Agape Club Friends. Seoul, Korea (May-July 2024)

While I was in college, my extracurricular activities centered around serving at the Agape Club with the members coming from Yonsei University and Ewha University. The club's primary goal was to live out the life of Christ's love by serving in the rural villages in Korea. This club's alumni members have been meeting regularly and I happened to be in Korea while this special event took place. This time, the gathering was to commemorate three members who have passed away and two members who had occasions to celebrate. 

One member who passed away was one of the founding members of the club and was an ordained pastor. In his last days, he was serving in Korea's prisons and we learned why. His oldest son was in prison based on his murder. But, God transformed his heart while he was in prison for 16 years during which time he also studied to become a pastor. He is now leading the prison ministry for the Methodist denomination. God can change anyone's heart.

One of the happy occasions was to celebrate my dear friend Yoonduck Suh's receipt of an Honorary Doctorate degree from Jeonju University, a Christian college. He is one of my best friends and it is wonderful just to be with him. We served as officers together at the Agape Club. 

I was given time to talk about SfK Ministries.

Most of the members are now in the 70's and 80's. But, we took a group photo with younger members, where we were the oldest.

In addition to this gathering, our own cohort who entered the college in 1973 gathered separately. One is now President of Jeonju University, formerly Vice President at Yonsei University. Another was an Electronical Engineering professor at Yonsei University. Another was Yoonduck Suh as mentioned above. This group gathering was a lot more joyful than in a bigger group. 

Before I left Korea, I had another gathering this time with a senior member who came to visit our house when we were living in La Canada in California. 

Seeing Agape Club friends is always pleasant and I am grateful that we can stay in touch. - Jeffrey

Seeing Friends, Seoul, Korea (May-July 2024)

The joy of seeing people is not limited to ministry friends. I saw other friends just for the sake of seeing them for joy. The group of friends in the picture above is part of six high school friends. One was in Busan and the other was in Calgary Canada. Usually, four of us get together whenever I visit Korea. 

I had a quick and short meet-up with Chairman Hong who was returning to the states on the same day. I have known him and maintained our friendship since I was working in New York in 2004.

A pleasant reunion was with three seniors who served in Rwanda in different capacities. Dr. Choi, Elder Shin, and Mr. Sangan Lee. It has been almost 12 years since we saw each other last time. Dr. Choi was struggling with cancer, so our gathering was more joyous. 

I met up with Mr. Noh, who lived in Rwanda for several years. Kristin and his wife were good friends. We used to play golf together also. It was a pleasant memory.

Jun Kim was my colleague when we worked for Premier Bank in Colorado. He is now running a business he has inherited from his late father in Korea. 

I also met twice with two other high school friends. But, I forgot to take photos. One of them, Changho, was my church friend from elementary school time. So more than 60 years...? Wow... Good friends. Pure joy. 

I also met up with college friends, but I have written another blog post. Also, I gathered together with my Agape Club friends, for which I wrote another post. 

I am richly blessed with many friends - Jeffrey

Seeing Ministry Friends, Seoul, Korea (May-July 2024)

Another joy of visiting Korea is seeing ministry friends because we are fellow workers for the Kingdom of God. Fellowship with them also excites and encourages me. 

One of the most precious gatherings was with Pastor Dongho Kim and Elder Kyoung Sup Kwon. Not only we served together but also we played together, in Korea as well as in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is always a pleasant fellowship to spend time with them. A ministry opportunity popped up out of this meeting: i.e. serving Dankao Village people in Cambodia. More to be discussed later.

We had a short-notice gathering when Tae Hyoung Kim from Thailand visited Korea. This type of impromptu hangout is common in Korea.

I was invited to visit a start-up to serve airlines with ground services. This venture was started by one of the SfK BMT graduates and MB Connect members. After meeting in the office, we had lunch at one of the Korean traditional restaurants. The food was really tasty, but the number of side dishes on the table was amazing.

I made an overnight flight to Ulsan, a city located in the south close to Busan, to attend an IR (Investor Relations) presentation and meet with presenters. Out of this trip, we have developed a report with an Ulsan-based Accelerator. This initial relationship is likely to develop into a business relationship. 

