Dear friends and families,
(알림: 한국어 뉴스레터를 보시려면 이곳을 클릭해주세요.)
It’s been an extended while… I know. Please forgive us that we have not updated you. While we have a story-full journey to share, with many peaks and valleys, first, here is the long story short.
FIVE YEARS BY BULLET POINTS
- We came back to Korea all of a sudden after 15 years of overseas ministries in June 2010, due to the US visa problem.
- It was a crash landing back into our homeland (a foreign land for the kids), and most of us had a limited time of depression. Seunghee has never failed to carry on homeschooling the kids, though.
- After a little over a year, I began to work with both the Global Missions department of YWAM Korea and the English Ministry of Oryun Church which have richly blessed us.
- Now, God is moving us out of the country once again. If you are in a hurry and want to know what’s next right away, jump down to “SEASONAL WIND & THE HEROS SOSM”. Otherwise, read on.
SUDDEN BLOW & CRASH LANDING
Everything seemed on the right track with the ministry and family, until things began to happen out in the second quarter of 2010. I had been mostly busy with missions training programs, developing the Strategy Division, and such in YWAM NSI. The Colorado Immigration Department rejected our petition for the visa application due to the problem they had with YWAM’s international financial policy, which they still do to this day, and would not give us a visa. It was so sudden and difficult for us to leave our 12-year old home, Colorado Springs, and say good-byes to many loved ones, including some of you.
Yet, we were so grateful that there were some people in Korea who wanted to take us in like a shock absorber takes in the impact from a crash – our both parents. We stayed with them for about two and a half years, mostly with my in-laws, then moved out to our own apartment which has been our home for the last 2 years.
Seunghee had intensively prepared for homeschool before we left Colorado and started homeschooling the kids right away, as we began to settle with her folks. It gave us the best possible educational environment for the kids. It also gave me and Seunghee many opportunities to walk closely with the kids as they, too, had to go through and come out of emotional and cultural tunnels. God Himself helped each one of us make it all, as we started every morning with the kids together, with the Bible and prayer.
DOLDRUMS & BREEZES
The sudden blow initially dropped us in an emotional, spiritual doldrums. Our immigration attorney told us that we could come back to Colorado in about a year, which hasn’t happened yet. Meanwhile, deep in our hearts we had felt miserable, depressed, and my home country felt so foreign to me for a long while after arriving in Korea. I never enjoyed this feeling. Some of us didn’t really come “back”, because they were aliens in this land – our kids, or because they left the hearts behind – back in Colorado Springs. It took us a while to be integrated as a person again. I am extremely grateful to our parents, especially my in-law, for they had to bear us in the meantime.
September 2011, I decided to join the Global Missions Korea of YWAM Korea in part-time to help out my long-time friend as their strategy consultant on missions. GMK coordinates and supports all overseas missions work of YWAM Korea in and outside Korea. I am still working with them to this point, though the friend for whom I joined the ministry has left after a year. It was very refreshing to be around my YWAM fellows again.
A few months after that, I was given an opportunity to lead the English Ministry of Oryun Community Church in Seoul as their pastor. I had never expected that I would work with a mega-church in Korea for their English ministry, but felt that God was leading me to do it as well as work with YWAM Korea. So, I began to do both, part-time in each. I was challenged by the church’s corporate culture many times, yet have fallen in love with many wonderful people in the church, particularly with my English Ministry people.
SEASONAL WIND & THE HEROS SOSM
We now believe that God is relocating us for our further ministry once again. We are wrapping up our life in Korea, and are leaving for Ireland by the end of February next year as a family to start a new ministry in Europe for the next season. I need to go, set up, and run a YWAM missionary training program, called School of Strategic Missions, in Europe for mobilizing and training more new missionaries for the most strategic parts of the mission field.
The leadership of my YWAM ministry in Colorado Springs, YWAM NSI has processed and decided on this with me, and I am doing this as a YWAM NSI’s ministry. I’m planning for now to start this SOSM in Germany in September next year, and move it to Ireland to continue the lecture phase in October, and send the students to the Middle East on an outreach in December to finish the entire course by the end of February, 2016. Total, it’ll be a 6-month long training school.
Prior to the modern missions era, which is the 1800’s and afterward, there were three major missions movements in the church history – the Moravian Movement in Germany, the Celtic Church in Ireland, and the Early Church in the Middle East. We wanted to trace back these missions heroes in the church history and learn from them as part of the school. That’s why we are running this SOSM in these three different locations and calling it the Heroes SOSM.
So, it will take me and my family into a new season of lots of unknowns, big and small, and we are taking this step by faith, trusting God alone, as a family. When we get in Ireland, we’ll need to find a housing for the family, a place to accommodate the students, a classroom to run the school, a vehicle for the ministry, etc. But, even before that, I need to work on revising the school curriculum, developing the school system, recruiting the staff and the students, while still in Korea. So…
YOUR PRAYER CARRIES US!
We ask you to pray for and with us! We are massively in need spiritually, emotionally, and physically. You can pray the following prayer points with us, and we ask you to pray about financially supporting us, as well. As you can imagine, we need many big things, starting with our living cost for the next few months in Korea, the relocation fees, abilities to run the school, and many more so on.
Pray that…
- We would focus on God alone, and enjoy His presence day and night.
- We would be more deeply in love with each other as a family.
- God would give us wisdom and ability to put the school system together on time.
- God would bring the staff, students, speakers, and all resources together for the school on time.
- We would trust God on our needs and see His provision for the family and the ministry.
- Our children, too, would take the next steps led by God, and enjoy them. For example, Kevin will graduate from high school after a year and move on, and Hyejin and Yujin will need new friends.
- God would strengthen Seunghee to continually homeschool the kids as a mom.
For more details, please ask us anytime. You can leave us a comment below here in this page, or find our contact information by clicking the “Contact” page. For information on supporting us, please go to “Donate” up in the menu, or just click here.
Thank you so much for reading this all, and we would appreciate your prayers!
Many, many blessings!!!
Your Prayer Carries Us 