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To Fly Over
(Isaiah 40:31 June 30th, 2003)
This year is the 100th anniversary of the immigration of Koreans to the United States. Every immigrant churches all celebrate in diverse ways to celebrate this special historical moment. With the American Dreams in their minds at that time the only way was by ship and the journey was long and hard for many days. After 1970s, with the boom of immigration, airplane was the fastest method to cross the vast ocean to come to United States, and the days when long journey had cut down a single night. The airplane from that point on became the most important icon of public transportation.
Out of all the creatures in the earth, I believe the birds were the most envied out of all.
There are many accounts of people who had hopelessly tried to open their ‘wings’ and to attempt in flight after seeing the birds fly. The most famous case was in the year 1538 when a French man by the name of Denis Boulogne died when he tried to use some sort of spring mechanism to attempt in flight. After the discovering that flying is not from flapping of the wings; but rather of how is there in the buoyancy. The first person to ever sketch something closest to an airplane is none other than the famous designer, artist of the 16th century Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci. The first ever “true flight” was in the year 1903. On December 17th, despite the flight total time of 12 seconds and distance of 120 feet, it was the true manned flight. As the immigration of Korean to the United States started, bicyclist mechanics Wilbur and Orville Wright brothers’ had made the airplane, and had changed the world’s history.
Not a short distance away from the Korean District Office, there is a well known mega-church within the Korean Community. The church has a huge banner that says “The Church that flies with Two Wings”. To those who are not trained under the ‘Growing Health Church’, some explanation is required. To have a successfully growing church, there needs to be the two wings, “small group community”, and the “mass meeting celebration” as the buoyancy for the flight. The ‘Sonlife Ministries’ had many times emphasized the necessity of both the “wings”.
Whenever I need to visit churches that are far away, I use the airplane to fly there. Since I use the economic class, I would be in the middle or the near tail section of the airplane. Since I can see the window nearby outside, I can clearly see how the wings work during take-off and landing. Just because of the wings does not necessarily make the airplane fly. There needs to be a delicate balancing of how the air flow around the airplane and the climate makes it all the more necessary for caution. We always compare the wings with our ministries. There is always the danger of recklessly trying to “fly” without the wings, or even with the possession of wings, we do not check the functionality of the “wings” and fly.
Whenever I am on the airplane, I had never questioned the integrity of the pilot and the co-pilot of the flight. I got on the plane knowing that the crew can get me and the rest of the passengers to safety. As I have spoken, I wish the path in our ministry and of our members to be united in one path.
After the September 11th attack, there was a 20% decrease in airplane passengers. With the outbreak of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), one company’s passenger amount had decreased even to 50~60%s. Because of the rising prices in gas, some companies are having hard time managing. Because of all that, the services done on the airplane is less. But some of the other companies show hospitality and top quality in kindness. Some of the pilots would point out whenever passing by a good view, and would explain the expected arrival time, and the weather in that area. When the flight is delayed, they do not forget to apologize of the delay. Whenever I hear of that news, I think automatically of taking that particular company that stands out.
As we have seen the difficulties with aviation companies, we also see the similarities in immigrant churches.
I have thought of how to better our serving to our members, in more delicate and balanced way. I will now close this with a rather well remembered passage.
“But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with the wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31 – English Standard Version)
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To Fly Over
Integrity