Thanksgiving Week
From 2016, we agreed to hold our family reunion over Thanksgiving every year. Last year, we had a gathering in Dallas, Texas where Amanda is still living and this year we met in Palm Desert, California. We decided to take advantage of staying at a time share we have owned for over 20 years. Marriott Desert Springs Vila II. The facility and the surroundings were remarkably beautiful and well maintained. We felt that way probably because we have lived in developing nations for several years.
Both Amanda and Joyce came a bit late so their stay was short. Nonetheless we enjoyed our time together. We participated in Turkey Trot and for the first time in a long while did an outdoor barbecue for Kalbi ro short-rib. Delicious!
On Thanksgiving Day, Jenny and Calvin Won, Kristin's niece and nephew, drove from Irvine for two hours to have dinner with us. The dinner was wonderful with Kristin's excellent cooking as well as the meals we purchased from a supermarket.
Jenny and Calvin's visit was specially joyous and meaningful because they were flower-spreading children for our wedding almost 35 years ago.
Visa to Thailand
One of the important tasks for our trip to California was to obtain a retiree visa to Thailand. We were not sure about the degree of difficulty in meeting all the requirements since some of them could be challenging depending on how they interpret the regulations and how they apply them. Fortunately, the officer in charge was very nice and kind so we were able to obtain the one-year visa that allows for multiple entries. Hallelujah!
After we spent a week in Palm Desert, we stayed at a housing for visiting missionaries at God's Family Church in Buena Park, Californa. Pastor Daeho Yu, brother In Kim and his wife were kind enough to allow us to stay.
Other than the family reunion, my purpose of the rest of the visit was to hold meetings with Kingdom Fellows, friends, supporters and potential supporters.
Bethel Korean Church
I had two sessions of meeting with the leadership team of Bethel Korean Church, one of the largest Korean American churches in California. One was with the Missions Pastor Chang and two elders leading the church's missions work. The second time was with the expanded team of approximately 12 including members of the missions committee and even the senior Pastor Kim briefly towards the end. We agreed to hold SfK MBA Irvine in May/June 2018 exclusively for Bethel Church members. Thy will be done, Lord!
Meeting People
We lived in southern California for 14 years in the 80's and early 90's. But we have been away for a long time since 1996. So we are out of touch with many people. But we have maintained our relationship with some friends and also we have developed new relationship with other friends over time primarily in Christ.
Mindy Song is a long term friend who has been hospitable enough to allow us to stay at her house in Rancho Palos Verdes a few times. This time, we intentionally wanted to stay else where not to burden them too much. Nonetheless, she was nice and kind as usual.
Grace Yoo serves as a director for SfK Life and got me introduced to Suzan Lee, a high-end fashion desire living in New Port. We had a wonderful meeting and we will see how our new friendship develops. Grace also arranged a meeting with Joe Kim and Troy Kiem. Joe was a student when I served at the OMC College Department. It was a pleasant surprise reunion. It was very nice to meet Troy who is a real estate investor.
Bonnie Lee is another director of SfK Life and we had lunch together. She was my former colleague and she is now Senior EVP of one of the largest Korean American banks. She was generous enough to make a financial contribution to SfK Life as well. I am grateful.
Jinsoo Kim is a banker, now CCO for US Metro Bank. He is also Chief of Lending for SfK Ministries. More than anything else, though, he is a cousin to Kristin. We were invited to dinner at his Irvine home and we were treated like a king and queen. It is a blessing to see their two children grow up well with solid faith.
Jinsoon arranged a meeting with Andrew Chung, a former colleague and now a CFO for a bank. We will stay in touch.
In Kim is a long term friend and brother in Christ. He invited us to his home for dinner. Also invited were Steve and Holly Hong, a long term missionary to P.N.G. from OMC. We had a great fellowship after a very long period of disconnect. That day happened to be the birthday of Holly Hong and we celebrated her birthday as well.
I also had a meet up with Grace Kim, an SfK Kingdom Fellow responsible for SfK Newsletters and Danny Pyon, a talented man of God, a pastor, an entrepreneur, a teaching scholar. We shared a lot of thoughts and principles together. We will see what God has in store.
Kathy Cho and James Kwon are Kingdom Fellows for SfK Ministries. We regularly meet and discuss about various issues. Kathy's recent loss of her beloved mother must be difficult to Kathy. I pray that she will overcome the challenge well.
John Lim is a long term friend of mind. We used to teach at the OMC high school department. He is a managing partner at one of the largest law firms in California. He arranged a meeting with Joanne Kim, a banker and CEO for a commercial bank in Los Angeles. We had a wonderful time to reconnect and to build a renewed relationship. Joanne happens to be a high school alumnus of Korea's EWha Girls High School with Kristin. It is a small world.
Kristin also met up with two other high school alumni at Hana Financial Inc. Young Shim and another friend. Young Shim is a my former colleague at Center Bank and Nara Bank. It was a joyful reunion.
I met with James Kim as Jinny Kim made an introduction. Jinny is a younger sister of Danny Kim and she has recently relocated from Korea back to Huntington Beach. Jams has been in international trading business for a few decades. We had a productive meeting and in principle agreed to work together for Kingdom trade. Again, we will see what God has in mind for our relationship.
One surprise get-together was with Rev. Dongho Kim who came to lead a rally at a church. Short but very pleasant to see him. Also I met with his cousin who is involved in nutrition business: Gongjin Choi.
Getty Center
This time, we were tied up with a lot of schedules, but Kristin made a suggestion to visit Getty Center established by J. Paul Getty. Getty Center is part of J Paul Getty Museum, along with Getty Villa. This private museum is known to be one of the richest primate museums in the world. Since we first moved to Los Angeles in 1983, it was our first visit in 34 years. Wow... I am glad that Kris made the suggestion.
Miscellaneous
California sunset is famous for its beauty. We had a glimpse of it briefly. Also, I captured a night view of Los Angeles from the airplane and it is a city of lights at night.
One of the things to do in Los Angeles was eating Dongchimi Noodle. I ate it when I was meeting up with Rev. Sungjin Lim at the Corner Place or Gil Mok. The taste was not as fantastic as expected, but it was fun to recollect the old memory. Probably we should have ordered So Geum Gui rather than Bulgogi. Anyway, I had the Dongchimi Noodle. Yeap!
Overall, it was a great feeling to arrive in and depart from Los Angeles. The inevitable gateway to the Pacific, to Asia and to the U.S.A. I am sure we will have to travel to and through Los Angeles quite a number of times in the future. Until then, adios! - Jeffrey
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