These burdens led my family and myself from Korea to Kenya, and eventually Australia.  Thankfully, the Lord has given me two elders who have big hearts and heavenly desires to serve the Lord, especially, in the area of missions.  The Hopefuls probably do not know that before I made up my mind to go to the UK a few years ago, two gracious and missions-minded elders of Hope Church made me an offer that I could serve as a pastor, while serving in the foreign mission fields as much as I could and desired.  I cannot be thankful enough to them for their mission mindedness.  Sadly for some years, Hope Church has been somewhat aloof from active missions’ work.  It is only in our memories that a few years ago the church sent out a short-term mission team to Cambodia.  Thankfully, Elder David has made personal efforts to visit a few places to revive our foreign missions and Elder Michael has been always passionate about missions work.

I am very grateful that the Lord has given Myung and myself an opportunity to visit an orphanage in  Bandung, Indonesia.  We have known sister Esther for more than thirty years.  However, as we have been busy with our own ministries, we have not met for many years.  We have heard about her from time to time, but have not had an opportunity to meet her in person for a long time.  Finally, we came to see her and visited her home with twenty two children.  It is amazing to see that she has been able to build a home for orphans (some without both parents, some with one parent who is not able to look after children, or in some cases some with parents who are not in position to take care of them).  She has been able to build two additional  buildings, one of them is going to be a kindergarten.  It will be partially opened next week, but fully open from next year.  She has one staff member living with the children.  All the children are given opportunities for education and music lessons.  They have daily devotions in the evenings.

I cannot but speak of their music talents.  They learn music by ear.  Some play piano, some violin, some cello, some viola, and some more than one.  Apart from piano lessons for three children, there is no regular music tuition.  They learn music by themselves, and they can play very well.  They praise the Lord with their music.  I am hoping to send you a video clip as an attachment by email.  A few children have grown up and are now university students.  They cannot live with other children because of the distance from their schools.  However, they often join others for Sunday worship at the home, after their regular church attendance.  If there are children in our church who are lazy in music practice, they must reconsider their attitude.  These children are given second hand instruments, and everyday they practice by themselves.  They are all friendly and delightful children.  One child, who is about 7 or 8 years old, has damaged both of his eardrums.  No one knows how he got hurt, but before he came to this home, he was in a bad condition.  Because of the discharge from his infected ears he was often bullied and a few times he was sent home from school because other students did not want him around.  Now, the infection is healed, but his hearing is not good.  At some stage, he will need an operation.  However, he has an angelic face and smile.  When he played the violin, his face brightened up with smiles.  I hope that you will come and meet him.  It was very hard to hide my tears from eyes of others.   

We took them out for special dinners.  They loved pizza and chicken.  So we went to Domino’s and then KFC.  Tonight I think I will take them to a hamburger place as a parting dinner.  The older ones look after younger ones.  Everyone has certain duties to do.  Some are able to speak English though their words are limited.  They raise a few dogs for security reasons.  The home has a van which provides much needed transportation, and I will not disclose how many can ride in this eight seat van.  They come and hold our hands.  While they are in school, we spent some time with our friend the missionary lady.  It has been really good to hear her experiences and faith-stories.  She surely has encouraged us very much.  

In our free time we visited University Maranatha, founded by sister Giok’s parents many years ago.  We were pleasantly surprised  to find that two buildings our missionary friend had built was just five minutes away on foot from Maranatha.  Myung and I stayed in one of the rooms in these buildings.  We were able to walk to the university .  There were many high rise buildings for classrooms, offices, and even canteens.  The canteens were especially fascinating to my eyes.  So I went in just to buy something to eat.  Literally hundreds of students were eating and studying there.  I was told that its medical school is quite reputable.  Apparently it has better equipment than other schools.  I believe that it celebrated its 50th anniversary last year.  

Seeing this school moved my heart very much.  I have heard about it from Elder David and his wife, Giok.  Now I saw it.  Probably, Giok’s parents did not know that this school would grow to this size in fifty years.  Both of them are not here on earth any more, but their legacy continues to go on.  This university is known as a Christian university.  They surely left their unforgettable spiritual legacy behind them.  I hope that through Elder David’s family, this spiritual legacy will be continued.  At the same time, it must be both encouragement and challenge to all of us.  What kind of spiritual legacy should we leave behind us?  Many of the Hopefuls are professionals and have financial resources to contribute to the Lord’s work.  If their goals are to save more and leave bigger chunk of monetary inheritance to their posterity, I’ll be sad and cry and cry.  There is no one who can serve God and money at the same time.  It is an unchangeable truth that our hearts are wherever our treasures are.  I must remind all of us of a truth in Ecclesiastes 11:1, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.”  Before we say that we cannot walk well, do not have strength to lift things up, and cannot see well, let us use everything we have for the Lord and His people.  Let us do it, if we truly believe that the world is not our home, and our home is in heaven.  I wish that your hearts are warmed up as mine.

Lovingly,
Your Pastor

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