More Goodbye’s

We had to say goodbye to two of our foreigner/helpers this winter:

Dave and John-Michael.

In January Dave’s visa was up to leave Korea, and he hasn’t yet received his missionary visa for Japan, so for the time being he left to the USA again. He’s getting involved over there with his church again and with spreading the gospel to others, and waiting to see what will happen in the future with Okinawa and Japan. Dave’s been a blessing and an encouragement to me, and got me started thinking how important it is to tell others about Jesus Christ.

We said goodbye at the bus station, but before that—we had some toast!

Mike and John-Michael aren’t too happy about him leaving, I guess. Perhaps it was the toast???

Then it soon came time to say goodbye to John-Michael! He was a great help with doing worship and stuff these past couple months, like covering for me when I was in California, but it came time for him to go back to Bible College in Okinawa.

May God bless you both, Dave and John-Michael, as you seek to serve Him wherever He sends you! It's been great to have you both here help with us!

“Jinsoo’s Revenge!”

So we once again started up the Bible Study at Jinsoo Foreign Language Institute after the break. And wow, were there a ton of people here! There were like…over 60 students attending the bible study(maybe over 70)! The classroom was packed out.

Definitely important to consider is the fact that right now the students have been on winter break from college, which is pretty long, and when that happens, a lot more people go to the private institutes like Jinsoo—and consequently, to the Bible study, too! What a blessing!

Still, I’ve never seen it so packed before!

What’s interesting is that there’s quite a mix of Christians and non-Christians in the group, since many come primarily to practice English. So, it’s a good opportunity to meet new people (as they come through all the time), and be able to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with them, and invite them to church and whatnot. We’ve met more than a few people that way. So our prayer is to be able to teach them the Bible, get to know them, and ultimately make of them disciples of Christ.

Frozen River

It turns out that it got so cold in Daejeon that the Gapcheon River froze over! Awesome!

Some of us went looking for a place to go ice-skating on the River, but couldn’t find it. Oh well. We did walk on the River. Never done that before!

   

See, you can see that bridge in the back. Yeah. We’re on the river. And they’re laying down.

All this snow and ice…totally cold, but totally amazing!

Winter Intermission

 

Christmas and New Year’s season had come, and so had the time for few a foreigner to return home.

In mid December, it came up first for Iza to go home! She arrived in Korea at around the same time as myself, and she finished serving here for six months. So at her last Sunday night, we all said good-bye. She went back to visit Okinawa for a bit, and then ultimately back to California. It was a real blessing having Iza here and help. I didn’t realize some of the things she was always helping with until she left—then I had to do it! Well, let’s keep praying for more laborers for the harvest—in Korea, back home, and all over the world!

Also who left was Pastor Mike and his family—but only for a short time (I don’t have a picture for their departure—they snuck out.). They went back to California to visit family and their home church in Costa Mesa.

A week later, it was my turn to go home! I went to spend about two and a half weeks at home in California. I got to see family, friends, and lots of my brothers and sisters in Christ!

California people, look closely at the picture. Someone tell me what lake that is (on the right), and what island that is. Comon! (you can click it for a better view. the island is the same in both pics.)

Yes, those are chickens…at my house. I come from a suburban area, and the “city” portion of my area is more like…well, we say, “I’m going into town,” when we go into the city. I think that explains things. Dukalbi, anyone?

For Christmas, I got to be with most of my family and celebrate.

From left to right, there’s Christina and Mike, Caleb, myself, my Mom, and Jake.

A special blessing was getting to see my niece, Joey-Anne, and nephew, Bhodi! This was the first time to get to see my nephew, and its been a long time since I’ve seen my niece, too!

 

They’re adorable! May they grow up to love the Lord Jesus and walk in His ways.

 

For New Years, some friends and I hiked up to a favorite spot of ours out in the wilderness, at some radio towers. There’s a great view of the Lompoc Valley and our city, day or night! It’s a beautiful sight, I do say!

Here’s my brother Jake, and our friends Casey and Dustin. God’s blessed us with these friends for years! Ooh, Look closely! All three of them had their eyes closed! haha! they couldn’t stay awake! 0’10 just was too much for them.

 

Unfortunately…I didn’t take my camera charger with me, and my camera ran out of batteries. So no more pictures from here on out!

 

What was really cool was getting to attend the missions conference at the Conference Center/Bible College in Murrieta, California in January. It was a wonderful time of meeting lots of new people who are missionaries all over the world (or those who are simply interested in missions). I also got to see Pastor Mike, Daniel and Sosimo (they were interns at CC Daejeon who left just after I came), Iza (and her whole family, too!), and Dean! Not only that, we also got to spend time with Pastor Tom and other people from Okinawa, some of whom we’ve seen on the blog. It was nice to catch up with them and fellowship, and the messages and the worship were all very refreshing. I was encouraged in many ways, and if I could sum it up, it’d be to keep my focus on Jesus, on the heavenly prize, and live for His return as I serve in Korea and anywhere else.

One very important thing I was reminded of was the Christ’s commission to us to “Go and make disciples of all nations…”. It reminded me that I must do more than simply “play church” every week, just living week by week, making sure the wheels keep turning. I need to be focused on people, and working to bring them into a closer and deeper walk with Jesus Christ—that they, too, may follow Christ wholeheartedly, carrying the cross, and so make disciples too.