Arts and Crafts Camp 4.0… Pictures!

I wrote about the camp in my last entry.  Here are some pictures that my wonderful wife took during the camp! 

Oh, and if you are on Facebook, please type in “Jerusalem Ministry” for our fanpage and place “like” it for us.  Thanks! 

Opening the camp with prayer (Sun Hee from my home)

Hyo Bin… last year she had just arrived at her children’s home and it was so hard to get her to let us take a picture of her, but this camp she was all smiles!

Soo Ah and Seung Kyung with Soo Ah’s name plate

Little Eun Bin arrive at my children’s home just a couple months ago and was shy early in the camp (here she is with the pillow sheet she made), but after just the first day she was big smiles and by the end of the camp she could hardly contain her happiness (today, a week since the camp, she kept remarking about the camp and how fun it was)

One of the girls getting her nails done (nail art)

We also had face painting… this girl was so cute!

This girl wanted her whole face painted as a tiger…

Scary!!!

Volunteer Grace with her girl… they looked like sisters!

Hae Hyun with my wife Sky

Volunteer Joo with Soo Jeong and her gingerbread house/church

Soo Yun having fun making “cake pops”

The end result

Director Jee (she has directed 4 camps now!) explaining one of the projects the girls made (a Christmas Party Invitation)

Sky and I in front of the Wedding Invitation wall

With the girls from Geon Christian Children’s Home

All the kids and volunteers =D

God bless!

Simple Sounds, Beautiful Music

While listening to this track (click play in the white box above), it struck me how simple the music is for each instrument (just a few different notes per instrument), and yet how much the music builds as the number of instruments increase.  My last blog (aside from the picture update) was how beautiful music people can make as they come together in unity.  And it’s the truth, no matter how gifted or not the people are.  So many people want to have the giftings to make amazing music all by themselves.  But the truth is, no solo, no matter how complicated and ridiculous it is, can match the power of an orchestra.  Solos are neat, but they become empty and old pretty quick.  It’s when there are more instruments working in tempo and harmony that the music becomes full and powerful. 

During Jerusalem Ministry’s Arts and Crafts Camp the past few days we had about 42 volunteers and 36 girls gather together.  The girls, each paired with a volunteer, made different crafts each of the three days.  The volunteers were all faithful in encouraging their girls and building them up.  The notes were simple… encouragement, love, and smiles.  But with so many people collectively encouraging, loving, and smiling with the children, the sound was strong.  The girls, no matter how hard a shell that they had coming to the camp, couldn’t help but smile and laugh as the camp progressed.  They were like flowers blooming… some bloomed right away, while others took some more time… and all are beautiful. 

The camp itself was pretty simple.  But with so many people serving and loving, the results were powerful.  My girls were so happy the workers at my home all noticed and kept thanking me for taking them.  It’s interesting, our previous two camps had the same type of loving, sweet volunteers but were about half in total number.  I felt that although the love and the activities were similar from the previous camps, because there were simply more people at this camp the sound of the camp was much stronger.  The girls didn’t stand a chance to the love and there were beautiful shifts in each of them.  Praise God!

God bless!

Faith Room Pictures!

Here is the progression of a hug by Kang… almost like a football tackle… ^^

Tighter

Done!

Kyung Min hanging from my arm

Jung Ho

Hyun Bin and Min Ho

Jung Hyun

Kyung Min

The boys

I was making funny faces at them

With Jung Hyun

Young Min dorm dad with Kang

Kyung Min holding on tight

God bless!

Learning to Make Music For Love, Not For Selfishness

Last night Sky and I had some time of worship before praying together.  We are continuing to learn how to sing together.  My voice is a lot lower than hers, of course.  She plays the guitar for us and her pace is sometimes a bit different from how I am used to singing a song.  And so often it will take a verse or two before we are singing in harmony and at the same tempo, and even then we aren’t always confident/strong in our singing.  Last night we had some sweet moments while singing out, but we both know our singing together is going to get a lot better with time.  While we both sound good separately, once we get our harmony and tempo completely down our worship is going to sound so much more powerful together.

And so it is with marriage.  Two different melodies and tempos coming together.  It can sound like noise at times, especially early on, but as unity grows the music becomes amazing.  There is definitely sacrifice in the process, but the end result is true gold. 

Everyone knows the Beatles sounded best when Paul McCartney and John Lennon were together.  Their solo acts were nothing compared to their work together, even though there was friction at times between them.  I don’t think anyone would say Paul McCartney would have been better off making music alone, or that John Lennon would have been better off alone. 

