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Home > Praise and Thanks Volume II |
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8BQW544 (1)
When our family moved to United States in March of 1980, we only had $235 in cash. So purchasing a vehicle was out of question. I worked at a hamburger restaurant that an acquaintance was the owner, and in night time cleaned out buildings.
Since we lived in the middle of the Los Angeles Korean community, we had no choice but to work anywhere and anything.
My wife took the bus and went to a sewing factory to make clothes. The owner was Korean and until she finished learning all the necessary skills, there would be no payment for the work. After hard day of work, my wife would return home and hide in the closet and cry a lot (she would hide there so our children couldn’t see that).
Since I had no car, someone else who was working in the hamburger shop would carpool with me to Santa Monica.
After I had gathered a decent amount of money, I and my older brother who had already emigrated before had a discussion about getting a used car. But the amount of money required for getting a used car was much greater than expected.
After some exploring around, he found a reverend that had used his car for about 15 years and was ready to scrap it. When my brother told the story about me, he was adamant not selling the car as it was not in the condition to be ridden.
But either way, I needed a car and bought the car for a cheap price. The license plate on that car was 556JOU. It was a Chrysler Plymouth Duster. When the car was initially purchased, the state of the vehicle was so bad that I had spent about $400 to fix the most immediate problems to ride the car.
One of the biggest problems out of the handful we had was the danger of getting into accident. Another big issue was the defogger was nonfunctioning. So after rain the window would fog up and I was forced to leave a little bit of window open and whenever I would get a stop sign or red light, I would wipe the driver’s side, my wife the passenger side. If my kids were there, they would do the back side windows. Until we had moved to San Jose, we had used this car for about 2 years. Whenever it had a problem I had to fix. It really was a nuisance.
Despite the car being in a bad condition, I decided with my family to move to another city and with that, our family got all our belongings, and got into the car and started to San Jose very early morning using the U.S. 101. I knew this was going to be a dangerous adventure with a badly conditioned car, but we had no choice. I knew renting a mover would be out of question as well. Before leaving Los Angeles, we prayed that we would be able to arrive safely and while driving I would constantly pray that we would arrive safely.
However, halfway into our journey suddenly, there was a problem with the car. There was a white steam that had suddenly erupted from the engine! I had turned my eyes to the right to see if there was an exit I can take and saw that there was a gas station very close by. This was the time when our family and I had not enough money for hotel and no credit cards either.
After stopping the car at the gas station which included a repair shop, a technician came out hurriedly to open the hood of the car and saw that there was a stream of water coming out. Apparently the rubber hosing that was connected to coolants had ruptured. After the car had cooled down, the repairman fixed the ruptured hose. Internally, I was worried about the price I would have to pay but thankfully the repairman said I would only have to pay $15. I think he knew from the state that we were in. This was such a thankful moment. After I had thanked him profusely we had continued our journey and arrived in San Jose around 4PM. What would’ve been a 6 hour journey took us nearly 10 hours. But thanks to God helping us, we were here and I still remember that time.
After about a year later that car was finally scrapped, and I had purchased another used car to work. But the negative thing about used cars is the repair cost is very high to maintain the vehicle worthiness. Sometimes the engines would shut down in the light, waters in the coolant would leak so I would have to prepare extra water and if something feels wrong in highway, I would stop and add more water…
Finally, in April of 1983, with some financial support from co-signer I knew, I was able to purchase a GM Phoenix (4 Cylinders). Since I was still new to United States, my credit history was unknown, so someone else had to be the certifier. The license plate on that car was 1GUX870. First brand new car in United States… That was until 1991. But one day, my wife took the car to get to work but about an hour or so later, she came back crying, saying she got into an accident. Thankfully she was not hurt at all which was a miracle. The accident occurred when someone had decided to cross 3 lanes of traffic suddenly to get in front of my wife while exiting to the freeway from San Tomas Expressway.
After this difficult situation, one of the deacons from the American church that I was borrowing to serve, said he was moving away to another state and let me have the car instead. Since my wife’s accident my insurance was canceled, so I had to take another insurance that was made only for accidents – so I was forced to pay 3 times the insurance fee for about 2 years.
However, since the Youth Born Again ministry was still young, I had picked up a student and was approaching the Lawrence Expressway and Interstate 280 entrance area. The car in front of me suddenly slammed the break so I had applied my breaks as well, however the car was old so the break did not apply in time and I had collided with the car in front of me. After exchanging each other’s information, the student and I drove the now barely working car 20 miles to Redwood City where the YBA was meeting (at the Covenant Church). But by the time we had arrived, it was already the time to leave. The young men and women who had waited there for me had waited for that long, so in gladness I had preached the gospel despite what had happened earlier.
There was another financial trouble while serving young adults. There were no Korean churches who had helped support my work. Only my wife’s work was all that helped. We had to cut down on food – everything was restrained in how much money to be spent. But thankfully, Deacon Kyong Yi whom I had taught the Gospel of John in 1:1 bible study sent me monthly thank you memo. Because he had recently started a new job, it was difficult times for him as well. Meanwhile, the Woman’s Ministry in the American Church I was renting heard that I had resigned from my church and started working in preaching to young adults, they had an emergency meeting and decided to send me $300 monthly.
Most of the meeting members were young adults in college, there was almost no offering. Instead it was more like the money I spent from my wife’s earnings and the $300 donations for traveling to spend for the students.
While serving the areas of Los Angeles and Orange County church planting in 1993 I had the same similar type of difficulty. I had traveled to San Jose twice or so per month to take care of the YBA there and I would have to drive the long distance. During that time the problems with my cars was there also. Because the car was used, I had to suffer the heat from the weather since the AC was not working. Whenever I would drive back from San Jose or Los Angeles, I would carry an ice pouch along with me to cool me down. Many times, I had dangerous near-accidents happen on the road because my car would not speed up proper. One night, one truck suddenly changed its lane and rang its horn loudly as it passed by.
