Visit to Faith Room

Usually on Wednesday nights after our Wednesday night church service I will visit one of the kids’ rooms and bring chips and homemade chip dip (the famous wolf dip, for those who have had it).  Sometimes I’ll also bring Attack Uno or another board game, but on this night my schedule was tight because of vocab tests I had to give and boys basketball practice I had to lead (9:30pm – 11pm every weekday night).  Here are some pics from the brief visit…

Kids eating chips and dip…

Sun Jae

Myung Bae

Ji Hoon

Joon Hyuk

Dal Woo

Group Shot, Jung Ho on the right

Min Je and Soo Hoon, playing it cool

Yoo Min ruining the coolness

Sa Rang dorm father with Jung Ho (Myung Bae behind them)

Sa Rang’s name means “Love.”  He is one of the two dorm fathers who live with me in the apartment in the home.  He was a worship leader at his church before coming to our home.  Goofy fun guy.  I like Myung Bae in the background of this pic…

Faith Room’s awesome VCR… somehow this thing still works… 

And now the goofy pics… Sun Jae and Ji Hoon

Dal Woo and Myung Bae

Group shot

My favorite of the goofy pics…

God bless!

Something to Confess…

Some of my kids at my home are a bit more difficult than others.  The most difficult kids are the ones who refuse to admit they are in the wrong and instead make excuses or blame other people.  After they disobey their dorm mother will confront them and lecture them, but they will argue back, complain through their punishment, and then move on and likely disobey again.   The problem is, a lot of these kids are really sensitive, so even when they are being lectured for their wrong they interpret their dorm mother’s frustration into meaning the dorm mom hates them.  Its a wicked cycle… more disobedience, more excuses, more frustration for the dorm mom, and more scarring for the kids. 

I’ve noticed the same though with people in their walk with God.  When they face the consequences of their sins, rather then confessing and repenting and running into the arms of their loving God, they instead try to hide or bury their sin and often will make excuses or deny their wrong.  For some, they then become bitter before God because they aren’t receiving His blessings.  What they don’t realize is their unconfessed sin is always before God.  Jeremiah 2:22 says, “The stain of your guilt is still before me.”  Jeremiah 5:25 says, “Your wrongdoings have kept these (blessings) away.”

What we all have to understand is the most important step after disobeying is acknowledging we did wrong.  Recently I told one of the kids who has gotten in a lot of trouble but is also very sensitive… when you mess up, you need to: confess, apologize (repent), ask for forgiveness, and promise not to do it again.  The steps aren’t hard.  And you know what?  After sharing with this child how much her dorm mother loves her and teaching her the simple steps of repentance, the child has been doing a whole lot better.  Confession is powerful. 

Jeremiah 3:12-13 – “‘Return… I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever.  Only acknowledge your guilt.’” 

The Pictures of Min Shik…

Min Shik is one the funnier kids at our home.  He recently borrowed my camera and had some fun taking pictures of different kids here.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I do…

Min Shik, the boy himself…

Here comes Jae

Noooooo Jae!

Poor Jae…

Jung Ho

Goofy Jung Hyun…

Won Bin

Min Shik gets clever here… this is Kee Baek

Ji Won

Ye Rang and Kyung Hwan… in the next few pictures playing the roles of Dumb and Dumber

Nice

Punch to the gut…

Uppercut

Double kick?

Very nice…

Kyung Soo joins the madness

Hope you enjoyed the pics of my goofy kids!  God bless! 

Satan’s “Power”

So many people out there are stuck in sin and defeated.  Fear, shame, sexual bondage, envy, anger, depression, and other sins are rampant.  Even after people confess their sins openly and receive counseling and initial deliverance, some are still weak in their confidence of God reigning within them so when past temptation returns to them, they quickly crumble and fall back into what they were just freed of (Luke 11:24-26).  They give up and believe the lie that Satan and his temptations are too powerful for them. 

What we must understand is that the only power Satan has is the power that we give him.  Jesus has already overcome him for us (John 16:33, Matthew 28:18) and the Spirit of Jesus lives within us (1John 4:4).  God has promised that no attack of the Enemy will prosper or be too great for us (Isaiah 54:17, 1Corinthians 10:13) and God has equipped us with weapons to demolish spiritual strongholds (2Corinthians 10:3-5).  Colossians 3:3 says that we already died to sin (also Romans 6:11)!!!  If all this Scripture is true (which it is), then why are so many people still under bondage?

Lets look again at some of the common ways Satan binds people… fear, shame, sexual bondage (lust), envy, anger, depression.  Notice that all of those sins first begin with the mind.  For most of them we don’t even have to act on for them to become bondage.  If you keep thinking depressing thoughts, you will likely become a depressed person.  Christians have to understand that Satan’s only way in is through our mind.  The only way he can get any “power” over us is when we entertain the thoughts he tries to plant in our mind.  So how do overcome him? 

Hebrews 12:2 – Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 

Colossians 3:2 – Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.

Psalm 119:11 – I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. 

We have to understand that our victory against sin and Satan is not through our own flesh, its through God’s power alive within us.  When we fix our eyes on God, Satan can’t get in.  Rather then focusing on the world and its temptations and evils, we instead focus on the One who has overcome and the One who loves us, is with us, and gives us victory.  When temptation comes, we refute it with the Word of God and then turn to praising our God.  Its in Him we find peace (Philippians 4:6-7). 

