Christie Chung:

I can’t believe it’s been exactly one week since this missions trip has started! This week felt like the longest week of my life, but at the same time, it went by so quickly.  I hope that despite the exhaustion, all of us would put in 110% into the last few days we have left with the children. Actually, we only have three full teaching days left and we should really give these children all that we have. We need to keep in mind that we always have time to rest when we get back home. It’s hard because the kids are so full of energy and they wear you out so quickly, but they’re so cute!

This church is so amazing; they have been serving us so well. During the past few days, I’ve learned so much from the people of this church. First, I’ve learned what it really means to be a servant. The church has prepared each meal for us on time everyday and even subtracted an hour away from our teaching time because they saw how worn out we were. We have also been eating out almost every night because there is always someone who wants to treat us. I feel like we’re being served more than actually serving. This reminds me to remember to give these children my all and give back to the church the best I can. Second, the prayer time here is crucial. After seeing how Koreans pray here, I know God was telling me that my prayer life needs to improve. We need to learn how to pray like Koreans. It’s crazy here!

As many of you know, some members and I have been sick for the past few days. Today, we lost Anne and Paul due to sickness as well. But they were miraculously healed after sleeping for only a few hours! It’s crazy how Satan is attacking us like this. He must be really scared of what God is doing to this team. I know that God is doing something AMAZING to all of us. Personally, this week has been a real struggle for me. I have never been so sick in my entire life and I haven’t even fully recovered yet. But the biggest thing God has been showing me through all this pain and suffering is to always seek and rely on Him for everything, for the big and little things. During our debriefing time, Pastor James read from 2 Chronicles 15:2 — “… The Lord is with you when you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.” and 2 Chronicles 16:9 — “For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Pastor James mentioned that if we do not rely on God, we are proclaiming that we are not actively seeking God. And we know whether we are actively seeking God by looking at our prayer time. I knew God was rebuking me today for not praying as much as I should be during this trip. I could pray a lot more for the children and spend more time with God before I go to sleep, but instead, I have all these excuses like, “I’m sick” or “I’m too tired to”. But honestly, I shouldn’t have any excuses. But now that I am much better, I need to fight. And one way I can do this is to pray … a lot. I’ve learned what God wants me to do and I must obey Him.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and your support! We will see you back home in one week!! I can’t wait to see HCC again!

Jannifer Kim:

After I came back from the retreat, my heart overflowed with thankfulness and amazement at God’s grace and power. From Thursday to Saturday, Pastor Han, Jamie, Andre, Sharai and I went to Immanuel youth retreat as English teachers.  We participated in group activities, and led “Cultural Experience” sessions. Also, I had the honor of translating Pastor Han’s sermon, for the first night of the retreat. The next day, Pastor Han preached on “Healing Faith”. God moved powerfully during both of the night time prayer sessions.  There were students on the floor crying their hearts out to God, and many of them were on their knees with their hands raised high up to God.

The whole experience at the retreat showed me where I was with God, and this made me long for God even more.  God taught me to live, only with power in salvation, that Jesus has given me. With this in my heart, God taught me to live with joy.  Now, my heart is filled with joy and peace, and I praise God for that. 

Thank you all for praying for the team!

Joshua Kim:

I’m having so much fun here I want to cry! I’m sure most of you have heard that a few of us have been fighting some sicknesses. It has been great! I believe that we must rejoice in this sickness because it is showing us that the light is moving and darkness is trying to break the light. During this time, I really saw the heart our team had for each other. I felt and saw the true love each team member had for no another during this time, and I think that was something that God used to give me strength and healed me even faster than expected. I believe that the enemy tried to attack us so that the team would be distracted by solely praying for healing, but God showed us to instead rejoice in the Lord and turn our focus back on Him and the mission. The trip has opened my eyes to so much especially the church and the kids. The hosting church has been so hospitable, and I see the heart they have to just serve the Lord and His people. God is really teaching me how to be a servant leader in this dark world. By focusing on God and serving his people with humble hearts, God will let everything else naturally fall into place.

