Reflecting the Year 2022

 

As I see the last week pass by, I was recollecting what God has done in and through my life, I am in profound appreciation of His grace. The highlights include:

• I have been able to continue the daily devotion with Kristin.
• Gabriel was born to Ray and Amanda, our second grandchild (March)
• We sold Destin 345 condominium.
• I have restored my Korean citizenship. (April)
• Joyce became pregnant and is expecting the baby in January 2023.
• Kristin and I did a road trip to Outer-banks in North Carolina, and South Carolina. (April and May)
• Joyce and Kyle bought a house and moved in.
• I traveled to Kyrgyzstan without a major issue, although I got infected with COVID-19.
• I was able to finish the BAM Field Trip to Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
• Kristin and I made a short getaway to Williamsburg, VA. 
• Kristin and I built a mini camper on Toyota Siena, called TS Camper.
• We did several nights of car camping without a major glitch, thankfully.
• We made a trip to Hawaii and California using a couple of timeshares.
• Amanda and Ray got into trouble with their flipper investment and we ended up bailing them out with a home mortgage on our home in Greer.
• We continued our tradition of holding family gatherings during Thanksgiving week.
• We made a mission trip to Primo Tapia in Baja California, Mexico. (December)
• SfK launched shop4impact.com in February but had to discontinue and close it in December.
• Both Kristin and I were suffering from severe pain in our legs and hips, but we have become much better in 2022. We have been able to walk a reasonable distance, primarily in our subdivision complex. Beautiful sceneries, particularly sunset, are only a bonus. 

Shop4Impact.com and its legal entity KS Global Partners, Inc. were closed as of December 30. The closing will help relieve all people from the heavy burden of spending time and working on an unsuccessful venture despite its good intent. We enjoyed our gathering and fellowship through the weekly and bi-weekly Zoom calls. This was the last meeting we had on December 29. Thank you, brothers and sisters! I thank God for you all!

I was introduced to a missionary to Cambodia who used to live in Greenville. Mr. Jinwon Kim used to be a Taekwondo master and is now serving in Cambodia in conjunction with her later daughter who died of cancer. 

I had an opportunity to give a lecture about "Biblical Framework on Work and Calling" primarily for the college and graduate students at Bob Jones University. Also, I was asked at the last minute to preach on Sunday because the senior pastor got sick too bad. 

While I am in Greer, I have played golf with Kristin occasionally. It is truly a blessing to be able to share a hobby with Kristin.

Everything was a blessing with God's grace. Thank you, Lord! I praise Your Name forever. Lord willing, I will live a life that will honor Your Name, Lord. - Jeffrey

SfK MB Academy - BMT 2022 and Post BMT

SfK held the BMT (Business Management Training) 2022 in both English and Korean tracks. Each track was 16 weeks long so it took 32 weeks to serve in these two tracks.

First, the English track was held from February to May. It was primarily for Iranian brothers living in Liverpool, U.K., the leadership of Dutch Nature in Kyrgyzstan, and a brother in Georgia in the U.S. who serves the refugees. David Rice, who is in Liverpool to serve the Iranian brothers also attended the training.

The Korean track was held from August to December. The participants joined from Korea, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Myanmar. 

Also, throughout the year 2022, we have held the Post BMT every month serving the BMT 2021 graduates.

As BMT has been progressing, the Lord has sent more fellow workers. In the name of BMT Steering Committee, we have been serving together in a variety of capacities in 2022. I am deeply grateful to God for them: Sungsoo Kim, BJ Kim, Caleb Yoo, Soonjib Baek, and Ernest Chung. - Jeffrey 

Ministries, Baja California, Mexico (December 2022)

While we stayed at the Mission Center, we visited Door of Faith Orphanage (DOFO). It is not exactly orphanage, but a foster care home. It was established in 1959 by American missionaries and has developed into a village. Now, it supports 125 children and youth, including 25 college kids. They are served through the hands of 35 Mexican staff and six expatriate volunteers. All expenses are supported by donors.

Emily, an American volunteer from Fresno California, showed us around. After 63 years since the founding, the mission is still being carried out strong. The compound was clean and well organized. It had dorms, cafeteria, a bakery shop, a gym, a barber shop, a clinic, and a gift shop. 

We also visited a medical clinic called Siloe. It was started 14 years ago and the current facility was funded by six Canadian churches, but most operating expenses are supported by the U.S. donors. The facility was so clean and of high quality that I felt I was at one of the clinics in the U.S.

