MARCH / APRIL UPDATE
"The Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak." Isaiah 40:28-29
THE NEW SEMESTER BEGINS - GHSA
Our co-ops began again the first week in March under Global Mission Church's new ministry, Global Home School Academy (GHSA). This semester, we are leading a middle school co-op and a high school co-op. The Sumrall family has returned to Korea and is leading the two elementary co-ops. We are so grateful to have this opportunity to be working again with the Sumralls. At the beginning of March, the senior pastor, Dongwon Lee, initiated a special worship service to begin the new semester with all the home schooling families. The service was the christening of this new ministry, Global Home School Academy. The vision statement and philosophy of education that Global has developed based on the Scriptures and "classical Christian education" ideas is quite an encouragement to us.
KOREAN MISSIONARY PROTOTYPE
There are 60 full time overseas missionary families supported by and members of Global Mission Church. It is the hope of the Global leadership that as material and methodology for home education are perfected (in Korean) that these families will be some of the first to benefit. Their ability to be flexible as to where they are assigned to serve will become immensely improved. The director for all Southern Baptist missionaries in Asia is part of the Global English service with our family so we have been able to start planning the solving of this Korean roadblock for world missions. We invited him along with a director of the Korean headquarters for Serving in Missions International and Brad and Jooyoung Voeller to our home for lunch to discuss how to provide training and materials for these missionaries so that they will have the confidence to home school their own children when they are on the field.
NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE CENTER
The strain of all other challenges pales as we travel to the North Korean Refugee Center every Tuesday night to teach English. Not because of material needs (they have more here than ever compared to their homeland in the North; the South supplies a lot of help), but because of human sorrow.
Randy and Stephen Sumrall are now going with Gabe and me each week to minister to these North Korean refugees. Randy was assigned a 50 or 60-year-old government contractor. After several weeks, we noticed this North Korean man was especially intent on eye contact with us and very emotional in any communication we had, broken as it was. Over the six-week period that each group of refugees takes to go through the program, Randy was able to learn why this man seemed so desperate. His escape had just been discovered, his two grown daughters had been arrested, and he was warned that if there was any further communication from him to them, they would be shot. Randy began praying with him the last couple of visits.
When we all said farewell the last night of his stay at the Center and assured him that our families were praying for his family, this heartbroken but hopeful man hugged us both with such fervency (the kind that a little child gives a parent when he has been found after being lost in the dark). It was apparent he did not want to let us go. With tears, we all walked out of another English lesson into the dark.
BUDDHA'S FRIENDS
As I wander among all the international faces every Sunday morning at Global's English service, I keep my ears open for a new country to show up. This month I bumped into a dark face from Sri Lanka. Wanting to make him feel at home, I asked how long he had been a Christian. With a shocked look on his face he said, "I am Buddhist, not a Christian." Afraid that the shocked face might be contagious, I, acting undaunted asked, "Well, how long have you been Buddhist?" This young man, working here in an "iron factory"along with thousands of other Sri Lankans, is eager to talk. He calls me a couple of times a week on my cell phone (I guess just to make sure I am for real). I asked him to meet me after church to discuss what a Buddhist home looks like compared to a Christian home. He showed up with two of his friends, and we had a friendly discussion that I concluded by sharing the claims of Christ from the Gospel of John. We are supposed to meet again this coming week to give him his turn on sharing about Buddhist writings.
JESUS ABBEY PROTOTYPE
I have been stirred by the R.A. Torrey's family motto, "Prayer is work, and work is prayer." (We told you about our visit to their Jesus Abbey in the last update. They are putting together a training center for North Korean refugees with the goal of equipping them in agriculture and prayer to be ready to return home "on mission" when the "walls" come down in the North.)
I have had the itch to "practice the vision" myself so during the snow-laden months I was gathering data on how I could "mix prayer with work." "How do all these citified South Koreans get these little patches of ground, using all available "pyeon" of space in between their apartments, and garden on them? The clues from my interrogation of native speakers suggested that it's a lot like the days of the "gold rush" out West; you just stake out an unused spot and take your chances!
As the snow melted (it was Sunday, 4pm, the 16th of March to be exact) I had a spot in mind, 10 times larger than anything I would need, that had just been cleared of building material from the new apartment construction next door. It must have been the perfect spot, and all my gathered data proved to be accurate. The only problem was, as I turned the corner, my "stake out" area was already being staked out by 12 Korean "stakers" ahead of me! There was one spot left all the way at the end of the clearing. I made a dash, took a deep breath, and stood in the middle of "my" spot. I then used my cell phone to tell Susanna to run down the red ribbon to flag it off. This was the beginning of my "living the dream."
WIND DOWN
As this semester will come to a close in June, the four American families with FMI (the Voellers, the Willings, the Sumralls, and the Pents) took a two-day retreat to the West coast of middle Korea to debrief and consider the future. The soft pink and white cherry trees, the purple and white Saucer Magnolias, and myriads of Rhododendron and Hostas were all blooming under the typically twisted and wind blown Korean Pine. Beautiful Iris, Daffodil, and Golden Bell were framed by bamboo towering above. These mountain gardens we visited were beautifully Asian, with turned up tile roof lines of ancient pagodas and memorial burial mounds with stone-walled court yards enclosing quiet water features, all overlooking the flower-framed sea far below.
As the almost full moon rose, it shone over the little misty islands dotting the shoreline of the Yellow Sea as we looked out our "pension house" porch window. (Next stop, Weihai, China only 400 kilometers due west.) While none of us know what the future holds for our families, we prayed that whatever it was, we would be drawn closer together by "doing all things for love of God." The closing devotion was from Isaiah 61:1,4,10,11.
"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek…they shall build the old wastes… the desolations of many generations…ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves…I will greatly rejoice in the Lord…for as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations."
PRAYER REQUESTS
Surgery postponed for Timothy. The doctor couldn't do it when originally planned (April 24) so it is now scheduled for May 15. The hobbling continues until then.
Susanna's scoliosis. Her version of "The Iron Mask" continues. She does everything in her brace. She has been very patient. Please pray for her healing.
Coming home. Speaking of patience, we find that though we miss home, contentment is a "learned" condition (Philippians 4:11), and I think all of us are more able to be "at home" in more and more places in less and less time after the stretch here.
Coming home before we come home. Boni was able to use airline points we had accumulated to get a very cheap flight home April 29th for Jared's graduation on May 2nd. Jared graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. We are very grateful to the Lord for enabling Jared to do so well when he had to bear the very hard burden of overseeing our business while we were in Korea our first semester.
Pray for Buddha's friends. Timothy's new friend's name is Nahleen. I think he should be Jesus' friend. Nahleen says he is so I think we need to use our friendship to deepen his friendship to Lordship!
Local refugee. My North Korean refugee friend, Hoon Gil, who now lives near by, also has started to attend our church regularly. Jody, one of the Korean team members from the Tuesday North Korean English class has taken him under his wing. Jody wants me to teach Hoon Gil Genesis, and he will teach him John.