John 8:32 – Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. 

Happy Chooseok!!! (Happy Korean Thanksgiving)

Yesterday the kids and staff worked throughout the day cooking/preparing the traditional dishes for the thanksgiving meal.  Sadly, no turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, or pumpkin pie was involved.    Here are some pics of the kids doing their thing…

Jin Seul and Young Eun cooking up some “chun” (fried fish)

Yummy… I enjoyed “inspecting” their work

Eun Ji with her hand caked in flour

Hae Ji and her mustache

It was still morning, so most of the girls weren’t interested in having their picture taken, but here is a group shot of some of them at work

Hyun Hee, Se Bin, and Hyun Woo

After some complaining by the dorm mothers of me “inspecting” the food too much and not working enough, I sat down with Ha Hyun and sliced open chili peppers and took the spicy seeds out

Bowl of spiciness…

And you thought I couldn’t handle the spicy food…

The girls’ finished work… we had trays and trays of this stuff, but with 80 kids and a number of staff the food disappears in seconds

In the afternoon it was time to make these weird little things of rice cake with beans or raisins or other little things sealed inside… here Il Ho and Min Shik are focused on their work

The ingredients… for this table they put beans in the middle… yum yum

The process… I’m not sure what was put in here…

Seung Hwan with a well made thingamajig… I probably should have asked them the name of the thing we were making…

Jina doing well to pose for the camera

Me struggling to make my rice cake seal around the beans and not look too ugly… I failed

Soo Yun and Eun Ji at work… Young Eun watching me struggle

Soo Hoon struggled too and that made me feel better… his thingamajig refused to seal up

Dal Woo gave up trying to make the thingamjigs and instead decided to make his own creations, this is either a snake or an alien…

God bless!

The World is Going to Hell…

Last Saturday I went to the Seoul IMAX theater to watch Dark Knight and before the movie there were a few commercials.  During one of the commercials two cartoon potato chips were acting in various movie genres (mystery, comedy, action…) and then the genre “erotic” came up and the two chips literally jumped on a bed and went at each other.  The clip was only a couple seconds, but it shocked and disturbed me.  Then after the movie I walked outside to a pavilion and saw a bunch of giant whiskey bottle mascots dancing goofily on a stage.  Parents with their kids were gathered and laughing and taking pictures of them.  The mascots were funny, but giant whiskey bottle mascots advertising their whiskey?  In the mid-afternoon and for children?  Then I come home and some of my boys are watching some Japanese cartoon show about these wizard masters who use sorcery to summon these “demon doll children” who fight each other.  And not only do they fight, there is also blood and death.  And this cartoon isn’t the only of its kind, there are many other similar ones.

I know this stuff isn’t going to get any better.  I’m not depressed, its just reality.  In one of Youth Pastor Joel Stockstill’s recent messages he shared how the “pizza night” evangelism doesn’t cut it anymore.  The world has gotten too dark.  We need the power of God now.  We have to really start seeking and obeying.  Now we don’t just need a Bible in our house, we need it written in our hearts.  Now we don’t just need to pray at church, we need to pray continually.  We don’t need to just confess that we are sinners quietly to God, we need to confess our sins openly to one another and receive healing (James 5:16).  Thankfully this battle isn’t won by our own flesh.  Its won by the Holy Spirit working through us.  When we seek Him in prayer, His Word, and fellowship, He not only gives us strength but He gives us victory, joy, and freedom.  He satisfies us in ways this world never could.  God promises that amidst the darkness He will make His church all the more brighter, and I’m excited about it.  It might be tough, but I know its worth it!  Take the world but give me Jesus! 

Psalm 119:32 – I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.

An old picture of my dad and my older sister Katie.  My dad was 27 at the time.  My sister was 3. 

A picture of Da Heen and me.  I’m 26.  Da Heen is 3.

Inner Healing

Lately God has been making more and more clear to me that He doesn’t just want to be the God our present or the God of our future, He also wants to be the God of our past.  He doesn’t just want to reign in our hearts now, He also wants to reign in all our memories.  He doesn’t just want to take the sins that we commit now, but also the sins of our past.  He doesn’t want to just protect us and help us through current trauma, He wants to take the poison out of the trauma in our pasts and fill the void with His presence. 

I watch my children and can sometimes see some of the darkness/hurts hidden within them from their pasts.  I know that even if they accept Christ, turn from sin and live holy lives that the darkness/hurts won’t go away.  They might be buried for the most part, but the scars will still remain.  I know God doesn’t want them to carry them.  God doesn’t want us to be only partly healed.  He came that we may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10).  Jesus died for our iniquity (Isaiah 53:5), which includes all the consequences of sin, both the consequences of sins we commit and the consequences of sins committed against us. 

Psalm 139:12 says, “Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”  Its when we open our hearts, confess the hurt and remember the trauma, that God calls us to forgive those who hurt us and to invite Him into the memory.  Let Jesus in.  Let Jesus reign.  He was there in all our darkness.  Only He can bring that darkness to light and bring complete healing.  Its His presence that brings life.