Looking Back 2019

The year 2019 has now gone into the past. It was the last year of 2010's. Looking back, this decade was full of travels and memories. For now, I wanted to recap the travels that we did during 2019.

January
I went to China, visiting Kunming, Jinghong, Lanchang Jingmai. The transit from and to Kunming over night was tiring, which led to my sickness.

I traveled to Phnom Penh to lead the SfK MBA BCT for two weeks. I got sick with stomach problem and body ache.

In January, Kristin's auntie in Seoul and Gloria's family visited Chiang Mai and stayed with us.

February
I met with Matthew Jeong and his wife in Bangkok.

I traveled to Dhaka Bangladesh with Bongrae Lee to visit an agricultural farm as a  missional business. It was a thriving business in a Muslim village of 2,000.

Then, I traveled back to Bangkok to attend and lead the joint board meeting between SfK Life and SfK Korea. By this time, I became seriously ill.

March

I was timely that Kristin made a reservation at a housing in Dalat, Vietnam for our month-long stay. I was able to take some rest and recover.

But, I still had to travel to Singapore to attend the FBA F2F board meeting. It was a strategic meeting.

After the FBA board meeting, I spent time with John Kim for collaboration in missional businesses. Robert Oh also joined us for a day or two while he came to preach at a church.

April
We took a Gate 1 Tour to China. Before this tour, the Moons and we took a separate independent tour to visit Yellow Mountain from Shanhai.

After the China tour, I flew to Bishkek and to Issy-Kul to lead the MBA BCT for the Kyrgyzstan businessmen and businesswomen.

May
The SfK MBA BCT Issy-Kul ended on May 11.

I then flew to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to conduct a 4-day training for GP.

I traveled to Korea from May 16-June 9 to attend the SfK Korea board meeting and to meet people.

June
I attended the IBA Leaders Forum in Sorak and BAM Conference in Seoul, Korea.

I attended a week-long Middle East Consultation held in Beirut, Lebanon.

I stopped over in Bangkok to hold a meeting with other BAM training course leaders at the tail end of IBA's Nemo House.

I visited Lahore from 6/30-7/6 to take part in the PBC led by JES.

July
I led the MBA BCT in Arusha, Tanzania for two weeks.

I flew to Kigali, Rwanda to spend time with Nanuri people.

Then, I flew to Nairobi, Kenya to spend time with Kamal and Margaret to discuss about Karen Huduma.

August
I led the SfK MBA BCT Kathmandu, Nepal (19-30).

I spent time with Peter Lee of Sky Bay Thailand in Bangkok.

September

Kristin and I took a tour with Expat Explore to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia in the Caucasus region.

I flew to Los Angeles to attend the Bethel BAM Conference, Irvine, California.

SfK Life held its F2F board meeting in Artesia, California. Three new board members joined the board: Steve Kang, Sam Kim and John Kim.

I took a short flight to Dallas to meet Ray, Amanda's boyfriend and I flew to Calgary, Canada to spend time with Youngsik Yoon and his wife. We drove to visit Banpf and enjoyed the colorful Canadian Rockies.

October
I traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to spend time with Hesed Cambodia leadership. (11-17)

Kristin's Thai visa expired on October 18 and we had to leave the country earlier than scheduled. So we took advantage of the opportunity and traveled to two cities in Mexico: Guanajuato (19-22) and Queretaro (22-25).

After Mexico, we flew to Denver (25-30) and to Atlanta (30-11/7)

November
After Atlanta ( ~7), we flew to Bogota, Colombia to take part in the Gate 1 Tour (8-18), visiting Bogota, Pereira, Manzales, Cartagena and Medellin.

We had our family gathering in Medellin, Colombia (19-12/1) over Thanksgiving. Joyce came first and after she left Amanda came with Ray to spend time with us. We had a fiasco with an Airbnb housing in Laureles and ended up losing some money. Oh well...

December
After Colombia, we flew to New York (1-8) and to Los Angeles (8-16). The Los Angeles trip was consumed by five consecutive trip from Buena Park to Los Angeles to apply for and receive the retiree visa to Thailand. It was a hassle with health insurance and FBI report.

As soon as I returned to Chiang Mai on Dec 18, I had to travel to Phnom Penh, Calbodia (20-24) to lead the training sessions.

We attended the Christmas Service at CMCC on December 25.

Of course, while I was traveling, I had to manage numerous conference calls. It was quite a journey in 2019.

In a nutshell, my small white board was showing the summary of all travels and major events that occurred in 2019.

I am grateful to God that I was able to manage my travel schedule to 22 countries. - Jeffrey