Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Korea (May/June 2019)

After the trip to Kuala Lumpur, I headed to Korea. Kristin was already there staying at her aunt's house. We relocated to a place in Eui Wang near Anyang, which Pastor Chang Sun Moon has arranged for us. It was close to a lake, Baek Woon Lake, meaning white cloud lake, and we enjoyed staying at this place.







We had a gathering with the Chang Sun Moon's couple and Sung Soo Kim's couple. It was a relaxing and joyful fellowship.








I had an appointment with a doctor at Severance Hospital as a follow up on a little hump found near stomach. He suggested that I monitor it through annual check up. He said that he takes it out through surgery if it is bigger than 5 cm (mine was 2.1 cm), if it is growing fast (mine stayed the same from 2016 to 2018) or if it hurts. None was applicable to my situation. I am grateful that I do not have to do anything at present. Namhyun has taken time to arrange for the appointment and also to be with me during the visit.

Family
My mother's birthday is May 1 in Lunar Calendar. It fell on June 13 in 2019. Since on that day, I had to go to Mt. Sorak to attend the IBA Leaders Forum, we had a family gathering earlier. It is always joyous to get together with the family. We giggled and laughed a lot.




I found out that my mom has been writing the bible manually. She has already completed once and the manuscript has been bound to three books. Wow...! Her handwriting was nice and clean. It would be a wonderful gift for my sisters.



Friends
Friends are always pleasant to hang out with. It brings great joy to life to meet up and catch up with young and old friends.

Jang Sik Shim... a college friend... He runs an investment fund.


Kristin's friends at Haejin Cho's house



Agape Friends... Yoon Duk Suh, Nam Hyun Kim, Jinbae Park... Jinbae and Namhyun are scheduled to retire from their work as professors at Yonsei University. Jinbae was planning to run for the presidency of Yongsei University. Best wishes!


Pastor Young Jae Song and his wife... They served in China and am still serving Chinese brothers and sisters remotely. I experienced Shack and Shake Burger.




Jun Kim... We spent some time walking around Chung Gye Chun... an artificial stream that has been restored. It passes through the middle of Seoul and many people stroll along the stream.





Kristin's friend Hong Im Shin and her husband Dr. Yoo.


Chang Ho Maeng, Joon Han Park, Chul Eui Kim... my high school friends.



Pyung Ku Lee, one of my closest college friends...



Another high school friends... Myung Gyu Park and Gil Yong Choi.


Baek Jae Kim, one of my Sunday School students 41 years ago... He is now shifting from Qatar Inchoen Branch Manager to a Deputy Manager of IATA Korea Office. I really look forward to witnessing what the Lord has in store for this young man.


Shalom Bible Study Gathering
As usual, I had a gathering with the members of Shalom Bible Study or SBS. This time, I expanded the number of groups to be combined with four. We had a blessed time together with great joy. Ben Yoon Bum Cho agreed to serve the hosting going forward after Jihyun Choi has served for several years. She is now tied up with raising a baby.



IBA Leaders' Forum
I took part in this annual event fully. I led a small group discussion with several important people of God and had a wonderful fellowship with them. It was truly a blessing to spend time with them: Jung Hwa Han, Man Ki Kim, Luke Moon, Mats Tunehag, Sam Cho.












IBA Seoul Conference
After the Leaders Forum, the IBA Seoul Conference took place at Hansarang Church in Mok-dong, Seoul. At this biannual event, I gave a lecture about BAM Basics, but only a dozen people came to the class. Well...



Young Jin Port
John Kim used to take care of a daughter of Mr. Oh who runs a sashimi place at Young Jin, a small port as part of Gang Reung City. I joined him with Sung Soo Kim to share a meal and coffee after IBA Leaders Forum. It was a beautiful and cozy place to hang out. It gave me a flashback memory of an event of passing through the mountain in the winter in 1979 with Agape Club friends. It was a life and death circumstance. I also liked this city, larger than Sokcho and its air quality was better. Moreover, Gang Reung City has one of the largest hospitals in the Province. Hmmm...










SfK Korea Board held its regular board meeting without Rev. Dongho Kim who was resting after he received a surgery on his lung cancer. It resolved to establish the establishment of Hesed Global, a merchandising and marketing company for the SfK Network.

Hesed Global Established
We held a dedication service after lunch and Rev. Dongho Song came to share the Word.


After the service, I spent time with key people to run Hesed Global for a strategic planning session. They were Bong Rae Lee, Dong Hoon Choi, Joon Hong Lim and Hyung Soon Hwang. I look forward to working with them in the future.





We stayed at this retreat center, a cozy and relaxing place for a night. It is a place I want to come back to stay for a while with Kristin.








Synergy Forum
In cooperation with Dr. Se Young Park who served in China, we hosted Synergy Forum. It was intended to seek synergy for God's Kingdom by working together. It may have to take a bit more time and effort to produce anything meaningful.






Anointing Music and Ministry
Joseph Choi is an ordained pastor, leading this music ministry. They lead the praise for Christian events and produce music albums. They are well known to many Korean Christians. A friend of mine, Min Young Jung, got us introduced to them and we shared views about BAM on our visit with them.




Light House Church Movement
I met Pastor Min Ki Hong at the first Chiang Mai KOSTA. He had been serving young adults throughout the world. He has recently started new churches in Seoul (Bang Bae Dong) and Busan (Hae Woon Dae). These churches focus on serving young adults with the call to walking in Christ and in love. It is supposed to be that way, but in reality it is not lived out. As he desires, I pray that the church will develop into a movement in Korea, awakening the young and old Christians. We agreed to find a way to collaborate. Look forward to seeing what God has in store.



Yang Hwa Jin Cemetery of Foreign Missionaries to Korea
After a long while of wanting to visit, Kristin and I finally found a time to visit this historically important place. Kristin's cousin is volunteering at this place and he took time to guide us. Thanks to these people of God, Jesus Christ was introduced to Korea and God's chosen people have come to know God and Jesus Christ. We Christians are deeply indebted to their sacrificial love.




















As always, the visit to Korea gives joyful memories to me. - Jeffrey

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