After all these years it has finally become time to leave xanga. Please see my new blog at: http://www.comequicklyministries.org/jm/blog/. My latest entry (3/12/2013) is Responding to “Losses.” Click on the box “details” just underneath it to read the full blog post.
Thank you xanga for all the memories. And thank you for making it possible for all my blog entries and pictures to be easily moved to my new blog. 
Cambodia Trip Winter 2013
Just a couple weeks ago Sky and I were in Cambodia with a team of 12 from our church in Korea, New Philadelphia (www.newphilly.cc). Sky was the team leader and I was the team’s preaching pastor. We traveled south near the Indian Ocean to the Kampot Province and ministered for a few days with small churches there. Cambodia is around 98% Buddhist and less than 1% Christian, so the churches were small but they were vibrant. The youth are on fire for the Lord! We also visited a couple other churches in other provinces and two children homes in the capital, Phnom Penh. There were a number of salvations and many more 100% physical healings as we ministered. Also at the children’s homes we had the privilege of leading different kids in praying forgiveness over their parents who had abandoned them. It was powerful! Please enjoy the pictures…
When we first arrived in Cambodia we visited one of the genocide museums (millions of Cambodians were killed during the 1970′s because of the killing fields). Here I am explaining to our group what happened in this torture room. The genocide in the 70′s affected Cambodia dramatically and people from that generation still suffer from bad nightmares when they sleep.
A common sight during the time of the killing fields
From there we went to the Kampot Province to minister to churches that consisted mostly of children and youth. God is raising up a new generation of worshippers in Cambodia!
The kids loved dancing to the songs we taught them
Every church was filled with beautiful kids who truly love the Lord
Because of the young ones, I chose to actively preach the Gospel and have team members act out what I was preaching. Here I am sharing how Jesus is our shepherd and protects the sheep from the enemy. I was acting as Jesus here and just struck Jin (acting as a wolf, the enemy) as he tried to grab a wandering sheep. The kids, even the youngest, paid close attention! If you look closely to the bottom left, you can see one of the kids enthralled by the message. =)
After preaching we would pray and lay hands on the kids, youth, and adults
We saw many healings!
Here a woman is testifying how she felt electricity/power fill her body as we prayed for her and then her pain up and leave her. She accepted Christ after we prayed for her, praise God!
My wife Sky also preached powerfully at this revival. I’m so blessed by my wife!
After the morning revival services, we woul split into two teams and do door to door evangelism along with the kids from the churches. The villages were small and poor, so the people were welcoming to us regardless of their faith.
Here a store owner is accepting Christ after hearing the Gospel for the first time
This man was paralyzed on part of his body and couldn’t move his arm or his fingers. He told the team that if he would be healed that he and his wife would accept Christ. The team prayed for him a couple times but didn’t see anything. Sky then had the children join in laying hands and praying, and his fingers and arm suddenly moved! He accepted Christ and is 100% healed of all paralysis. God is good!!!
An added benefit to the evangelism, coconuts cut down from the trees and given to the team by appreciative villagers =D
Sky and I with Pastor Kimeng and his wife, both powerful ministers for the Lord in the Kampot Province!
Here our team is with one of the children homes in the capital. These kids are precious!
This girl is being led in praying forgiveness over her parents whom she had held unforgiveness against all her life. God was working powerfully!
Here I am holding one of the boys who had just prayed forgiveness
We also played with them a bit. Here I am using my 7 years of orphanage ministry experience to effectively connect with the boys… wrestling never fails. =)
Last, we ministered at a church in the capital. Here I am praying with our translator, Pastor Lim, over the congregation.
Graduations 2013
I have now attended seven years worth of graduations from my children’s home. The kids who were in fifth grade when I first arrived (late 2005) graduated from high school this year. I’m getting old…
To keep things in perspective, here is a picture of our four high school graduates back in 2006 when they were in sixth grade (and when my camera was acting funny). Sun Ran, Hyun Hee, Yoo Jin, and Young Eun…
Our first high school graduate… Hyun Hee
Hyun Hee with Dong Min dorm dad, who has been working at the home just a little longer than me
Our next graduation was Yoo Jin
Yoo Jin with Mrs. Chae on the left, our new director, and three of the dorm moms
The next day we attended the middle school graduation in the morning. Il Ho was one of my first English students back when he was 9 years old. Now he is going into 10th grade.
Seung Hwan
Hae Ji, another original English student
With Young Oong and his younger sister Soo Ah
With the formerly super shy Jin So
Later that afternoon we attended the third and last high school graduation for Young Eun and Sun Ran. The kids tend to do wild things with their hair just before their high school graduation. The kids now call Young Eun: “Yellow head” in Korean.
