Thursday, November 27, 2008

(D-64) On Thanksgiving Day 2008

In 2008, there are plenty of reasons to be thankful.

First of all, God has given my wife and me a conviction that He is leading us to Rwanda to serve the poor for His Kingdom for the tithing of my spiritual life. We made a trip to Rwanda in April and I made another trip in November. We have already shipped the household stuff and we are getting ready to go. Praise the Lord for giving us the opportunity of ministry!

(Left, our 2008 Thanksgiving Dinner Table)

Second, our daughter Amanda graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy. Now she is a commissioned officer, having shaken hands with the commander in chief of the United States of America! She is now in Texas for intelligence training. Thank God for His protection and guidance for the past four years.

Third, our daughter Joyce completed her third year of school and advanced to the senior year at U Penn. She continues to be on track to complete her study for two bachelor's degrees in four years. Thanks to God's guidance and protection!

Fourth, God allowed Project BGAN to continue its ministries. Project BGAN held two DMCs this year, one in Baltimore in February and the other in the Orange County, California in September. GO MDS led a medical mission team to Oaxaca, Mexico during the summer. Vision Praise continued to lead several praise events in Colorado. I thank God for His faithfulness and for fellow Kingdom workers, such as Min-Young Jung, Daniel Oh, Susanna Choi, Young Jae Song, Steve Park, Hyun Sik Chang, Chong Kim, Young Ki Min, and Daniel Pak.

Fifth, God kept my parents in Korea and my mother in law in New York healthy. Their health allows us to continue to be active in various ministries.

Sixth, God enabled me to continue memorizing bible verses. now totalling 186 verses to date. This daily routine keeps me in sync with God's words everyday and makes my life anchored to His words, not my own thoughts or earthly wisdom. Thank you, God, for enabling me to still memorize the bible verses!

Seventh, God continued to bless me with great messages from many wonderful servants of God. Rev. Min Song Ahn at NYPC, Min-Young Jung, Dr. Tim Keller, Dr. John McArthur. Praise the Lord for His faithful provision of such great preachers!

Eighth, God has provided Shinhan Bank America with many good people to be able to form a great team to weather the unprecedent global financial crisis. I cannot name them all here. Thank you, God, for your unceasing grace!

Nineth, the recent collapse in the stock market along with the global financial crisis made me realize our savings or investments are not dependable at all. It has humbled me further so that we can depend only on the Creator of all. Praise the Lord for His divine wisdom!

Tenth, God has kept me healthy and physically strong. He has enabled me to do my push-ups now up to 60 times continually and to do sit-downs up to 300 times. Physical strength is not the most important element, but is necessary to be able to carry out ministries effectively. Thank you, God, for your unceasing grace!

(From left, Sujin, my niece, Joyce, Kristin, Amanda, and James, Amanda's boyfriend. They are finishing up the food on the table.)

Well... I can go on with so many more, but it may get boring. To name a few more, so many new people I have met, Jean Paul of World Relief in Kenya, Rev. JP Im in Nairobi, Mokonen Getu of Oxford, U.K., Nancy Green of World Relief, Bruce Styvert of World Relief Canada, Roger Moore of Hope International, Colin McCormack of OI Africa, Christ Crane of OI US, Paul Kagame the president of Rwanda, Ji Young Rhee of M.O.M., Dale Dawson of Bridge2Rwanda, Adrian Merryman of OI Network, Bishop John Rucyahana, Phil Smith of World Relief Rwanda, etc. I am sure there are a lot more whom I have failed to mention here. Praise the Lord for all those people whom He is using to help advance His Kingdom in all walks of lives.

For this Thanksgiving Day, my wife came from Denver last week. Joyce came from Philadelphia yesterday. Amanda will arrive from Texas. Amanda's boyfriend James will arrive from Oklahoma. Sujin, my niece will join us from New York. My mother in law will join us from Queens, NY. We will have the Thanksgiving family reunion and dinner together. Halleluja for His wonderful grace!

Please pray that:

* we will humbly admit all things are in God's hands and all good things are God's blessings;
* we confess that our depravity may cause us to steal His credit on our feeble efforts; and
* we will remain grateful always for all things that are happening in our lives, no matter what the consequences may look like.

Thank you, Lord, for all things that occurred this year, good or bad, joyful or sorrowful, encouraging or discouraging, right or wrong, because you are the alpha and omega of all things. May your name be glorified now and forever! - Jeffrey

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