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I wish to be in a Bible Study!
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Chapter 33 - I wish to be in a Bible Study!
When I had resigned as the senior pastor I did not request any money for the 7 year service. I thank God I had the opportunity to start a new church, and had people to work with me. Like Jesus said, “The Lord gives and takes away” the Lord gave me a chance to evangelize. The money I got at the end was $930. I had seen churches that had problems when the resign money subject came up. It’s not like I am against it either. I did not request the resign funds but told the members before I had resigned I had requested that the resign funds be given on the next senior pastor. After September I would have no living expenses. I had written a memoir a few months after my resign.
<”When I woke up one morning it was 2:30AM. I could not rest easily as I used to, nor was my waking hour consistent. Was it because of the difficulties in the Youth Born Again Mission after my resign? Or was it because I had to find another job for an uncertain future ahead? For the YBA to run at least twelve thousand dollar funds are needed a year. At the moment there is only about half of that. (At that time I spoke as a guest preacher in San Mateo’s EunSung Church and used to support YBA and living expenses.) Only person who helped so far is Deacon Jung. Starting something new is very hard and difficult. I think it was better as my wife said to work alone instead of getting married.
(Abridge)
When I started the YBA in America, my daughter was high school freshmen and in the volleyball team. My wife was the one working and most of the living expenses were from her work, we had to cut down everything we can. First was food. Clothing and everything else was always in short so there was no other thing to save. So at that time I was fasting a lot. What makes me sad to be was that my daughter was eating only 2 meals a day for many months while she was in sports activities. How could I describe the difficulties my wife had during this time? When someone goes into mission some other country churches would support. But the people of this local area didn’t appreciate the evangelism of young adults with “Great job.” “Let’s have a meal together.” “Need a place to worship?” from any of the Korean pastors here. Even some would wear glasses with odd colors and try to avoid.
I always had worked in faith and prayed whenever in need and worked with what I had. So I did not want a funding assistance. Even if it was difficult I had trusted in God that he would give ‘all that I need’.
One afternoon while I was in my apartment (since I didn’t have an office I had no place to work) Brother in Christ KyungSuk Lee heard my story and visited me. We both shared our dream and prayed. KyungSuk Lee came to United States in 8th grade and is a 1.5 immigrant. He was one of the young adults I had met during the earlier days of San Jose Bible Church. He wanted to learn the Bible from me. He wanted to be a Sunday school teacher. I asked him which church he attends and it was a church with deep roots with pastor who taught the bible very well. For a pastor they always had to be careful that the pastor from the other church would not be worried. So I said that he couldn’t learn without his pastor’s permission. When he came back he had his permission and I taught him from the book of Philippians. With his effort he started the Korean Christian Student Committee in San Jose State University and I had the opportunity to serve as the speaker there.
After graduating he had an important meeting with me on what kind of job to have. He had decided to work on a computer programming company. At that time our bible study was in hold because he was busy with work. We had prayed together about that about 150 companies would use his program that would make decent living expanse. It was when he was in need for a lot of living expanse because he had children and family to take care of. I had suggested “We should get together every Saturday early morning to do bible study.” I think he wanted to do this for his growth in God but also to help me financially. Every Saturday early morning we gathered to study the book of John. Occasionally he would pay me some support money. I still thank Deacon KyungSuk Lee about this. When I had departed San Jose to Los Angeles I requested Deacon Lee to take care of YBA in 1993.
I had known Deacon Lee for about 26 years now. I write this “Praises and Thanks” in his office in a room. It was through him that I have this internet website and the blogs. During 2008 I was visiting San Jose and called him, he wanted to see me because the motel I was staying was very close to his office. When I had visited his office he said “reverend since you are retired you would have no office, please come and work with me in my office” and gave me a small quite room. Deacon Lee works in CBMC and serves his church faithfully. His wife is an evangelist and a working son, and a college attending daughter and son and has a happy family. He is a faithful worker in God to have all his grace. I give thanks to God that I met someone like Deacon Lee, at the same time feel heartwarming because of his love and care like a brother. I would probably want to brag to other Christians.
Deacon Lee spoke as a guest during YBA Retreats and also helped with the growth for the YBA. We needed a new place to gather more often as a group because of the YBA’s growth, so we had to depart from Redwood Covenant Church and move to Fremont. The new place had been better because it was a office and had a large classroom so YBA could meet as many as they wanted. The owner was Korean and after hearing the reason of gathering, rented the place for cheap price. I had stayed there for about 2 years but had to move out after because of a lawsuit in selling the building. Deacon Lee showed hospitality by offering his office so we had time to gather during evenings. But it was hard together for a long period of time. Because of the difficulty of finding a good place I had spoke with Reverend Jon Martin. He offered two rooms behind the church’s storage which was remodeled, which was located at the backside of the fellowship hall.
At that time San Jose Bible Church had grown and moved to a large American church while ago. During that time I was in Southern California to plant a new church there. So every 2 weekends a monthly Friday I would drive up to San Jose to meet up with the leaders there, have a quick sermon on Saturday. After, drove back down to the newly planted church in Southern California. It is not easy to drive north 6 hours every 2 days a month and drive back down south. But the thing that worried me the most was the young adults would use the church well. So I had given them strong cautions many times. I had warned them to maintain the church’s cleanness and observe the strict time schedule. But whenever I visit it’s never like that. If I was a reverend that owned the building I would wonder if I would be able to be gracious to the minority culture young adults. I’m quite sure some of the American church members would point it out. But the pastor would always give a good answer. I give thanks to Reverend Jon Martin for being a great brother in Christ.
(February 2011)
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Epilogue 
I wish to be in a Bible Study!