Today, we had our second day of VBS. Today, the VBS program consisted of body worship, arts and crafts, and game time. While I’ve been in Korea, I really have grown attached to these kids. They were really reluctant at first to open up to me, but I think after the second day of being here and teaching the kids they welcomed me with open arms. I’m hoping that during my time here I’ll be able to show these kids the love of Christ and share the gospel with them through my actions. I was a little worried about the language barrier, but I guess the little Korean I know is sufficient enough to help me communicate with the kids that I’m ministering too. I just want to thank everyone for their support and prayer for this mission’s trip.

4 In that day you will say: “Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.5 Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
(Isaiah 12:4-6 )

Anne Kim:

Greetings from South Korea, Incheon!
So many things have happened since our arrival.  With curriculum planning, 5AM Morning Prayer meetings, teaching English, and going to 3 services on Sunday must’ve been the busiest week I had this whole entire year. As you all know, some of our members were attacked with food poisoning and stomach illness.  Not only did we lose some of our members through physical hindrance but today, half of our team left for the retreat. I absolutely had no confidence that our team was going to accomplish our calls for this mission.  Even though many discouragements were present, something that encouraged me to refocus was God’s words, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31. He showed me the unity our team had even though we weren’t physically together. There are many parts/members in this team with different gifts and purpose, but He said we are still a unit by the Spirit. “18 But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be”. “26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it”, so through all these tribulations and circumstances, we will move as ONE body with firm foundation.  As much as Satan is moving, so is God. He is truly moving with power and healing and opening our spiritual eyes to seek Him deeper. We will keep working as His hands and beautiful feet that bring good news to these children and Immanuel Church. 

Today was our 2^nd day of VBS and let me tell you, GOD IS SO GOOD! First couple of days, we started out with 25 kids and now we have over 40 kids in 1-3 grades. Yes, the number is big but our God is BIGGER. “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26.  “I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there; and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:21. He told us to trust in Him and not to be afraid, because He is our strength and song. He became our salvation (Isaiah 12:2). 

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” –Joshua 1:9

Thank you for all your support and interest.  Please keep praying with us! Pray that this team will arise and shine His light! We will keep rejoicing through the sufferings to receive perseverance.

Andre Jones:

So today five of the team members left from Immanuel church and went on a retreat with the junior high and high school kids.  In this walk of life and with God we will never know what to expect, so we get to the retreat site and get to our rooms to find out we have a nice surprise which is NO A/C.  This turned out to not be all that bad because God sent rain and cooled the place off.  During our time with the kids we didn’t really have anything concrete planned, so we just went with it and God was up to his same old perfect ways and worked everything out and we played games with the kids and they LOVED IT!  This taught us to fully be dependent on God because he never fails and his plans are perfect and ours are not.  Pastor Han spoke the message tonight and all I can say is God showed up! The message was about obeying God’s will the WHOLE time and staying on track and not taking a detour and postponing what God has in store for you.  Also that you’re not to young to find out what God’s will for your life is.  After the message we had a VERY POWERFUL praying session and God was in the room with us.  I really love how Koreans pray. God has definitely shown me what I can do better at and what I can bring back to the states with me.  It was a long day but King Jesus came thru once again and today was a great day!

P.S. Thank you all for your prayers and continue to send them up! Oh yeah the young adult singles want to play us in a basketball game on Saturday. This is going to be trouble…

Much love from the Korea mission team 7,000 miles away!!!

*This was from Tuesday, 8/10.

Annie In:

After 6 weeks of being away from home, a big chunk of home is now here with me! I have been waiting for the missions team here in Korea since the beginning of July and I missed HCC so much, especially our services. The last message I heard Pastor James preach was the one on having spiritual eyes where Jesus tells his disciples to “watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41), so that we can live by the spirit and produce fruit of the spirit. My summer away from home and before missions has been filled with exactly this: God has been showing me and teaching me how important it is to always see everything in a spiritual perspective and to shed an earthly view by asking God to reveal His work through prayer.

