아래의 글들은 멕시코에서 사역하시는 Ryun Chang 선교사님께서 김충룡 장로님께 보내온 편지입니다. 사랑교회 협력 선교사님이신 Ryun Chang 선교사님과 사역을 위해 기도하시는데 참조하시기 바랍니다.
Hello everyone,
One thing I certainly have noticed about me while engaging in the Lord's work in Chihuahua is the fact that I am becoming more distant from "real people" out there! I mean, I am pretty much cacooned in the sense that I am spending almost all of my ministry time with believers! (pastsor to boot).
While I certainly don't want to undermine the "importance" of such work (lest some will seriously consider withdrawing their support of us on account of my momentary disclosure), I personally need a wakeup call to realize that it is still about Christ reaching the hurting and sinful world through His Gospel of liberation.
Now, I would like to tell you two things that the Lord has done for me to, at least, bring me out a persistant comatose state.
1. On Tuesday nights, I teach apologetic course at the Cordero Church (Lamb Church) which is afiliated with the Evangelical Free denomination. It is an up and coming congregation consisting mostly of uppity professionals.
About three weeks ago, I made the following comment at the end of the class: One day, I wish I could speak on apologetic matters before a group of unbelievers in order to win them for the Lord.
Afterward, a man named Galvan, who is a project manager at a major firm in Chihuaha, spoke to me about the possibiilty of holding a Da Vanci Code conference for his coworkers. (By the way, one of the pastors of the church used to the president of the company.)
Upon hearing from me, "Sure," he then took off with the project! (that being what he does--project manager!!!).
This past Wednesday we had the meeting, and first of all, I was surprised at how many showed up--about 35 just from the company! Man, I was felt so excited and elated seeing so many unbelievers who were going to hear about Christ (which they did not necessarily know).
I reduced the usual length of the Da Vanci Code presentation of 4 hours to 2 so that I could clearly explained the gospel at the end without being rushed.
After sitting through a two-hour presentation consisting of about 30 powerpoint slides, 5 people indicated their decision (throgh raising of hands or coming out to front where I was standing) to believe Jesus Christ for their Savior and Lord for the first time.
There was GREAT!!! The Lord did it for them and in small part He did it for me so that I will WAKE UP!!! One great thing about this is that this happened inside of a church so the pastors of the church were able to follow up on them right away!!!
2. In past July, we, along with a short-term team from California, visited an orphanage for two days. Some time later, my wife indicated to me her desire to continue the ministry there by way of offering the orphans an English class. (By the way, she is now TESOL certified which mean she can legally correct my bad English!)
So after setting up the time with the pastor who operates the orphanage, we finally started the class about a month ago. Now, I neither had the intention of going there nor participate in it since it is not my thing.
But I did drive her (along with my daughter who also dediced to do it with her mother) there the first week to show her how to get there. But while I was there the first week, I sensed an "internal voice" (OK, a bad choice of wording but you get my drip, right?) goading me that I should come here with my wife and Christy. When I sort of shared this with my wife, she immediately offered me a "ministry position"; now I am in charge of doing 5 minute devotion at the end.
Now on the 2nd week, I went there with a book on systematic theology to pass my time while the class was going on. But one or two orphans who finished their work earlier than others came to where I was sitting and began to talk to me.
Of course, I naturally considered this a nuisance (since I was reading) but a sudden thought occurred which in rough translation said: "Close your book you m_r_n and talk to these kids; ministry is not just teaching pastors; it is also just spending time with people!!! So upon closing the book, I just started talking to the kids about a great God who has a wonderful plan for them in His Son Christ. Who needs to hear that more than these kids abandoned by or without their parents
Now, I don't take any book to the orphanage except the Bible and I sit in the class that my wife and daughter teach. What do I do? I clown around but not too much lest my wife might reprimend me (which I get plenty at home).
So there you have it! A missionary who needs to be remind of what this is all about--once again!
Now about the "business" of what we officially do here:
1. The five weekly classes (one hermenetics, one apologetics and three comparative systematic theology) are going pretty well; the Thursday morning class mostly with pastors has now grown to over 30 people. They are eager students who actively participate in the discussion.
We have just entered the study on eternal security and perseverace of the believers which this group (leaning toward the arminianism) does not necessarily believe. I hope they, after seeing how these two teachings go together scripturally, will see its great wonder and value to the believers for the sake of pleasing God through an abundant fruit-bearing life.
2. The one-month class (of 4 sessions) on leadership just ended at the church of the superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination two weeks ago. Again, it started with the critique on John Maxwell's philosophy on leadership and ended with a biblical model of it.
