Angang Youngrak Farewell

One of the cool things about teaching in Korea is that preaching opportunities are rather easy to come by. During my time in the Chicago area, I yearned to preach at least 5-6 times a year. However, over a four-year period, I was only asked to do that on four occasions. Scheduling conflicts kept me from taking advantage of two of the opportunities, and the times I got to proclaim God's Word (in March '02 and January '05) were far apart from each other. As you can imagine, I felt "rusty" about my own preaching ability after the Chicago experience.

It was to my great surprise that a deacon here basically begged me to begin preaching on a weekly basis back in February '05. I wasn't comfortable doing that, though I've periodically preached in two of the foreign language services at his church since the summer of '05. In doing so, I've sensed God grow me and plant me deeper in His Word.

Last fall, I was asked to preach on a biweekly basis at the Angang Youngrak English service in rural Angang, South Korea. I'd preached there before, but wanted to help them more regularly over the past six months. This was a good experience, and I'm grateful to God for it. (I'm pictured with Deacon Hwang and Deacon Oh above.)

This winter, I really sensed our Lord wanted me to be involved with more intentional ministry during 2008. Preaching to a congregation of mostly children isn't necessarily a bad thing, though my heart's desire is to invest in those who understand what I'm sharing. I hope to preach more (with translation) at the Mongolian service here, as a number of folks there are just learning about Jesus. Also, Gana and I hope to begin an evangelistic student outreach to folks here within the next few weeks. Please pray that God will be glorified through all we do.