Rwandan Wedding...

Kamari and Alida in Mushanan

Rwanda is a small country in the heart of Africa, the size of the state of Maryland in the U.S. Its terrain is mountainous with thousand hills. So Rwanda is called the Land of Thousand Hills.

Rwandans value their marriage. It is a holy matrimony and people spend a lot of time for planning and significant amount of money for wedding.

Rwandan wedding has three ceremonies. They are traditional, religious and civil wedding ceremonies. "Wow"... you may say. And it is indeed "Wow!"

Traditional wedding is done with the bride, the groom and their families wearing traditional clothes, called mushanan. Traditional wedding involves mutual introduction and dowry giving. Dowry is given in  the form of cow. Cow? Yes. The number of cows determines how much the bride is valued. Of course, people living in the urban areas may give the dowry in money but equivalent to the price of the number of cows the groom gives to the bride's parents. There are a lot more steps and philosophy built into this ceremony and if you want to learn more, click here  This blog will give you detailed steps involved in the Rwandan wedding process.

Religious and civil wedding ceremonies are many times combined. It was interesting to find out that the bride and the groom were seated along with their bride mate and the best man facing the crowd.

After the religious and civil wedding ceremonies, a reception follows. Reception is filled with music and dancing.

Yes, it is costly and is a huge barrier to the poor people. It is a good custom but creates a tremendous burden for a lot of people.

Two of UOB staff got married after a long "obvious" but secret dates. I am supposed to be a father figure for them. I attended their church wedding but borrowed some photos of their traditional wedding to show you what the wedding looked like. Congratulations, Kamari and Alida! - Jeffrey

Faith, Family and Friends....

George Bush Senior, a former president of the U.S. once said that what he would consider most valuable in life are 3 F's. They are Faith, Family and Friends. I agree. Wholeheartedly.

They all have one thing in common. It is relationship.

Faith is for the right and restored relationship with the creator God and His Son, our Savior. Faith defines our spiritual identity that transcends this life on earth into eternity. This identity is defined not through how much we own, but through who we are. It is the spiritual foundation.

Family is for the basic relationship that defines our human identity on earth. Upwards. Downwards. Side-wards. Family is where we can taste the heaven. Love, caring, sharing, understanding, patience, growth, encouragement, happiness, unity in diversity. Family also includes the covenant family: the church.

Friends are for the basic relationship that defines our social identity. Friends are in upstream, downstream and parallel stream. Also, friends can be in deep relationship or shallow acquaintance. Friends listen, understand, encourage, guide, advise, share, laugh, weep together.

Faith, family and friends are all relational. Relationship is invisible. Relationship thus does not grow externally. It grows internally. It grows mature.

Mature faith deepens the relationship with God.
Mature relationship with family evidences deep care and patient love.
Mature relationship with friends grows into seasoned understanding and willing sacrifice.

Come to think of it, Jesus Christ is the only being who meets all three.

He is God and requires faith of us to establish the relationship.
He enabled us to be adopted into God's family through our faith in His redemptive cross.
He declared that he would call us His friends and willingly sacrificed His life to cleanse our sins on our behalf.

The more clear reason why I should love Him more and more. May my faith in Jesus, my family life through Jesus and my friendship with Jesus grow more mature everyday! - Jeffrey

Ministry Updates - May 2013

Dear family, friends and fellow Kingdom workers

May was a month of many travels for us. When we returned to Rwanda, personally I have taken 22 flights all together over 40,000 miles, having attended two conferences and spoken on seven occasions. We are grateful for God's travel mercy because we have been kept safe and healthy throughout the journey.

Nonetheless, God was never idle but always at work. The following were the highlights of His work through us.:

1. UOB held its quarterly board meeting on May 30 and 31. UOB is blessed with godly and professional members of the board, who tirelessly work together in great fellowship and with independent thinking.

2. mHose, UOB's mobile banking platform, has picked up its pace of the launch. Now UOB has signed up 20 agents and more than 1,600 clients for mHose that is using mVISA transaction engine. As mVISA signs up more bank clients, its outreach will only grow faster. Along with mHose launch, UOB has been distributing UOB Grace cards to clients. So far almost 20,000 clients have received the cards. They will become an integral part of UOB's Client Service Points strategy.

3. UOB has finally signed a $650,000 grant agreement with International Finance Corporation (IFC) in May. This funding will be used to expand the mHose agent network.

