about people who took their elderly parents on a ‘filial piety trip’ to Jeju Island only to abandon them there. Those parents, realizing they had been deserted, refused to reveal their children’s names or addresses to anyone, keeping their mouths tightly shut…

We told the deacon that we would drive him home ourselves and that he should tell his son not to come back for him. The daughter‑in‑law seemed shocked and flustered when she answered the phone. And truly, how startled and distressed the son must have been when he realized his father wasn’t in the car!

The father explained that while he was circling the church a few times, waiting for his son to come out, he saw him suddenly zoom off in the car. “Imagine leaving without even checking whether someone is in the back seat or not…!”

The deacon was indignant, as if he had never experienced anything so outrageous in his life. And understandably so—his eldest son was known far and wide as the very model of filial devotion, a man outstanding in both character and ability, someone the father took great pride in and relied on deeply.

– WanHee Yoon, October 23, 1998