Los Angeles is one of hubs for SfK Ministries in the U.S. We have the highest number of Kingdom Fellows and naturally the highest number of Korean Americans.
Lately, we have been staying at the Healing Center of God's Family Church in Buena Park. Due to its convenient location between Irvine and Los Angeles, we have preferred to stay here. I am grateful for their hospitality.
We have learned that Kristin's second older brother, Kwang Gu, has recently moved to Buena Park. We had a gathering over dinner with his wife. It was joyous reunion.
Kristin's cousin Jinsoo Kim has been living in Irvine, California since he got married with Young Hae Chang. Jinsoo, now EVP and CCO for a bank in Garden Grove, has also been serving as Chief of Lending for SfK Ministries. He has allowed us to use one of his cars, Toyota Camry, while we stay in California. It has been tremendously helpful. They treated us with meals also and picked us up at the airport and to the airport. What a faithful partner God has provided! The family dinner at Panini Kabob Grill was highly value-driven and delicious! For $27, we had a meal that included two types of salads, two types of rice and chicken kabob with grilled vegetables. The meal was for 4 people and they took the remainder for a good meal for two of them. What a value meal! I would love to return to this place on Michelson off Jamboree. I am deeply grateful for their hospitality.
We had a reunion in decades with Steve Kang and his wife Stephanie over dinner. It was not only joyous to see them again in almost 30 years but also delightful to see his heart to serve. He agreed to take care of the tax return for SfK as a service and to engage with our training program, SfK MBA BCT. He will be part of the faculty from MBA BCT in Central Asia #1 in April. Praise the Lord!
Hana Financial, Inc. agreed to host a gathering for SfK to give a presentation about its ministry. 25 + people attended and HFI gave us a check to support the ministry. Young Shim also issued a check to support. I was deeply grateful. Among the attendees were Sunnie Kim, President of HFI, John Lim, a visionary donor for SfK Ministries and Managing Partner at Lim Nexus law firm, Joanne Kim, CEO of CBB Bank, Steve Kang, Partner at a CPA firm, Daniel Park, Partner at a CPA firm, Grace Yoo, SfK Life board member and civil rights activist, Young Shim, EVP at HFI, Tom and Lita Lee, Dentist who plan to go to Rwanda. I pray that this will be only the beginning of a long lasting tradition.
I met with several Kingdom Fellows, including Kathy Cho, Director of Marketing and Daniel Pak who has been handling SfK's g-mail accounts. He has now agreed to handle the outsourcing services for SfK. Young Shim, now active with her job, is considering full time engagement after she retires. I meant to get together with Grace Kim, but could not.
Kristin has several old friends in Los Angeles. One of them is Mindy Song. She allowed us to stay at her house a few times and we enjoyed staying there. We also get her help in our purchase of many supplies, particularly at COSTCO. This time was not an exception. We appreciate her hospitality.
This time at COSTCO, we found some products which we were so familiar with. They are peace baskets from Rwanda. Someone must have made a breakthrough with COSTCO with consistent product quality and ample product quantity. There were plenty of the products that appeared to have good quality. Unfortunately, however, the prices were almost 10 times the price we saw in Rwanda. I hoped that a good portion of them would go to the artisans, not the intermediaries. Well...
I met up with Charles Won, his wife Jennifer and Missionary Juan Lee whom I met at the KBM Global gathering in September this year at Mt. Sorak. Charles and Jennifer have been handling close out merchandise for the past 40 years. They are now interested in engaging more in world mission and I was praying that the Lord open the door of collaboration between SfK and GB US, Inc. that he runs. They made the trip to El Salvador to explore more about what can be done.
I met with the BAM Committee people of Bethel Korea Church. We spent 3 hours to talk about how SfK may help the church in carrying out the BAM programs. I was informed that the church has agreed to support SfK from 2019. Praise the Lord! Brian Kim is now leading the BAM Committee and I was delighted to hear the news. He was one of the 19 graduates from SfK MBA BCT held in May/June 2018. He also served as a missionary in Mongolia for a few years and has an excellent relational heart. We will see what the Lord has in store for our future relationship. We reviewed a revised business plan for a cafe business in Turkey. The church sent a group of 11 people to Turkey to conduct the feasibility study and revise the business plan. That was impressive and represented a strong commitment.
Separately, I had a breakfast meeting with a few members of SBS Irvine Group. Brian Kim, Jikyung Park, Yoo Ho Kim. Later, Steve Lee joined our meeting as well. It is always a great joy to meet the SBS group people off line.
I had a brief meeting with Bonnie Lee who started financial support from last year and gave a check to continue her support for SfK. She is now President of Hanmi Bank. I thought it was a done deal that she would assume the CEO position as well next May, but it was not the case. It would make her position very awkward. But I am sure that the Hanmi Board will make a wise decision. She has a health issue and I agreed to pray for God's healing grace.
I had dinner with the couples of In Kim and Pastor Daeho Yu. I am grateful that they allow us to stay at the Healing Center although we are not directly related to the church. I hope to be able to serve the church in whatever way.
Jinsoo and his wif
On December 10th, Kristin had to return to Chiang Mai to prepare to receive the visit of Joyce. I made an arrangement to depart from LAX almost at the same time for San Salvador, El Salvador so that we can avoid any time gap between two flights. We had to go on our own way at LAX. It is the first time to do so.
California is always a place that remains in our heart due to our living here for almost 14 years. Now due to SfK Ministries, the southern California looks like our home away from home to us. - Jeffrey
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