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Volume. XXIV, No. 34 Letter From Pastor & Sis Myung Ki, LondonDear Hopefuls,
Psalm 136:26, “O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
It seems that we have been away from you for a very long time. At least we feel that way. Our emotional experiences have been both bitter and sweet for the last few months. It is bitter because it is difficult to leave you and familiar surroundings in Adelaide. It is sweet because Hope Church has grown up so well and so much so that she is ready to take more challenges for the kingdom of God with a new pastor and his family. Looking back, we are very thankful that the Lord has given us the privilege of getting to know you and serving the Lord together with you for more than a decade. The fact that we were so sad to leave is only a testimony that we have been loved by you so much, and that you have cared for us dearly and sincerely. We do thank you for your emails, letters, and cards since we came to London. We are assured that you have been praying for us.
We praise the Lord for His goodness to us by allowing us to be with our children during their school holidays. New Life BPC in Singapore was kind and gracious enough to provide the tickets for all of us to come to London. It was good to have them here, though it was hard to say goodbye to them at the Heathrow airport eventually. Going to the airport to see them off was sad, but coming back home without them was sadder. Our travelling has been good and timely, including a trip to Korea to meet Myung’s father near the end of his life. By the way, thank you for your condolence messages through emails and cards. Though we have not been able to say thank you individually, please accept our thanks. We do appreciate your care and concern. In the meanwhile, it was nice to see Lincoln in December in London.
Now there are just the two of us, and finally our goods from Adelaide were delivered to us. It was only a few days ago, two days after Samuel had left, that they came to us. Our initial plan was to use the boys for carrying boxes from the ground floor to the upstairs, but after all they did not see any one of those boxes. In a sense, finally we are settled in this new place. There is no noise in the house, and we do not have a child around us anymore. Finally, I (yes, I) am getting Myung’s attention (full, complete, and undivided), which was always given to the boys before. Whether you believe it or not, I am enjoying it.
We have noticed that there have been many sad events happening to many families in December and this January. Rev. McKenzie went to be with the Lord. Sister Siew Ling and her children must be in deep shock. Our hearts are going out to them. We do cry and pray for them. The Hornungs lost their twin babies, and Mrs. Hooper went to be with the Lord too. In the meantime, Aunty Susan Varadi has been unwell. Sister Susan Weng was in danger after childbirth. There were some people who had not been feeling well. We want to assure you that we have been praying for you every day without ceasing. There is no moment when we have not remembered you. We also thank and praise the Lord for our young people who graduated from secondary schools and were accepted by universities. We thank and praise the Lord for them. We thank the Lord for the birth of Joshua and the blessings of conceptions on Josephine and Bernadette. We pray for their safe pregnancies too. We were also delighted by the birth of Isabella. Since our boys left us, we have had both morning and evening devotions just between us, besides our individual prayer times. We do not forget your names in our prayers. Thank God for each and every one of you. We have heard that new families have joined the church. Praise the Lord for them too. Someday we will see them all.
The Lord has been gracious to us here in London. The congregation is small as you can imagine. However, we have found sweet fellowship with them. They have been kind to us in many ways. We do not have a Sunday School or choir yet, but hopefully someday we will be able to have them. Visitors come sometimes, though most of them are not from this region. It is difficult to have a mid-week meeting. Instead we have Saturday prayer and Bible study sessions at 4 pm. Slowly more people come and join us. We have both morning and evening services, and at least two thirds of the morning worshippers stay till the evening service. Between two services, we have Bible study and lunch. If we have about 30 people in the morning, then we will have about 20 plus people in the evening. There is a young people’s meeting on Fridays, but during school holidays they do not have meetings because most of them are overseas students and go home. I am going to teach them from the book of Philippians from two weeks from now. At the moment, I am busy with note preparations. I spend all my time in the office to prepare for teaching materials or sermon preparations. Though I spend more than 12 hours in the office, my preparations seem to be still lacking. Myung is as usual faithfully serving the Lord with her prayer ministry and hospitality ministry. She has pain in both of her wrists but cooks for young people coming to the prayer meeting on Saturdays. Thankfully, some people are coming to rescue her from cooking duties and willing to cook for us all, too.
We are looking through some Christian materials for distributions. We are thinking pf placing a table outside of the church and offering these Christian booklets to anyone who wants to take them. We think that we may need about 4000 pounds for the next two years. Just in case, if you are interested in this evangelistic outreach, you may make contributions toward it. Any amount of contribution will be appreciated. Of course, we will put out the table only when there is no rain. It is quite amazing to find that 6 out of 7 days are cloudy. Oh, by the way we had lots of snow in London. In fact, even this morning, there were small flurries. I thought Londoners were all gentlemen. That’s why they carried umbrellas. Guess what, I carry one of them, too! We rarely wear dress shoes, but sneakers. Maybe we will have to buy rain boots. In any rate, we are getting used to life here. Thank the Lord for that.
We are also grateful to the Session faithfully serving the Lord in Hope Church. We pray that the Lord will continue to use them and also raise more people to take up the leadership roles for the sake of God’s ministry in the future. We thank to all of you for your generous support and prayers for us. We trust that your kindness will be well rewarded in His kingdom. We are content and happy to be in the Lord. We spend much time reading the Bible and praying for people. The more we read and study the Scriptures, the more we find things we do not know. Surely, the wisdom of God is deep and immeasurable. It is an honour to be in His ministry. What a great and good God we are serving! Let us not forget that we ought to be united always in faith and doctrines. Please uphold your leaders, Pastor, Elder, and deacons in your prayers.
We wish you a happy and blessed Chinese New Year’s Day. May the Lord bless and comfort each and every one of you!
With thanks and praises,
Pastor and Sis Myung Ki
Address: New Life BPC, 44 Salusbury Road, London, NW6 6NN, United Kingdom
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