Archive for December, 2014

Joseph Lee’s Testimony

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Joseph will be confirmed on Dec 28, 2014. Here is his testimony:

Before I came to faith and realized the reality of God I had what was considered a ‘normal life’. I went to school, came home, did my homework, and then on Sunday I went to church and came back, and this cycle kept repeating until I started to go to youth group. Youth group was when I started getting serious about the Bible. That’s the time I really started wondering who’s this almighty God who sent his only son for us. That’s the time when I start really learning about God and really putting his words in my life.

It was a Sunday that I really started to change. It was a sermon that assistant pastor Johnny preached that really got me and it was about trusting in God, and it was after the sermon when I started praying and then I heard a small voice that said, “trust in me”. When I heard this I thought it must be my own thoughts not God’s. Then the next week I prayed for the same prayer just in case and the same words, trust in me, came to my mind again. Then I started to pray more about those peculiar words. It came to my mind that those words were not from my own thoughts but from God’s. Trusting God was the first step.

Then during spring, English Ministry joined the adult congregation for Acts 114 and that’s where I came to faith. It was on Friday when I was praying with other people during a prayer time. I don’t know if this is just me but after being saved you just feel different. I didn’t feel my old-self instead I felt joy, eternal joy. After the prayer time I told my parents the great news and they burst with joy knowing that I am saved. After that Friday I changed a lot of my bad habits but I am still not perfect. That’s why now I am fight my addictions and bad habits and learning more about God and spreading the good news.

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Brian Kim’s Testimony

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brian kimBrian Kim was confirmed on Dec 21, 2014. Here is his testimony:

 

Ever since I can remember, I grew up in a Catholic church.  I remember hating going every Sunday.  It was all time that I could use to catch up on sleep or play some video games.  God seemed so distant to me and it seemed like He had better things to do than care about me.  On top of this, I grew up in a typical Korean-American household.  It seemed like my self-worth was all based on the grades that I got and that I was always being compared to someone that was better than me.  So with that I grew up thinking I was just average and that this is all that there was to life:  study and get a good job in the future.  Eventually I stopped going to church because it all seemed so pointless.

But then one year my cousin invited me to go on retreat with this church.  I thought that it would just be a fun time.  I remember it was during prayer time and I felt out of place but I still prayed because I wanted to know more about this God that everyone was so crazy about there.  And I was finally able to see that our God wants to know me and loves me no matter what I do and no matter how much I fail.

Since then, I’ve been coming to this church for the past 8 years and even though God has to teach me that same lesson over and over again, I’m blessed to say that I know that God’s grace will never leave me despite of that.  I continue to grow in faith every day and I seek membership today because I can see how God is with this church and I desire to be a bigger part of that.

2014 Ministry Report

By On December 13, 2014 In Pastor's Corner With No Comments Permanent Link to 2014 Ministry ReportPermalink

I was asked by the Church to submit a 2014 Ministry Report. So, I’ve also posted it here for your benefit and encouragement:

Ministry Report for Youth & English Ministry for 2013-2014

 

In December 2013, we were joined by World Mission Church from Philadelphia, PA once again for our annual winter retreat. Our guest speaker was Rob Maeder of Crossroads Community Church in New Jersey. The theme was “Glory Seekers” learning to take our focus off of ourselves and worldly things to focus only on God. We praise God that some students from WMC came to trust in Jesus as Savior for the first time in their lives.

Starting in January 2014, we assembled and trained as the 2014 Philadelphia Missions Team. The team was a joint EM & Youth team featuring Elliott Youn, Gloria Cho, Nathan Cho, Jay Choi, Brandon Lee, Cristin Choi, and Joseph Lee. We spent a week in July in Philadelphia partnering with various organizations to help feed homeless and hungry people, as well as encourage and bond with children from various dangerous neighborhoods at a community center. From the trip, we learned many things but we mostly learned to love one another and grow to love the church.

In April of 2014, we had one baptism, SJ Lee, and one new member, Sylvia Kim. SJ Lee had joined our youth group as a 7th grader and had come to faith in Christ on a Sunday morning in response to a message. He was baptized in April and gave a short testimony before the whole congregation in the Easter service.

In August 2014, we were joined again by World Mission Church for our annual summer retreat. We returned to our summer retreat home at camp High Road. The theme was “Scandalous Freedom” and the speaker was Jacob Kim from Korean Presbyterian Church of Washington. We learned about the freedom we have in Christ from sin and death and freedom to receive God’s love and to love people.

In 2014, we launched two services on Sunday mornings to better serve those who serve the church in Children’s Ministry. We launched the 9AM service, which is also sometimes used by youth students and EM members who cannot attend the regular 11AM service due to various reasons. We have four regular members who attend the 9AM service. The message is the same as the 11AM service. In the fall of 2014, we received 3 new members from the Children’s Ministry. They have already begun to make an entertaining impact on youth meetings.

In 2014, we started our series in the book of 1 Peter entitled “Living Hope”. We’ve taken breaks from the series for the Easter season with a Easter series entitled, “The Victorious King” from Psalm 118. We are currently taking a break from 1 Peter and are in our Christmas series entitled, “He is Coming”.

Thursday night meetings start at 7:30pm for our English Ministry college+ team which is for college students and working young adults. Attendance ranges from 7 to 10 people. In 2014, we finished our series in Exodus and are currently in Galatians. Friday night meetings start at 7:30pm for our youth students. Starting in the fall, we were going through Jerry Bridges’ “The Practice of Godliness” study book. While it was good, we shifted more to a traditional Bible study small group format studying the book of Daniel. Elliott and Sylvia have stepped up to serve as leaders for the youth ministry.

We currently average about 20 attendees on Sunday mornings and currently have 26 in total which includes new comers, visitors, friends from other churches, and college students who are far away. We welcomed, other than the 3 new students from Children’s Ministry, Niko Kacludis and Brian Park.