Please Pray for the following matters:
1. Beginning this Monday, I start a stretch of 3 teaching trips in 6 weeks: Guatemala, Monterry and San Luis Potosi. Pray please that I pray adequately for these ministries so that I won's just show up thinking that my powerpoint and course manuals will do the trick.
In Guatemala, I will be teaching an abbreviated version of missiology (12 hours in really three days) to a group of (I am told) 200 pastors. Pray for the Lord's safekeeping of our house and my family during my absence. (Not that I do all of that that when I am here.)
2. Please pray stamina for October 28th:
My church here, the Jerusalem Baptist Church, has got me, again, to speak in their annivesary service (its 36th) and I just found out that I have to speak three times (two times at the church and the third one its at the Cereso Prison where the church holds the weekly service). I am already sweating and getting a dry throat justing thinking about it.
3. Pray for Joshua: he is doing much better! The Lord really answered a certain pray request of ours and the boy has been doing well. It is another great praise on our part. He loves basketball and the school's principal has been nice enough to form a basketball team which Joshua loves. Though I did beat him the last time we played, before that, he beat like 5 straight!
3. Christy: college! We are not heavy-handed on where she should go but certainly have shared with her the pros and cons of going to secular school as opposed to Christian institution. Another factor is being near to the family and also being close enough to have access to Korean-American subculture. While many Korean-Americans should come out of their socially-cacooned subculture, Christy, being a Korean-Mexican-American, needs some orientation in it to appreciate her Korean side.
Pray that she will thoroughly pray and think through the "whys" of wanting step toward a certain direction. I suppose this is all part of her growing up through trials and errors to finally own her faith!
Meanwhile, I am busy going over apologetics with her (and Joshua) in our weekly family devotion!
Pray for Insil that she will have more opportunites to teach other women in Chihuhua.
Justin is doing great! He is great to me! He always comes to me in my office to say Good Night before going to sleep. His piano teacher really thinks that he has a future in music! So she bumped her piano practice time from 30 to 40 minutes. It is quite amazing what he does with piano just in two years.
One day when I commented to Christy (who has been playing for 8 years) that I cannot tell who is playing when hearing the piano sound while in other room, she smiled and said, "That just shows you how ignorant you are when it comes to music." (Hey, no argument here). She did concede, however, that in about two years Justin will surpass Christy. Even if nothing may come out of him playing piano, but I really appreciate the discipline that goes into learing an instrument! Something I know nothing about (the latter and not necessarily the former).
Thanks for reading this rather long update
Withour your support of us through finances and/or prayers and/or teaching of our kids, we cannot do any of these thing!!! That's for sure!!!
Hello everyone,
One thing I certainly have noticed about me while engaging in the Lord's work in Chihuahua is the fact that I am becoming more distant from "real people" out there! I mean, I am pretty much cacooned in the sense that I am spending almost all of my ministry time with believers! (pastsor to boot).
While I certainly don't want to undermine the "importance" of such work (lest some will seriously consider withdrawing their support of us on account of my momentary disclosure), I personally need a wakeup call to realize that it is still about Christ reaching the hurting and sinful world through His Gospel of liberation.
Now, I would like to tell you two things that the Lord has done for me to, at least, bring me out a persistant comatose state.
1. On Tuesday nights, I teach apologetic course at the Cordero Church (Lamb Church) which is afiliated with the Evangelical Free denomination. It is an up and coming congregation consisting mostly of uppity professionals.
About three weeks ago, I made the following comment at the end of the class: One day, I wish I could speak on apologetic matters before a group of unbelievers in order to win them for the Lord.
Afterward, a man named Galvan, who is a project manager at a major firm in Chihuaha, spoke to me about the possibiilty of holding a Da Vanci Code conference for his coworkers. (By the way, one of the pastors of the church used to the president of the company.)
Upon hearing from me, "Sure," he then took off with the project! (that being what he does--project manager!!!).
This past Wednesday we had the meeting, and first of all, I was surprised at how many showed up--about 35 just from the company! Man, I was felt so excited and elated seeing so many unbelievers who were going to hear about Christ (which they did not necessarily know).
I reduced the usual length of the Da Vanci Code presentation of 4 hours to 2 so that I could clearly explained the gospel at the end without being rushed.
After sitting through a two-hour presentation consisting of about 30 powerpoint slides, 5 people indicated their decision (throgh raising of hands or coming out to front where I was standing) to believe Jesus Christ for their Savior and Lord for the first time.
There was GREAT!!! The Lord did it for them and in small part He did it for me so that I will WAKE UP!!! One great thing about this is that this happened inside of a church so the pastors of the church were able to follow up on them right away!!!
2. In past July, we, along with a short-term team from California, visited an orphanage for two days. Some time later, my wife indicated to me her desire to continue the ministry there by way of offering the orphans an English class. (By the way, she is now TESOL certified which mean she can legally correct my bad English!)