4. Opportunity International Germany has been successful in obtaining approval for an Euro175,000 grant to UOB. This will be used to expand UOB's Education Finance program. Praise the Lord who provides all resources!

5. UOB signed an agreement with Opportunity International Canada Foundation to receive a local currency funding equivalent to USD538,000 in the form of convertible term deposit. This funding is from Master Card Foundation and will be used for rural savings, access points and agricultural finance. The convertible term deposit is a new form of funding we are trying for the first time, which is expected to help comply with the central bank's requirement on the loan to deposit ratio. I am grateful to God for OI Canada's open-minded willingness to help.

6. UOB has formed a task force to work on the bank's migration of its core banking system into T24 R10 model bank scheduled for August 2013. This task force is meeting regularly to clean up data and do the preparatory work prior to the migration. Once the migration is complete, UOB will strengthen its core banking service efficiency and security. Moreover, UOB will be ready for the cloud computing when it is implemented.

7. Jeffrey attended HOPE Leadership Summit in Lancaster PA. HOPE is one of UOB's shareholders and this was his fourth attendance. In addition to worship, praise, vision sharing, business discussion and fellowship, it was one of highlights to watch the Christian musical "Noah" at the Millennium Theater.

8. Jeffrey preached during the worship service at Jubilee Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and held a special session about Business as Mission and UOB ministry after the service. Moreover, I had the joy of fellowship with Pastor Steve and his wife Mona, another couple Insoo and Sarah Kang, and elders of the church.

9. Jeffrey taught a class for two whole day sessions at Institute for Biblical Community Development, Siloam Springs, AR. The class was a size of twenty people from 13 nations who were attending a generalist training session at the Center for Integral Mission. The topics that I taught were Good Steward's Financial Management and Holistic Transformational Development through Christian Micro Finance. It was a blessing to me.

10. Shalom Bible Study (SBS) resumed on May 31 after a six week break for us. But the SBS continued their meetings during our absence, which was a great encouragement to us. Two brothers have newly joined. For the next several months, we will study together the Book of Hebrews. May the study shape and mold us to be stronger and better prepared disciples of Jesus.

11. Kristin and I traveled to Ecuador for 12 days as part of our 30th anniversary celebration. The travel was filled with fascinating findings of the country's rich culture, beautiful colors, temperate climate and affordable cost of living. It was a time of rest and reflection also. We also had great joy of seeing our old friends in New York (both), Los Angeles (Kristin), Philadelphia (Jeffrey), Siloam Springs (Jeffrey). It is always encouraging and uplifting to fellowship with them.

12. Family News Update:  

• Kristin and I had a reunion in New York with our younger daughter Joyce who has been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal Africa for the past one year. The time was short but sweet. We plan to visit her in December this year. 
• Amanda, our older daughter, separated from her service with US Air Force as captain in May. We celebrated God's faithful grace over her nine years of military life, including four years of study at the US Air Force Academy. She will follow her husband for a while until they settle down in Florida next year.
• Jeffrey's father has shown significant improvements over the past few months. Praise the Lord!
• Kristin's mother has continued deteriorating her health. When we visited her in New York, she did not recognize us. It was a sad moment but we prayed for God's transcending peace over her heart, mind and soul.

13. Prayer Requests:

• Rwanda is still recovering from the adverse macroeconomic impact related to reduced or suspended foreign aid into the country. The aid started flowing in again but the impact is yet to be seen and felt. Meanwhile, it is the poor who suffer most. Please pray with us for quick and complete recovery.
• Please pray for continued successful expansion of the client service point (CSP) strategy, including mHose and Grace cards. This would only enhance the client access to various financial services.
• Please pray for continued expansion of holistic life improvement (HLI) training for clients through our field staff. The pace of training has expanded significantly from 2012 now to more than 23,000 clients getting the training a month. Also, pray for the fuller scale implementation of 5W for more effective standardization of group meeting methodology. 
• Please pray for careful and considerate pilot testing on holistic community development (HCD) project in Rwamagana. We would need to work with many stakeholders and effective collaboration will be a must for successful implementation of WAHEHE (Water/Sanitation/Hygiene, Agriculture, Health, Education, Housing and Energy)
• Please pray for thorough preparation to achieve seamless migration to T24 R10 model bank. This migration will be essential to take the bank to the next level.
• Please pray for fruitful outcome of Edu Finance program and Agricultural Finance program, particularly in conjunction with DFID ifE grant and now OI Germany's support. 
• Please pray for God's grace and mercy over our heart and mind so that we may not neglect our relational duties because of too many ministries. 