I believe that He was just getting me ready for this mission trip because the enemy is of course attacking the team from so many different directions, and for us to put an end to his schemes, we must have spiritual eyes to see that our battle is not against flesh or worldly and temporary things, but rather dark forces that are trying to move against God. But he knows and we know that God already won. Although I was SO excited and felt ready for missions after our first Sunday here, it suddenly changed when my first day teaching was actually not filled with joy and my attitude was completely negative. I found myself complaining in my mind and discontent in my heart asking God, “Why do I have to teach 4th grade? I am a high school teacher! I don’t like babysitting,” but God helped me see the lies the enemy was feeding to me through thoughts of self-entitlement that turned into me sinning in my mind and heart. God helped me see with spiritual eyes what Satan was trying to do from the start of this trip, and after praying and asking for joy, I end this next day with so much joy. I actually REALLY like my students! God always listens and He is so good.

Through all the chaos, it gets really difficult to set our eyes above what we see physically, but God shows us, especially through the leaders who are put in our lives to guide us. An hour ago, brother Josh Kim suddenly became very VERY sick in his stomach (upwards). As some of us tried to tend to him, we were trying to think of reasons why. Is it the delicious jja jang myun that we just devoured that poisoned him? Is it a stomach virus that he contracted from a cute student? Finally, we called Pastor James, and he immediately asked if Josh repented today. He did, and Pastor James was able to see that he was physically purging his body because he spiritually was getting rid of sin. Now we know that Josh will be completely fine, even better than before, but this shows how important it is to not panic and dwell in physical circumstances, but to seek God and what He sees.

Please pray for the team that  we will not get caught up in Satan’s lies and seeds of sin he plants in our minds and hearts, but instead that we will see with spiritual eyes to avoid falling into so many different temptations here and walk in holiness before our mighty God.

* Please note that 5 members (P. Han,  Andre,  Jamie,  Jannifer, and Sharai) of our team are at a retreat for Junior/High School students.  They are without internet so the updates here are from the team that remained in base camp at Immanuel Church.

Brian Chen:

I sometimes forget that I’m on a short-term missions trip. It feels more like I immigrated to Korea and have been here for a long time already. Such is the spiritual unity and hospitality of Immanuel Church here in Incheon.

Today was the first day of our second session of English VBS camp with total enrollment expected to double or even triple Session 1. Knowing this, it would have been all too easy to be discouraged by the daunting numbers, especially as our team had taken a serious hit physically and we were prepared to lose some more members to the off-site retreat program. Nonetheless, God promises that He will deliver us regardless by many or by few (1 Samuel 14:6). And indeed, God has more than delivered us after the first day.

I woke up this morning to the dark, debating whether or not I would go to 5 AM morning prayer service. Not knowing what time it was nor where my watch was, I decided to sleep it out. Within minutes the 4:30 AM alarm on my watch starts its timid beeping and I realize I can still make it to morning prayer. While I was still unsure, the alarm rang a second time and it was then I knew God was calling me out of bed. This entire time I have never been woken up by that daily alarm and today it rang not once — but twice.

It was also this morning that God gave me the promise verse for this missions trip that I have been so fervently asking for. It was from today’s QT reading: Isaiah 12:4-6. It’s hard at times to see where God could be in basically being a VBS teacher or glorified babysitter. But from His Word, God promised me that “in that day you will say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember His name is exalted.’ Praise the Lord in song, for he has done excellent things; let this be known throughout the earth. Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

With the absolute and complete healing of our brothers and sisters, we awoke to a morning full of new mercies from the Lord. The team, brimming with joy, perfectly encapsulated this Scripture as we sang praises to the Lord’s name throughout the day for the miracles He has worked. This is when God confirmed in my heart that He has led us, led me to Korea to proclaim the things He has done for us — the centerpiece of which is the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Something big is happening here in Incheon for the Kingdom of God. I genuinely believe this place is on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough. There can be no other reason why God has provided so sufficiently, anointed us so richly, and why Satan is trembling so miserably.

