ⓒ 2004 WATV

On October 9, over 300 members of the Church of God in Gwanak, Seoul, had a clean-up event around the path up to Mt. Gwanak and around the residential streets of Bongcheon 7-dong. It was called, 2004 Autumn Mt. Gwanak & Bongcheon-dong Clean-up Movement.' Jeong Hee Yu, a member of Gwanak-gu assembly and Hong Gyun Jeong, the village headman of Bongcheon 7-dong, and a lot of staffs of the village office attended this event and encouraged the members.

The Church members who gathered in Nacksungdae at about 9 a.m. started the event with the opening address of Jin Ee Park, the pastor of Gwanak Church. In the opening address, he said, We arranged this event because it is how we love our neighbors to preserve the streets of the area where we live in and Mt. Gwanak that functions as the lungs of Seoul and as a resting place like Mother, and emphasized that they should carry the love for neighbor in practice which is a commandment of God, by the clean-up movement.

Jung Hee Yu, the member of Gwanak assembly, thanked the members for they knew the importance of the nature along with the will of the world mission.

ⓒ 2004 WATV

The members were divided into two groups for the area around the path up Mt. Gwanak and for the residential streets of Bongcheon 7-dong. In the path up the mountain, they were divided into three teams and cleaned up from the entrance of the path up to the top. In the middle of the path the youths collected the dirt, having a campaign to arouse citizens' interest in the environment.

They cleaned up very hard, giving thanks to God who had let them reveal the glory of God, and said that there were a lot of rubbish around the path up the mountain even though the path itself looked clean. The climbers smiled, looking at the children who were picking up trash together with their parents.

ⓒ 2004 WATV

The citizens who came to the mountain encouraged the members, What a wonderful job! It is we climbers who have thrown away rubbish, but you are cleaning. We feel sorry. And thank you."

On the other hand, the men members cleaned up around the area of Bongcheon 7-dong, being divided into three teams. There was so much rubbish gathered by them. The rubbish which was collected from the hill around the village stadium and the residential streets of Bongcheon 7-dong needed 3 rubbish collecting cars to got taken away. It was telling us how hard the members had worked.

Especially, the hill around the stadium reminded of a rubbish collecting place. There were big and small rubbish such as cookies bags, cans, bottles, wet napkins, garbage, broken pots, excrements, decaying clothes and blankets. Moreover, there were much bigger and heavier rubbish such as old refrigerators, lots of clothes which were as much as the half of a truck, old tiers and scrapped materials.

ⓒ 2004 WATV

The members collected all the disgusting and heavy rubbish, trying not to miss them even in the crevice of stones and the space between the branches, and hidden in the heap of earth that had fallen by the landslide. The smell from the old garbage of food and excrements were so disgusting, but the members did their best to collect all the rubbish.

The village headman, Hong Gyun Jeong who was watching the members, gave thanks to them, saying, I just want to give thanks to you for that a church participates in the clean-up movement voluntarily even though there are a lot of other environment protection groups. And the staffs of the village office and residents encouraged or helped the members who were doing such a dirty thing as if it was their own work, keeping smiling.

A resident, who was climbing the mountain, said that he was shamed of that there were still unscrupulous people who throw away rubbish indiscriminately. He also said, I am so happy for the members of the Church of God came up here to do an environment campaign and collected the dirt and dust.

ⓒ 2004 WATV

Recently, we've been attracting public attention as Mother received an order of sport merit. At a time like this, if we take care of the local community and take the initiative in loving our neighbors according to the word of God, the local community will be developed and the glory of God who is the reality of love will be revealed even more, said the pastor Jin Ee Park. We will continue to take care of Mt. Gwanak and Bongcheon 7-dong area and spare no pains to preach the love and sacrifice of Christ.

The Church of God members have been trying hard for a long time as the light and salt of the world and as the delivers of love, who preach the love and the sacrifice of God through 400 churches in Korea and 100 churches around the world. This reporter hope that through their activities the whole world will get embroidered with the love of Mother and the aroma of Christ.