God's Grace to My Mother for 80 Years...

[My mom and dad looking happy..... Me, Kris, mom and dad at a beach... With a family(partial)]

We celebrated my mom's 80th birthday in Korea. My dad is now 86 years old. And they are still healthy and active. They still travel by themselves. My mother played pingpong and even soccer with my sister. She looked great! We praised the Lord for His overflowing grace upon her and my dad over the past 8 plus decades. What a wonderful life it is to live a long and healthy life!

We traveled together to Tae-an Peninsula and stayed there for three days. It was a wonderful time together. My mom and dad were both looking happy and we also enjoyed our time with much appreciation to the Lord and to them for being healthy.

Now, the next big celebration for our family is their 60th anniversary in 2013 and my dad's 90th birthday in 2014, Lord's willing.- Jeffrey

Pathways out of Poverty...

I was privileged to attend a week-long global leadership conference in Lancaster, PA hosted by HOPE International, a Christian microfinance ministry that operates in 14 countries. HOPE is one of the stakeholders of UOB.

The countries represented at the conference were Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Burundi, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Romania, Moldova, Philippines, China, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. where the home office, or Central Service Unit (CSU), as is called at HOPE International, is located.

All the discussion and presentation were informative and educational. The devotion time that was conducted through Crown Ministries' "God Provides" DVD series was blessing to all. Crown Ministries plan to translate the six DVDs into 26 languages. Kinyarwanda was not one of the priority languages, but we requested they include it in the priority list and they have agreed to do so in light of the high number of clients and of the expected impact on them. Praise the Lord!

We also watched a musical drama, titled "Psalms of David", that dramatized the lives of David and his psalms that left a lasting impact on the hearts of many people through music, from generations to generations, even today. The theatre, called "Living Waters", is featuring only biblical musicals. It alone was refreshingly encouraging to see such a theatre in this materialistic contemporary world. But the musical talents of the actors and actresses were quite impressive and inspirational.

On the same day, we also visited a new exhibit of the "poverty of the world" at the CSU in Lancaster, PA. This exhibit, called "Pathways out of Poverty" has been created to show the poverty of the world to those who were not quite ready to travel overseas to see the world's poverty. Shown in this blogpost are several photos taken from the exhibit. May you also be blessed and challenged by the mind-boggling reality of the world's poverty. - Jeffrey