– For Changchun Methodist Church, 120 Years

A clear stream
runs through the world,

not with noise,
not with power,

but with the patience
of water
finding every thirsty root.

On a Sunday morning,
the prophet speaks again:

“These waters flow toward the east…
and wherever the river goes,
everything shall live.”

And suddenly
Ezekiel’s river
crosses a century
and arrives here—

to Changcheon,
where prayer first gathered
beneath humble roofs
in the summer of 1906.

Before towers,
before crowded streets,
before the rush of students
and the glow of screens,

there was a spring.

A handful of believers.
A gospel carried westward
from Jeong-dong.
A dream that faith
might take root
among new homes
and dusty roads.

The river began there.

I remember another stream.

A child bending over clear water,
chasing minnows
through sunlight and stone.

The creek seemed endless then.

Yet life carried me
through distant lands,
through years of ministry,
through departures
and returns.

And after the long road,

I find myself again
standing in the water.

Not in that childhood stream,
but in the broad current
of the ChangChun River,

where memory,
history,
and grace
meet together.

The river has grown wider.

Its source remains unseen.

Yet it still carries
the same living water.

For one hundred and twenty years
this church has stood
beside that clear stream—

through occupation and war,

through rebuilding and hope,

through generations
of students,
workers,
mothers,
fathers,
pastors,
and dreamers.

Here prayers were whispered.

Here tears were received.

Here young voices
heard their calling.

Here weary souls
found a place to rest.

And the water kept flowing.

Today,
I hear another witness.

The final breath
of John Steinbeck
gathered into three simple letters-

Soli Deo Gloria.

Glory to God alone.

The river does not praise itself.

The stream does not drink itself.

The water moves onward,
giving life
wherever it goes.

So may Changchun remain
a clear stream
for the city and world.

A river for the weary.

A baptism of living words
for generations yet unseen.

And when another century arrives,

may those who stand here
still hear beneath every hymn,
every prayer,
every sermon,

the sound of living water

flowing from beyond our limits,

because He came,

and still comes,

beyond every boundary,

bringing life
wherever the river flows.

— TaeHun Yoon, on Sunday 6/7/2026