역대 본부장 칼럼

글쓴이 : 유 병 국

Date : 2005-08-14

Dear Friends,

Warmest greetings from Korea in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!

It has been long time since we sent our news. We assume that many people have been praying for us.  Our family is truly grateful.

We have finally returned to Korea, our mission field; we feel as if are missionaries that have just returned into their mission field after their first furlough. Many things are familiar to us, but there have much change since we left as well.  Four members of our office staff have left within the time that we were absent for various reasons.  A couple more staff members will also soon be leaving for further training.  That means we will be needing many new home staff members for the Korean Sending Base.

We are thankful for a few missionaries from the field and some waiting to go into the mission field that have come and assisted us, helping to fill the gaps in our staff.  We appreciate Young Choon and Elaine's help with the Korean Sending Base during our absence.

In the light of this situation, we are going to invite two Korean couples to the Sending Base from the mission field as a long term committment.  By God's grace, one couple has responded, saying that they are willing to leave the field to come and join us in our work.  The other couple is also a potential, but they still have a few things to sort out.  May the Lord open the way for this couple as well.  As you have heard, the Korean Sending Base has grown dramatically in size so we are in desperate need for personnel.  If we get these two experienced missionary couples, our ministry will be much more effective.  Please pray for them, that the Lord will remove all hindrances that may prevent them coming into ministry in Korea.  It will be a great challenge for them to leave their field as some Korean churches may be hesitant about their supported missionaries coming to work back into Korea as "missionaries."

We will be holding our first Sending Base conference the first week of November, this year.  As we mentioned above, it is time for us to have a conference because of the staff member situation and also, we will be able to discuss the upcoming aspects of our second term in the Korean Sending Base.  It is time to delegate our various ministries to the appropriately gifted people.  Please pray for our conference, the planning committee, as well as our search for a conference speaker.  Pray that great outcomes to come forth from this conference, bringing us to a better ministry.

As we anticipated, there is much work waiting for us in Korea, not only from the office but other areas related to the churches and other agencies.  Many churches and organizations have asked Byung Kook to speak at lectures and seminars since they know we are now at the Korean Sending Base.  There are many home-end missionaries, those going into training abroad, and those going into the field after their training.  They are desperate to sit with us for debriefing, counselling, or even just fellowship.  We need wisdom to best arrange our time to accommodate to these brothers and sisters.  It seems to be unavoidable that we must meet every one of these people that ask for our time yet as we begin to spend more time in other areas of the ministry, we hope to be more wise and selective (for lack of better words) as to who to make time for.  This, in Korean culture will be a great difficulty for us.  Please pray for wisdom for us as we handle this sensitive ministry.

We both are physically fine.  We struggle with our work load at times but we cannot complain about it just after such a long break.  However, Bo In may need a proper health check up as soon as possible.  Jean, our first daughter, is now a third year medical student and doing her best.  Lam is working with families of children with disabilities and working at a cancer research facility in the States.  Pray that they both succeed in achieving their goals.  Yevon, our youngest daughter as also left us to pursue further schooling in the States where she will be living in her cousin's home for the time being, not too far from where Jean is.  This will be a particularly challenging time for Yevon to leave her parents and be on her own in a sense, even though she will have her cousins.  We know that she will cope with this new situation fairly well, but we still need much prayer that she will adjust to her new environment, her new school, her new family so to speak, and everything else.  Most importantly, we pray that the Lord will be with her every moment as she is a teenager growing up in new surroundings.  It will be  very hard for us to send our baby daughter, please pray that God will comfort us and give us strength as we do God's work here.

That is all for now, thank you always for your support and prayers.

May the Lord richly bless every one of you and answer your prayers.

Love in Christ,

Byung Kook and Boin Yoo