With Sun Ran
The two girls with Pastor Chae
We are always blessed by him!
God bless!
Our 5th Arts and Crafts Camp Video
This year we had 46 girls from 7 different children homes along with 54 volunteers/staff participate in our fifth annual arts and crafts camp. The camp was for three days and each morning we had all the volunteers line up in front of the entrance to welcome the kids. They entered one-by-one to all the volunteers cheering and clapping on either side as their volunteer partner (the volunteer paired with them throughout the camp) would come to escort them to their seat. Most of the girls were super shy as they entered, but it was clear they were being blessed by the positive attention. Our volunteers gave their best efforts to love the kids, and each of the girls opened up in different ways. Some of them responded right away while others out of their own insecurities took some time before opening up. God was clearly working in each of them because at the end of the camp even the toughest girls were telling us that they definitely wanted to come back to the camp again.
I hope you are blessed by the video! Thank you to our friend Jensen who put it together for us!
Arts & Crafts from Jensen on Vimeo.
God bless!
So It Begins…
Yesterday my wife Sky preached at our church and shared her powerful testimony with them, the first time she has ever shared about her life so openly in front of people before. Her message was powerful, and I know this is the first of many times that she is going to preach and share her testimony and set many people free! I want to encourage you to listen to it… http://newphiladelphiachurch.com/home/index.php?option=com_newsfeeds&view=newsfeed&id=1&Itemid=105 (Sky Becker – True Healing and Deliverance).
She spoke everything so well. I would summarize it here, but I have nothing that needs to be added and the message is much better listened to than read.
I know in time my wife is going to be blogging and preaching just as much as me. So it begins… 
Why Journal?
When I first arrived in Korea I started a daily journal on my computer. At least once a week for my quiet time I would type up journal entries for each day of the past week. My Journal 2006 document is 249 pages of single spaced 12 point font journal entries. Seems excessive, right? Perhaps, but recently I was led to read through it all again bit by bit. As I read I was blessed by so many sweet stories of interacting with the kids and it also made me remember where I’ve come from as an inexperienced, English-speaking American to now a missionary of seven years in Korea. And what stood out to me the most were the spiritual lessons I had to learn that year. Some of those spiritual lessons I had actually forgotten over the years and had to relearn. If I had just reflected and read through my journal, I wouldn’t have had to go through those things again. Last, something else that blessed me from rereading the journal were the prophetic words, dreams, and stirrings that I had written about that year. Reading them again refreshed my heart and strengthened my faith to keep going.
Journaling is indeed Biblical. God commanded different prophets to write down the words He gave to them and they also wrote down their dreams as well. A lot of the Bible is actually journal entries from Moses and other scribes, priests, and kings. So often throughout Scripture God commands us to not forget what He has done in our lives. I don’t think people need to be as excessive as I was in 2006 in their journaling. But I strongly believe people need to periodically take time to reflect, at least once a month, in what God has been doing in their lives.
At the beginning of 2013 I was a bit discouraged as I reflected on 2012. I felt like I hadn’t accomplished much and that there hadn’t been much fruit. But then I felt prompted to go through my 2012 journal and to highlight things God had done throughout the year. And I was overwhelmed by all He had done! My attitude then shifted from discouraged to blessed and excited for the new year. I’m so thankful I had journaled!
I want to encourage you to take up journaling. Aim for once a week, or at least once a month. Write about what God has done and what you are thankful for. Write about what God has been stirring in your heart and teaching you. Write down any dreams, visions, or prophetic words you may have received. You won’t regret doing this!
Habakkuk 2:2 – And the Lord answered me, “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets…”
God bless!
Great Books to Read…
The following are books that I highly recommend. If you haven’t ready any of these, do your best to get them and read them sometime this year. I also put some North Korea books at the bottom…
Only Love Can Make a Miracle – Mahesh Chavda
The Heavenly Man – Paul Hattaway
The Vision (Final Quest/The Call) – Rick Joyner
The Torch and the Sword – Rick Joyner
God’s Smuggler – John and Elizabeth Sherrill
The Hiding Place – John and Elizabeth Sherrill
Visions Beyond the Veil – R.A. Baker
In God’s Underground – Richard Wurmbrand
The Harbinger – Jonathan Cahn
North Korea Titles
Nothing to Envy – Barbara Demick
Aquariums of Pyongyang – Kang Chol-Hwan
Escaping North Korea – Mike Kim
Escape From Camp 14 – Blaine Harden
Eyes of the Tailless Animals – Soon Ok Lee (by far the toughest to read because of its graphic description of the prison camps)
Something You Will Never Regret…
Years ago when I was 18 years old and a 1st year in college, I was challenged by my house church leader to read 4 chapters of the Bible a day. He set me in an accountability group with two other guys to make sure we all kept up with the reading. We started with the book of Isaiah and I barely understood anything as I read. There were so many cities and tribes and countries I didn’t know and I had trouble going deep with it because of my lack of Bible knowledge. I was discouraged at first, but then I felt it would be such a waste for me to read so much of the Bible and not get a single thing out of it. So I began to take notes… just one short sentence for each chapter of something that stood out to me. At first these notes were simple and very elementary. But soon, as I learned to pray and ask God for wisdom and inspiration before I would read, the notes became longer with more and more insight in them.