What’s interesting is that more and more young people are preferring to make music alone, and the songs of selfishness are increasing.  Just yesterday on BBC news there was a video report of how more and more Japanese aren’t interested in relationships or even sex.  The root of the reasoning was selfishness… the interviewed Japanese young people (like many young people around the world now) said they preferred doing their own thing rather than sacrificing their future for relationship.  And as a result of this mindset, prostitution and pornography use are increasing because they are “quick and easy” outlets for gratification without a spouse. 

The truth is that Jesus Himself produced such a song in heaven that all the host of heaven sang with Him and He never needed us to join in.  But out of love, and for the increase of His glory, He came down and sacrificed His song for a time so that we too could know Him and accept Him and join in His song.  His sacrifice has released music all over the earth.  And as we live by His example of sacrifice, we too are readied to release beautiful music in our spouses, increasing the song of love around the world. 

Sacrifice is what makes the music so beautiful.  It’s as we adjust our melody and our tempo for others that we are able to join together in harmony and make the songs God so loves to listen to.

God bless!

Hope Room

I’ll now continue posting wonderful pictures taken by my friend Tanya.  These were from our visit to Hope Room, which is a girls room in our home that also has a couple toddler boys (too big for the baby room, too young to be in a boys room).  Enjoy the pictures!

Hae Hyun and Hee Sung

Hae Hyun, Soo Ah, Eun Ji, and Sun Hee

Soo Ah

Sun Hee

Eun Suh

Myung Soo and Soo Ah

Hee Sung and Hae Hyun

The Hope Room kids

Sun Hee and Soo Ah

Hee Sung

Soo Jung and Soo Ah

Hae Hyun and Hee Sung

Soo Ah one more time (she loves the camera^^)

God bless!

God’s Trust in Our Love

This past Sunday the pastor at my church gave a great message on phileo love (www.newphilly.cc).  Phileo is a greek word for love that is usually used for brothers/sisters/friends (Philadelphia = City of Brotherly Love).  A basis for phileo love is a liking of the other person, an affection for them.  God never tells us to phileo or enemies (“to like our enemies”), although he does tell us to agape them (“show unconditional love”).  In other words, while we are commanded to show the love of God to our enemies, we aren’t commanded to actually like them.  And my pastor brought it home with the beautiful message of John 16:27 where, in the initial Greek language, Jesus tells us that God has phileo love for us, in other words that God likes us. This is powerful to think about, because so often people feel God loves us just because He loves us, which is sweet as well, but can cause people to feel like they are just one of a billion people God loves.  But when God says He likes us, that means He likes us as individuals, all our traits both beautiful and not so beautiful.  He has made us unique, and He loves us for that.

I was dwelling on those thoughts this week and while in prayer I felt God tell me that when His people are able to walk in His phileo love He is able to entrust to us great ministries.  Most Christians will admit that they love most people out of obligation… they might like their friends (phileo love), but for the rest of the people in their church its more tolerance/obligation rather than joy and genuine affection.  But if we truly love as God loves us, then we will not just show the unconditional love, but we will also like one another like God likes us!  And when this happens, the church truly becomes the family of God… and not a dysfunctional, worldly family, but a joyful, heavenly family where there is full trust and full safety/security. 

When God sees such churches/ministries operating in such love and honor, how can He not be so proud of us?  Any father or mother has joy and pride when they see their children showing genuine love and affection to one another.  When children act in such ways, the parents are able to trust them more and more because they know their intentions are good.  And when the church acts in such ways, God is able to entrust us with far more anointing and influence because we won’t selfishly take advantage them.  We will use them to further grow in love for each other and for those who are added to us.  And thus the family of God can continue to increase. 

I feel that in 2012 the churches that are walking in such honor/unity/phileo love will receive rapid increase in anointing and influence in the community and area around them. 

God likes you!  Be blessed!  =)

Thank You Night 2011

The kids at the children’s home had their annual Thank You Night for sponsors/volunteers.  Sky, myself, and a few other friends attended to cheer on the kids.  They were super cute! 

The Shalom Room boys with their dorm dads

With dorm moms Hyun Ha, Kyoo Min, and Soo Jin

The baby room kids performing (we were in the nose bleeds^^)

The elementary girls doing a very cute, innocent dance to pop music

The high school kids performing sign language to a song

With Jin Hwa

With former volunteer Anna and her kids Do Kyoon and Hae Ran

With Eun Ji

Sky with Sun Hee

Kyung Jin dorm mom with some of her girls

High schooler Yoo Jin with Sky and Semy, who are so tiny compared to her =)

Cute cute

Soo Jin and Semy

All the kids and staff (I’m top left)!

God bless!