On the way back to Seoul, I made a stop in Daegu where I met up with Drs. Park and Baek who were on their sabbatical leave from their service in Rwanda through Nanuri where I used to serve together. They are both medical doctors and have been serving Rwandans through a medical center. It was a joyous reunion. 

I had a gathering with Steven Baek, CEO of a private equity fund. He is deeply interested in helping people manage their wealth as God's good stewards. We share many common views and each time we meet, we rejoice. 

I also met up with Dr. Kang Rak Lee, CEO of KR Consulting. He is one of the lecturers for SfK BMT and has recently joined the SfK Korea board. His partnership and friendship are greatly appreciated.

Even while I travel, I do not miss our monthly MB Connect online gatherings. I participated in the June gathering.

I spent time together with Hyun Jeon, a Hope missionary and a member of SfK MB Connect. He is scheduled to go and serve in Senegal, but one of his children is deficient of growth hormones and they have to stay in Korea for the baby's intake of hormone injections five times a week for a whole year. Many times, waiting is a vital element of serving God's Kingdom. He is handling the Korean edition of the SfK Newsletter. 

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I spent time with Jong Choon Park. He is now EVP of JB Holdings. He holds CFA and CRA certifications from the U.S. At the same time, he holds master's and doctorate degrees in Islamic Finance. He is searching for God's guidance for his education and experiences. He is also serving as one of the lecturers for SfK BMT and also as a member of the SfK Korea board. I am grateful for his service.

I met up with Rev. Changsun Moon who is actively serving the migrants living in Korea. He leads WiThee Mission which collaborates with SfK in receiving donations for the ministries. He also shepherds a local church that started with insurance compensation for his late daughter. The church's name is Living Hope Church. Indeed. 

Rev. Chung got me introduced to Mr. Park who is serving through the crowdfunding platform for missions and a few others. We explored the possibilities of working together. 

I was introduced to three young businessmen who would like to sign up for the SfK BMT program. Our gathering was short but we covered a lot for potential collaboration in the future.

I met a retired pastor who has been running a Christian publishing company for his entire life. He was interested in developing relationships with Korean churches to introduce them to Smart Vote all SfK Korea is planning to market. We will see how it goes.

I had a brainstorming session with Steve Baek, as discussed earlier, and Bong Rae Lee, CEO of Hesed Holdings who serves with SfK Korea as well. We explored several possibilities for establishing the Kingdom Impact Fund. I am looking forward to witnessing what the Lord has in store.

SfK has been working on establishing SfK ITAM (IT As Mission) in Thailand. There have been four people involved in the initiative. We met several times online and we finally met in person in Young Jong at Jungwon Community, to be discussed later. There still are a lot of issues to sort out, but we are making progress.

One of the members could not make it to our brainstorming session, but I met up with him separately on his business trip with Thai delegates. There are a lot of potential opportunities, but I am not sure how to proceed with people of different personalities. 

These are not all gatherings I had, but these are with photos to explain about. Anyway, seeing ministry friends is always a great encouragement to me. - Jeffrey

SBS Gatherings, Seoul, Korea (May, June 2024)

I have been running Shalom Bible Study (SBS) online since we left Rwanda in 2016. Previously, we used to hold SBS on Friday with young adults who came to Rwanda to serve with KOICA or other ministries. A total of 35 people went through the SBS, but they were scattered in several countries. So we had to continue SBS online. Now most of them have been married with children. A lot of changes have taken place.

The Online SBS started with Rwandan young adults, but it has grown now to 17 groups. One of them is Heart to Heart Ministry which is serving children in poverty in foreign countries. Most of them are artists. 

Another SBS was a Handong University alumni couple. They served at RzManna Bakery in Rwanda until the end. I spent time together with them to sort out and clean up the messy accounting records.

Another gathering was with SBS Seoul. Most of the members are based in Seoul, but there are a couple of them who are in Vietnam and Laos. It was fortunate that these two members were also able to join us for our gathering. 

After dinner, we spent time at Into Them, a counseling business run by one of the SBS Seoul members. Coincidentally, it was the fifth anniversary of the ministry. Unexpectedly, we had a celebration. 

 It is always joyous to spend time with them. - Jeffrey