I’m now 30 years old and have read all of the Bible many times. I have never regretted a single minute that I invested in reading the Word. I have learned so much and can now teach from nearly every chapter in the Bible, but at the same time there is still so much for me to glean and receive from the Word. The Bible is truly endless in wisdom and revelation!
I want to encourage you to read all of the Bible in 2013. Here is a great reading plan you can use that I have used many times: http://www.navpress.com/uploadedFiles/BRP2.pdf. Even if you start a few days late, the reading plan has “catch-up” days to help you out. Do your best to keep up each day and try to never let yourself fall behind by more than three days. Find accountability as well if you can, because doing it with someone can help a lot. You will never regret this decision!
Psalm 119:105 – Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
Psalm 119:9 – How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.
Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
John 8:32 – Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
God bless!
Christmas Secret Angel
Since Christmas of 2007, every year Jubilee Church visits my children’s home to spend time with the kids and to give gifts to each and every one of them. My kids look forward to their visit every year.
This year I had the volunteers arrive at 11am to organize them, prepare them, and to pray together before starting the event with the kids at noon. But when I arrived a little before 11am I was surprised to see some of my kids come out to greet me with a new child. She had arrived the night before, Christmas Eve, a girl in third grade. I went into the office and asked her dorm mom about her and her dorm mom responded, “Could you please provide some clothes for her? She came last night with nothing and she is need of clothes.” Likely social services had found her and brought her to the home. On Christmas Eve.
I got all the volunteers together in the cafeteria and briefly prepped them before leaving them with another ministry staff member to quickly go find the girl some clothes. I drove into the town area but most of the places were closed for the holidays and I was told by other store owners I would have to go to large stores that were too far away. I prayed in my mind as I was driving, knowing I was crunched for time, and then saw a small kids clothes store out of the corner of my eye. It was one of the most random, tiny clothes stores, with no other stores around it. I was able to purchase some good clothes from there and get back just in time for the event.
The sponsors from Jubilee Church had all chipped in for a big lunch with the kids (fried chicken and pizza), and they happened to give just over the amount needed for the food. And that amount happened to be just the amount of money needed to buy the new girl some clothes as her gift for Christmas. I was blessed by how God provided. There is always enough! God knows. =)
Pictures of the event are on our Jerusalem Ministry Facebook page. You can see me giving her the bag of clothes among the photos.
God is good!
We Do a Good Job Here, John
In the summer of 2001 when I was 19 years old I worked as an electrician’s helper at a school being renovated. Our work was 6am – 2pm and I did a lot of grunt work: setting up outlets/electric boxes, bending pipes, running wire through those pipes, drilling through cement walls, etc. The work wasn’t easy and often just to get the work done I would do a “good enough” job… the pipes would be bent at just about 90 degrees, the wires weren’t arranged the tidiest but they were run across the ceilings and would work, etc. But whenever the head electrician would inspect my work, even when it looked “decent,” he would immediately point out every flaw to even the smallest detail and tell me to correct it, and then he would never fail to say, “We do a good job here, John.” (I don’t know why the electricians never got my name right, but one thing you learn as a young, grunt construction worker is that you don’t correct your boss =))
That phrase, “We do a good job here” stuck with me. In my immaturity and even laziness I had viewed the job as simply something to be done so that we could get a paycheck. But the best electricians were always proud of their work and would remember the jobs/places they had a part in establishing. Their work wasn’t so much about finishing jobs and getting paid, but was really about making places look great and work great. My motives, along with most of the other young, immature helpers, were selfish and only for my good. The motives of the best electricians were selfless and for the good of the community.
I was blessed yesterday by the message, “The Value of Work” by Alex Lim (www.newphilly.cc –> Media). It was a strong reminder to me that the work I do really isn’t about me, but is for the common good. I can’t lose that vision. I played a role in bringing electricity and light to that school that has been educating kids in that light for 11 years now. A couple months of paychecks can’t compare to that impact. And while some of our jobs may seem mundane, each in some way is impacting people. They are worthy of a greater effort than a purely selfish one.
Let’s do a good job while were here on earth! I know the Lord delights in such a heart…
Colossians 3:23 – Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord…