As always, we celebrate and rejoice with you in the good and faithful Lord who has been gracious to us with overflowing abundance. We greatly appreciate your standing with us through your prayer and support.

Gratefully in His service,

Jeffrey and Kristin Lee from Kigali, Rwanda 

Institute for Biblical Community Development (IBCD)...

Dr. Kim with 2013 students and their products

Institute for Biblical Community Development (IBCD) was founded in Siloam Springs AR by Dr. Young-Gurl Kim, a mechanical engineer. He used to be a professor at John Brown University and thus IBCD was and still is housed on the JBU's campus. IBCD used to be part of JBU, but now it is independent but collaborates on certain areas.

A tractor made at IBCD

IBCD's mission is to equip mission field and international development workers with biblical principles and values so that His Kingdom may be advanced through the development and promotion of biblical communities.

IBCD has established Center for Integral Mission nearby, physically in Oklahoma. This CIM is on a land of 76 acres and has dormitories for men and women, kitchen, dining area, library, lecture hall, green houses, lab facilities for appropriate technology.

Mud stove

Vegetables growing in winter

This year, I had a privilege of teaching for two days in IBCD's 4-week long generalist training. My teaching was about Good Steward's Financial Management for one day and Holistic Transformational Development for the other day. These topics focused on developing and managing business as mission (BAM) effectively. This year's generalist training had 20 students from 13 countries. Some were students from JBU, but most of them were field workers and missionaries ministering in Uganda, Niger, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Zambia, Thailand etc.

Another tractor

It was a relaxing time in a sense the CIM was located in a serene place where there was no telephone connectivity with a lot of green and water, but it was a rigorous time because I had to teach for two whole days in a row particularly at the tail end of my 6-week travel. But with God's grace, I was blessed and inspired by their ministries and also by the truth that was revealed through the teaching. Students made solar cooker, water pump and learned about many aspects of using appropriate technology in helping the developing countries redeem themselves through appropriate and thus sustainable technology in developing various solutions to their life challenges.

Cement stove

Another tractor

They make cement cooking stoves, mud stoves, solar cookers, solar dryers, water filters using sands and gravels, water pumps, even simple vehicles. In making these appropriate technology solutions, there are a few factors that are very important. They are affordability, sustainability and environmentally friendliness. The price has to be low. The nationals should be able to find the parts and components so they they can sustain the solutions without depending on external aid. Also, they should be environmentally sensitive and thus friendly.

Dr. Young Kim explaing about a tractor he made

I saw a few tractors that have been made at IBCD and each of them would cost approximately $1,000. They looked very functional to me. Also cement stoves would cost $20-25 and can last for several years. Solar cookers were very handy and they would cost only a few dollars. But all these solutions are based on the basic Kingdom principles of restoring to the Creator God the broken relationships, including relationships with the environment or God's creation, as a result of the original sin. This restoring process is redemption in Christ Jesus. Thus, it is transformational development and in itself is based on Shalom. What a wonderful testimony of God's plan for restoring and completing the Shalom that existed before the Fall.

One of buildings at Center for Integral Mission

Dr. Kim is a friend of mine. We were involved in Integral Mission Alliance together. He is a man of God, who desires to see Thy Kingdom Come and Thy Will Be Done on earth as in heaven.

Devotion time

Dr. Kim is also a pastor shepherding Open Door Baptist Church in Siloam Springs. She dreams to build a biblical community by integrating the church, the training and research and businesses together through developments. What a noble approach!

During my class

Mrs. Kim and a staff serving meals for all

Mrs. Kim is a poet and also a psychology consultant. She writes books and takes care of Korean ministry at IBCD. She is a humble sister in Christ who loves to serve God's people in any capacity. While the training is in session, she provides three meals a day with the help of a few other sisters and staff. The meals were delicious and wonderful. We all thoroughly enjoyed  the foods.

On the way back, I reflected on what I saw and heard at IBCD, and prayed that God will build more Kingdom-centered people of God to help advance His Kingdom on earth until the Lord returns.