One thing I am very thankful for is that while I was doing this travel for many years, I never had my car break down in the middle of the trip. As God had promised to those spreading the gospel that he would “always be with you” and that promise was fulfilled.
With the help and blessing of God, from 1993~1998 I had lived this way then finally, I decided to move back to San Jose upon the request of the members of the Youth Born Again members and people who wanted to church plant with me as well. In 1992 after my wife had her accident she never drove again. Her work going and coming home was my duty from then. The reason was because of her safety and also we had no money to purchase another car at this time. Until my daughter had bought me a car, I had to drive a car that sounded like it was about to fall apart any minute. My nickname at that time was “Poor Pastor” The Mexican technician who had repaired my car often in the shop would always jokingly say that the “poop car” had arrived. But I was finally able to shed away that nickname for the last time.
After graduating from college my daughter who recently got a job in New York came back and visited us in summer of 1998. After she saw the state of my vehicle, she said that she would get us a brand new car and took us to the nearest Saturn dealer. At that time, Saturn was well known for being honest in car dealership. The one thing that was surprising was that after checking my credit history, the dealer decided that because my credit was good and trustworthy, I would pay the monthly fee off two month delay and that I could take the car now. After I had gotten a new insurance policy, I brought the new car home.
I had driven 4 different cars and all of them were scrapped. The new license plate number was 4EBR004. Not only had I used this car very useful for a long time, but also after I had become the superintendant of the Korean District down in Fullerton near Los Angeles, I had ridden this car without any issue at all (December of 2003). At that time period after I had resigned there was a church that needed education in leadership. One of the elders said that he had a car that I could use so I didn’t need to take my car there. So I donated the car to another pastor’s son who needed a car and went East Coast.
March 07, 2018
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8BQW544 (2)
Upon arriving at East Coast I received the elder’s car keys. When I turned the keys, the car would not start. I think it was because the car was not used for a long time. He told me several things that needed to be done to a repair shop.
I had spent about $1,500 to repair the car then to use the vehicle. However since the state of New Jersey had often rained and snowed often, it was still very unpleasant to drive it. The car was a Ford Explorer – a 6 cylinder but it was old and had a horrible fuel rate. Also because the car was old, I had to constantly repair parts of the car that kept breaking down.
Seeing this situation happen, my daughter bought for my wife and I a Honda Accord (4-Cylinder) as a gift. This happened in the sweltering August of 2005. Thanks to my daughter’s care, we were about to have our 2nd and 3rd car. With that car we drove to nearby cities to lead in sermon and teachings. Even as far as Virginia I took this car. After leaving New Jersey to move back to California I had used that car. As Japanese made car do not break down easily, I did not have to repair it as much. From the California DMV the license plate number was 5ZRB660.
Last year (2017) my son-in-law wished to purchase us a car. But as my current car was still working fine I had politely declined multiple times. But since the first and 2nd born granddaughters started sports club and needed rides and because of this, my youngest granddaughter needed a ride back from school. Since my son-in-law returns late from work, I was chosen to help.
In order to watch my granddaughter, I’d figured that a new car would be much safer than the 13 year old car I decided to take the car my son-in-law gave me. Since I would need to drive around often for the works of God, along with the distance from my home to office being 14miles away, there was a high demand for fuel. So I had decided I wanted a hybrid and request Toyota Prius.
Finally on February 1st of 2018 I had received a dark grey Prius as a gift. My son-in-law gave me the car keys and laughing said, “father, this would be your last new car to ever have!” and I replied to him with, “No, I would probably have one more car!” and we laughed together. Even though it’s just a guess, I think my son-in-law’s guess is going to be correct. The title of this writing is 8BQW544 which was the license plate number received from the California DMV.
I had donated my dear old car which was still rideable for few more years to my friend pastor’s daughter who needed a car.
Looking back, I think it is a miracle that I was able to drive around with a used car. Engine shutting down in traffic light, jump-cable starting the car because the ignition was faulty, filling up coolant water in the middle of highway, wiping the fog off the window with towel, having to use ice to drive around the hot California highways during summer and so on, so many memories had come back.
God had faithfully protected me from all those circumstances. He kept all of his promises.
Upon arriving at United States, I had worked still raising young adults in Christ and church plantings so my finance status was always in difficulty. Because I had worked so faithfully in expanding the Gospel, God had protected me from the sun, the moon, and the many dangers that I had to face. (Sometimes, I would have to go preach in San Jose YBA late Saturday night, then drove back down to Southern California and preached for Sunday worship only few hours later)
I wondered many times what it would’ve been like if the car had stopped in the middle of night time driving? I wouldn’t be able to preach at my church in Fullerton. This was also during the time cell phones were none existent so I couldn’t even call anyone if something had happened.
Despite the small faith, of tiring works I did not grumble at God’s work. I knew, and believed that God is good and will do everything for his work in cooperation. As I wrap up, I cannot express the thankfulness and do I dare say, “your faith will do it” just like God had said to me as a confession. Through my small faith and with my cars I had experienced boundless blessings that God had poured out for me.
Except for my first car, 1GUX870 - 4EBR004, 5ZRB660 and 8BQW544, those three cars were God had blessed through my daughter and son in law to be given to me as a gift.
As Missionary Hudson Taylor who had spent his life for the gospel for China, he said any time he had faced danger, he thought of “Ebenezer” – Jehovah Jire.
As God had helped him, I would also like to confess that God had worked through me and thank and praise him for that.
March 08th, 2018
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Youtuber Reverend? (23,000 views coming soon…) 
8BQW544