On Saturday, December 10, it was the ministry day. Approximately 30 members of CMC came down in a few vans and they served hamburgers, made balloon arts, provided medical and dental services, and manicure services. Approximately 250 people came to eat hamburgers, far more than the CMC people anticipated. The worship service also had almost 150 people and Pastor Sam Pang delivered the message. Kristin helped the patients with measuring their blood pressure and other vital signs.

While the clinic was under way, all others gathered at the church first for worship. Pastor Sam Pang delivered a Christmas message. The church was packed with people.

After the worship service, the Mission Center yard was filled with people who wanted to receive various services such as balloon arts, manicure services and meals.

The biggest event was serving hamburgers for almost 250 people. It was a massive task involving so many people. But, the people outnumbered the hamburgers. They ended up cutting some hamburgers in half so that no one will go hungry. The church people ended up eating tacos. 

The church brought down a backpack filled with books and other school supplies for school children.

 

It was short, but sweet to spend a week at the mission center. I appreciated the hospitality of Pastor Pang couple and Missionary Kang's couple. 

On the way back, Missionary Kang gave us a ride to San Diego Airport. But, the border crossing took about 90 minutes of waiting in line. It was said to be unusually long. But, our situation was far better than the church people. Apparently, each vehicle purchased medical pass that normally takes about an hour to cross the border. This time, it took them six hours to cross the border. We could have received a ride from them. If we did, we would have missed the redeye flight that departed at 10:30 PM. 

Later, my wife and I applied to enroll for Global Entry that will help shorten the processing time not only at the Mexican border but also for all entries into the U.S. from any country. - Jeffrey

Primo Tapia, Baja California, Mexico (December 2022)

In December, we made a trip to Primo Tapia, a small town near Rosarito, Baja California. Mexico. This trip was decided when we met Pastor Sam Pang couple over breakfast in September when we stayed in Buena Park. The church Pastor Sam is pastoring is Cerritos Mission Church and they were planning a medical mission trip early December. Kristin wanted to take part and we signed up for it.

As we landed at San Diego Airport, Pastor Sam Pang couple picked us up and we headed down to Mexico. Crossing the border was a cinch and no one even stopped us. We had tacos on the way at Tacos Manuel in Rosarito. It was delicious! 

We checked in at the Nueva Vida Mission Center in a town called Primo Tapia. It was established by the church's founder Rev. Tae Woon Seok who has since passed away. After several unsuccessful stewardship by others, the center is now managed by Missionary Daniel Kang and his wife. The center is quite big and has three buildings. One has a kitchen, a clinic and a church. Another is used for staff housing where we stayed. The other is a dormitory that is used for visitors.

In the evening, Pastor Pang couple and we hung out and went to Ensenada to eat fish taco. Afterwards, we walked around a well lit downtown street. The fish tacos were really good!

The following day, Missionary Kang couple joined us for breakfast. Missionary Kang took us to a fancy restaurant called Encanto. The foods were quite good, but the view from the restaurant was fabulous!.

After Pastor Pang couple left, we went to another place called, La Fonda. It was the hangout place before Encanto was opened. The view from the restaurant was panoramic with the sunset view, people riding horses on the beach, and sand art made on the beach in our eyes. We thoroughly enjoyed the beach walking as well as as the view from the restaurant.

While we were staying there for a few days, Missionary Kang's couple and we had morning walk regularly. Walking over to the unpaved but wide open area was breath-taking, looking over the ocean view from the hills. 

One day, we drove out to Playa Popotla where you could buy fresh catch. We bought a rock cod. While we were waiting for the rock cod to be prepared, the owner put out live octopuses on the counter.

One day, I ventured out by myself. I walked down the hill to the main street and took a taxi van to go to Rosarito. I went all the way to the terminal and took a return taxi van and got off at Rosarito Beach. I walked to the beach and took the taxi van again to return to the Mission Center.

As we were walking at Playa La Mission, we found a bunch of mussels and one big clam. We brought them and the ladies worked hard to make a soup. The work turned out a lot more than they hoped. The soup and the food had a lot of sands. So we could not enjoy them as well as we expected. We learned a lesson to be more careful with the mussels and clams collected from the sandy beach. 

But, the  rock cod we bought at Playa Popotla was turned into an excellent spicy soup: Mae Un Tang. Fantastic!

On Friday, we took Missionary Kang couple to Encanto for dinner. The cuisines were all good and we enjoyed the night view of the restaurant and the ocean.

We thoroughly enjoyed our short stay at Primo Tapia although there was one day without running water. Oh well. We all have prior experiences like that in Rwanda and Thailand. Missionary Kang and Pastor Pang couples were very hospitable and we were deeply grateful.

We visited a few ministry places and participated in the medical mission work held on Saturday. This story is in another blog post. - Jeffrey