Hello friends and family,
Jinha is such an easy going guy, sometimes I forget he’s there because he behaves so well… haven’t forgotten him anywhere, yet though. :) Jubilee is all about princesses now...we tried hard to shield her from Disney Princesses but we failed. Disney’s marketing geniuses are a forced to be reckoned with. So far she’s only dressed Jinha up as a princess once that I’m aware of.
- Maine Happenings
We’re excited to be re-joining our family of YWAM while I chisel away at studying. The short time I was at New England Bible College felt like an appetizer that really wet my appetite for studying the Word and awoke a passion for knowledge of God. I’m excited to cap off a two year degree through YWAM, and will continue to pray about how to develop that into a bachelors down the road.
Here in Maine we've really been so blessed to be a part of a church plant of some of our dearest friends with Redemption Hill Community. Bora and I have really been fortunate to work with some fantastic worship leaders and musicians from this church and will miss them dearly. We’ve been part of a smaller home group called a Missional Community that as of late has moved into our apartment for weekly gatherings. It’s been really essential for Bora and I to journey so closely to several families and individuals from our MC. It’s been a second family and we have really been blessed by the fellowship and the exhortation that goes on in our church family. Together we live life as a family of missional servants. Back in January during the coldest week of the year our church hosted a DTS outreach from Nashville. Outreach teams from out of state always bring fresh excitement and enthusiasm, I know our church and the Root Cellar ministry were really blessed by their coming.
My families’ ministry of Hope House that my parents founded has seen some really awesome fruit and relationships formed both with local community businesses and even with neighbors. This past Christmas Hope House distributed large gift boxes for 145 families that requested help for holiday gifts this year. It was a blessing to have a small part in arranging the boxes. It’s also been fun to see my parent’s vision for an international community garden realized. Over twenty 8’x4’ plots have been tilled and last week Jubilee and I were planting veggies alongside local Mainers, Somali and Congolese. It was a blast!
- Moving to Salem, OR
After skyping with YWAM Salem and praying with Bora for the past couple of months we are entering into a two year commitment with YWAM Salem, OR! Our roles will be in the area of discipleship training, worship and translation. We’ll be working with their Korean Discipleship Training School starting this September, Bora’s great translating skills will be of much help for the different guest speakers and corporate gatherings on campus. I will also be serving as staff while also continuing towards a degree part-time, currently enrolled in a two year Associates of Biblical Studies with the University of the Nations. In Salem they have an excellent Chronological Bible Core Course which I’d really love to take next year, in the off quarters I’ll be studying online.
YWAM Salem was founded over 35 years ago and currently has three active Discipleship Training Schools running. (DTS, Korean DTS and Engage DTS /social justice focus/) Salem has an outreach focus on nations including Russia, India, China, Thailand, Myanmar, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Morocco and Egypt. This is in addition to their regular local outreach into Oregon, their on-site public ropes course, and Mission Adventures that mobilizes and equips teens for short term missions. In addition to the DTS this location is an invaluable training center of the University if the Nations, offering about half a dozen secondary courses that include Biblical training, ESL and leadership training.
"From the first Discipleship Training School (DTS) pioneered in Sept. of 1978, we have seen remarkable growth, development of ministries, and many voluntary full-time workers who have been trained, equipped, and sent out. We have sent out teams to over sixty countries, resulting in over twenty new ministries being pioneered world-wide. From its very beginning, God has called YWAM Salem to be a training and sending base, which continues to be what we do best. Our desire as a base is to see, not just a “select few” involved in missions, but a vast array of people. We have about 80 full-time staff and 5 volunteers at any given time. For a large part of the year, we run the NIKO program and Ropes Course Training. The Mobile Team travels to churches, schools, special events, and universities both in America and abroad sharing our passion for world missions. Most of our energy pours into running high quality schools, focusing on equipping and then releasing people into the nations."
Taken from their website http://www.ywamsalem.org/about-ywam-salem/
We are honored and feel greatly privileged to be joining this community of missionaries for the next couple of years. We are excited to exercise our abilities and talents while we continue to learn and grow in a community who's core values are evangelism, training and mercy ministries. Please continue to pray for the Holy Spirit's leading of our family. Please consider taking our needs to your own church body and also please consider financially supporting us yourself!
Our family needs to have $1500 committed monthly support before joining as staff in September. We currently have 1/3 of what we need. Our extended stay in Maine meant that some past supporters were released and some discontinued in order to support other ministries with more immediate needs. Now we'll be asking individuals and churches again to begin supporting us monthly.
Our start up costs for this transition will be substantial since we'll be driving our car all the way across the country from Maine to Oregon. One time financial gifts of any size historically have been crucial for our family.
Please click here for information on how you can make a tax-deductible financial gift to our family.(tax receipts sent by request)
