The Drop Box, a book by Brian Ivie and Ted Kluck, talks about the impact of one Korean pastor’s life. This pastor, Lee Jong-rak, has drawn attention for his ministry: a baby drop box.
Rather than abandoning their babies on the side of the road or in a trash can, women can anonymously leave their babies in a heated box outside his house under a sign that reads, “Place to leave babies.”
Pastor Jong-rak’s story was also made into a documentary, which has already won nine awards at different film festivals and has garnered massive amounts of press from all different types of publications from the Los Angeles Times to the Wall Street Journal to Reuters.
Thus, through Jong-rak simply living his life as he thought Jesus would, people all across the world get to hear about God’s love and power working through Jong-rak. But his story isn’t just something to read or watch. It’s how we should all be living our lives, so the world stops and thinks, “There is something different about this person, and I must know what motivates him.”
Jong-rak’s work is powerful; one mother left a note with her baby that said, “I used to think about something bad, but I guess this box is safer for you.”
And Jong-rak’s testimony is powerful. In fact, Brian Ivie, the 22-year-old who filmed the documentary, became a Christian after watching Jong-rak working up close.
On his conversion Ivie said: “I became a Christian while making this movie. When I started to make it and I saw all these kids come through the drop box, it was like a flash from heaven: just like these kids with disabilities had crooked bodies, I have a crooked soul. This world is so much about self-reliance, self-worth and self-esteem. It’s a total illusion that we can be self-sufficient. Christ is the only thing that enables us.”
Jong-rak’s work and testimony are powerful because of one thing: a powerful God. Jong-rak reminds us of the powerful effect of a powerful testimony because we serve a powerful God.
Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Just as the disciples’ acts of love and healing drew attention, allowing them to share the Gospel with people across the ancient lands, so too today can acts of love and healing draw attention, allowing us to share the Gospel with people across the modern world.
Yes, modern technology has allowed this story of Jong-rak to be filmed and broadcast across the world, but the heart of the film is much more basic: a simple act of love for the abandoned babies of South Korea inspired by God’s perfect love for us.
“I always pray that there will be no more abandoned babies in this country and no more in our baby box,” Jong-rak said. “That’s all I want.”