So after setting up the time with the pastor who operates the orphanage, we finally started the class about a month ago. Now, I neither had the intention of going there nor participate in it since it is not my thing.
But I did drive her (along with my daughter who also dediced to do it with her mother) there the first week to show her how to get there. But while I was there the first week, I sensed an "internal voice" (OK, a bad choice of wording but you get my drip, right?) goading me that I should come here with my wife and Christy. When I sort of shared this with my wife, she immediately offered me a "ministry position"; now I am in charge of doing 5 minute devotion at the end.
Now on the 2nd week, I went there with a book on systematic theology to pass my time while the class was going on. But one or two orphans who finished their work earlier than others came to where I was sitting and began to talk to me.
Of course, I naturally considered this a nuisance (since I was reading) but a sudden thought occurred which in rough translation said: "Close your book you m_r_n and talk to these kids; ministry is not just teaching pastors; it is also just spending time with people!!! So upon closing the book, I just started talking to the kids about a great God who has a wonderful plan for them in His Son Christ. Who needs to hear that more than these kids abandoned by or without their parents
Now, I don't take any book to the orphanage except the Bible and I sit in the class that my wife and daughter teach. What do I do? I clown around but not too much lest my wife might reprimend me (which I get plenty at home).
So there you have it! A missionary who needs to be remind of what this is all about--once again!
Now about the "business" of what we officially do here:
1. The five weekly classes (one hermenetics, one apologetics and three comparative systematic theology) are going pretty well; the Thursday morning class mostly with pastors has now grown to over 30 people. They are eager students who actively participate in the discussion.
We have just entered the study on eternal security and perseverace of the believers which this group (leaning toward the arminianism) does not necessarily believe. I hope they, after seeing how these two teachings go together scripturally, will see its great wonder and value to the believers for the sake of pleasing God through an abundant fruit-bearing life.
2. The one-month class (of 4 sessions) on leadership just ended at the church of the superintendent of the Assemblies of God denomination two weeks ago. Again, it started with the critique on John Maxwell's philosophy on leadership and ended with a biblical model of it.
Please Pray for the following matters:
1. Beginning this Monday, I start a stretch of 3 teaching trips in 6 weeks: Guatemala, Monterry and San Luis Potosi. Pray please that I pray adequately for these ministries so that I won's just show up thinking that my powerpoint and course manuals will do the trick.
In Guatemala, I will be teaching an abbreviated version of missiology (12 hours in really three days) to a group of (I am told) 200 pastors. Pray for the Lord's safekeeping of our house and my family during my absence. (Not that I do all of that that when I am here.)
2. Please pray stamina for October 28th:
My church here, the Jerusalem Baptist Church, has got me, again, to speak in their annivesary service (its 36th) and I just found out that I have to speak three times (two times at the church and the third one its at the Cereso Prison where the church holds the weekly service). I am already sweating and getting a dry throat justing thinking about it.
3. Pray for Joshua: he is doing much better! The Lord really answered a certain pray request of ours and the boy has been doing well. It is another great praise on our part. He loves basketball and the school's principal has been nice enough to form a basketball team which Joshua loves. Though I did beat him the last time we played, before that, he beat like 5 straight!
3. Christy: college! We are not heavy-handed on where she should go but certainly have shared with her the pros and cons of going to secular school as opposed to Christian institution. Another factor is being near to the family and also being close enough to have access to Korean-American subculture. While many Korean-Americans should come out of their socially-cacooned subculture, Christy, being a Korean-Mexican-American, needs some orientation in it to appreciate her Korean side.
Pray that she will thoroughly pray and think through the "whys" of wanting step toward a certain direction. I suppose this is all part of her growing up through trials and errors to finally own her faith!
Meanwhile, I am busy going over apologetics with her (and Joshua) in our weekly family devotion!
Pray for Insil that she will have more opportunites to teach other women in Chihuhua.
Justin is doing great! He is great to me! He always comes to me in my office to say Good Night before going to sleep. His piano teacher really thinks that he has a future in music! So she bumped her piano practice time from 30 to 40 minutes. It is quite amazing what he does with piano just in two years.
One day when I commented to Christy (who has been playing for 8 years) that I cannot tell who is playing when hearing the piano sound while in other room, she smiled and said, "That just shows you how ignorant you are when it comes to music." (Hey, no argument here). She did concede, however, that in about two years Justin will surpass Christy. Even if nothing may come out of him playing piano, but I really appreciate the discipline that goes into learing an instrument! Something I know nothing about (the latter and not necessarily the former).
Thanks for reading this rather long update
Withour your support of us through finances and/or prayers and/or teaching of our kids, we cannot do any of these thing!!! That's for sure!!!
