(D-30) The last day of 2008 and with Shinhan...

Today is the last day of 2008, the year of unprecedented turmoils all over the globe. The year 2008 has been pretty rough. Almost everyone has been feeling the pain, a great pain, directly or indirectly. Some have lost their homes, some their jobs. Some have seen their retirement account cut in half, some even worse. Some corporations have gone extinct while some countries barely struggle for existence. Banks have got into trouble with their liquidity and their asset quality. The fate of companies is no different. Even Toyota, one of the world's best run companies, is reporting a loss for the first time in 70 years. Real estate values have plummeted and people have seen their wealth shrink unbearably. Ah... Deep sigh. Pains in the chest...

But soon this year of many pains will be flipped over into the past. What a blessing... what a relief... It is indeed a great blessing that we can put such pains, at least the memories of them, into our past by flipping into a new year.

Starting a new year with different expectation and new hope is a tremendous blessing. It is like deep inhale of fresh air into our chest. What a relief... What a new momentum to star anew...

At this year's end, I face another reality of the end and a new beginning. Today was my last day with Shinhan Bank America. It has been planned and in the making for quite some time, and this departure was my initiative. Nonetheless, it gives me a mixed feeling because I have to leave an organization for which I have worked for the past four and half years with the 120% of my efforts poured into it. Some sadness I cannot deny, but I always look forward to the future and the new life that God has bestowed upon me and my wife in 2009. So I can smile and say, "I am content with and grateful for what God allowed me to do with Shinhan."

Soon I will head out to attend the New Year's Eve worship to thank God for His overflowing grace in 2008 and to pray for His unceasing faithfulness in 2009. It always gives me a refreshing comfort and relief to be in the house of worship when I start a brand new year. It is also a renewed time to rededicate my life to Him and for His Kingdom. He is good, really good and all the time. Amen!

Please pray that:

* we all may thank God for His abundant grace that I have enjoyed during my tenure with Shinhan Bank America;

* we all may pass the 2008's pains into the past and hopefully forget them as the year is going away; and

* we all may experience God's Shalom in 2009 with great expectations no matter how things may turn out to be beause He is soverein and reigns over the universe.

Praise the Lord for His goodness revealed to us all the time. - Jeffrey