The Lord’s deeds will be made known and His name will be exalted. And this will be known throughout the earth, beginning for us with the families here.

Darkness flees in the presence of Light. Satan is being run out of Incheon, one camper at a time.

Paul Dematatis:

Today was definitely a day of break through over here in South Korea.

First of all, praise the Lord for healing. Satan has been trying to attack our team since we got here but the Lord is claiming victory after victory. Currently sisters Hwalih and Jannifer are struggling with a stomach illness and severely sore throat so please keep them in your prayers. However, brother Josh Kim and sisters Christie and Annie experienced rapid healing after much prayer and rest.

The VBS phase of our camp started today which meant that our total student count jumped from around 70 to now close to 200 children. As one can imagine this makes class that much more stressful. In all this I was discouraged by the lack of communication I have had with the students. These kids speak very little English and my Korean vocabulary is even less so it is annoying. In my frustration and doubt I was wondering how God was moving in our classroom. I was quickly humbled to the core when out of nowhere one of the teaching assistants broke out in prayer. Right away I could tell this was woman of the Spirit because the power behind her words, although I couldn’t understand them, was undeniable. I saw more than half our kids lifting their hands up to the Lord in prayer. What a beautiful sight to see! Lord how could I doubt You!

One of the issues I have had since arriving in Korea is my prayer life. Despite going to the morning prayers something has been off. Without that deep intimacy I have been wandering around in a spiritual cloudiness since arriving. Finally the walls started to break down today.

In my QT the Lord was speaking on spending more alone time with Him and redirecting my focus so that He will be the light of my life. Then tonight at our debrief time we read 1 John 2:1-14 together and it just knocked me out. My stumbling was because petty problems were getting me out of focus with the Lord. I wasn’t loving those around me the way that I should and therefore light was absent in my life. I allowed my self-centeredness to get in the way. When my focus is on Christ and the cross, then everything falls into place. Praise the Lord for speaking and bringing a peace back to my life! Now I can’t wait to experience more of His presence and for His glory and light to be revealed in this place!

Brenda Jin:

Today was a good day, but a tough day. As many of you have probably heard, some team members have already gotten sick before while several do not feel well. Like Pastor James stated in his post earlier, there definitely is a spiritual warfare going on right now. It really saddened me, and I’m sure all of the members as well, to see our members having such a hard time. Those members even had to skip out on teaching their classes and participating in our planned agenda for the day because it was that bad. However, I felt so thankful to God for continuing to have our backs like He always does. My pre-K class was surprisingly calmer than usual today, the staff here has been so helpful in caring for those who are sick and adjusting schedules due to our team’s exhaustion, and teachers have been running back and forth among the different grades to help out in any way that they can.

During our debriefing time tonight, Pastor James shared with the team something that God had spoken to him about that really got to me. We have gotten so distracted with praying for our sick members that we stopped praying for the purpose of why we are here. As stated in 1 John 1:5, “…God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” Satan, not God, is the one who has placed this illness on our team and he is using it to hinder our mission. However, if we focus back on the prayer of God using us to reveal Himself to these people, everything else will fall back into place and our team will be as good as new. I realized that I was not only guilty of this as a distraction, but that other things from home were falling into that category as well. Even while I’m here in Korea where God has called me to be, I found myself randomly thinking about how little time I have left of my summer when I get back, the things I need to do to get ready for school, and other personal things, especially during the services (when my mind wanders because I can’t understand everything that is being said in only Korean). I began to feel even guiltier, and knowing that guilt is only from Satan, I prayed that God give me focus on doing what matters most, doing His work, and that nothing else falls even close to what should occupy my mind. Therefore, for the rest of our trip, I ask that you pray for our team to just continue to walk in His light, be pure in all thoughts and deeds, and be victorious in not losing focus on our purpose here. I can’t wait to see what God has in store!