Dr. Kim and 2013 students with their products

A dryer using solar entergy

Here are some photos that exhibit what they were learning and getting trained upon. I prayed for God's continued blessings upon IBCD, CIM and Open Door Church where Dr. Kim is also pastoring. - Jeffrey

HOPE Leadership Summit May 2013...

HOPE International is one of Christian organizations that focus on helping develop micro enterprises by providing Christ-focused micro finance. HOPE has HOPE-led MFIs and partner MFIs in 16 countries. UOB is one of HOPE's partner MFIs.

HOPE has been holding the leadership summit by inviting the MDs or CEOs of all MFIs that are part of HOPE network and I have been attending this summit for the past four years, including this year. The summit takes place at the Welcoming Center of Mennonite Central Committee in Lancaster PA. Mennonites are exemplary people of God who exhibit their incarnational principles in their ministries and walks of faith. One aspect that I admire a lot is the way they share the gospel. They prefer to focusing on building relationship first than sharing the gospel in words. Their logo portrays it well.

Peter Greer, CEO

One of the most beneficial sessions to me is the sessions about spiritual integration that is coming from strong commitment to achieving holistic transformation among MFIs and their clients in the name of spiritual integration. This year, HOPE has introduced HOPE Quotient that is the first endeavor to measuring the impact of Christ-centered micro finance on clients. Once it is measured regularly over a few years, this could provide some indications of changes that take place in the lives of clients. It was appealing to me because it does not suggest to be one for all solution. Rather it admits the limitations and attempts to supplement it with focus groups, tangible metrics and MPI (multiple poverty index). This would in effect triangulate to a conclusion about an impact assessment which will likely lower the probability of mistakes on the impact assessment. UOB volunteered to be on the pilot program.

One of Panel Sessions

HOPE also held a fund-raising gala dinner, namely Celebrating HOPE, with current and prospective supporters of HOPE. This year's event drew approximately 500 people, the largest ever in HOPE's history. In this event, Thurman Award is given to a client that has exhibited the most inspirational transformation story. This year, the award went to a Philippino client through a partner MFI, CCT. HOPE also gives out a Honorable Mention award to one client for each continent where HOPE network MFIs are operating. This year, UOB's client, Antoinette received this Honorable Mention award. On her behalf, I had the privilege of receiving the award.

Celebrating HOPE

One of group sessions

Antoinette borrowed $50 in 2002. Now she is able to manage a $15,000 loan from UOB. Over the past one decade, Antoinette developed her tomato re-sale business to three different businesses, including wedding rental, grocery and wholesale business, and now hires eight employees. Also, she has adopted one child in addition to her own three children. In addition, she is taking care of her widowed sister and her own two children. She actively supports her community's public work such as road, bridge construction projects. Over the past decade, she bought her own home and a car as well. But this would represent only an economic improvement without spiritual transformation. She has met Jesus in person  through UOB's service for her and she has actively helped out other entrepreneurs with business management as well as sharing the gospel to them. Winning souls to Jesus is priceless and this would represent an infinite return on investments.
In the past, two UOB clients received this honorable Thurman Award back to back for two years.

Throughout the Leadership Summit, all people from all over the world gathered together to worship together,  witness how God is working in their individual, family and ministry lives, and learn the best practices from each other. It was a great encouragement to see people of God working tirelessly all over the world with strong commitment to serving the Lord.

Mennonites Logo

Noah the Musical

One of the highlights of HOPE's leadership summit is watching a musical at the Millennium Theater. It is a Christian theater where only bible characters are portrayed through a full-scale musical, which is even bigger than the Broadway shows in New York. This year, the musical was about Noah. At one point, the entire theater including the hall turns into the inside of the ark. It was a fascinating and panoramic scene. Wow... The past musicals that I have watched were "Psalms of David" "Joseph" and "Jonah" all of which were wonderful. The last scenes of each musical portrays Jesus who died on the cross to save whosoever believes in Him.and rose to be the first fruit of all resurrections to come. What a wonderful message it is! I was blessed and inspired. - Jeffrey

Jubilee Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia...

Pastor Steve Park

Jubilee Presbyterian Church was founded by the Lord some 15 years ago through Pastor Steve Park and many believers in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love.

Pastor Steve Park is a close friend of mine and a fellow worker for His Kingdom. I know him from the Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles. I was serving the Senior High School Department as a teacher and he was a student. He went to college in Canada and studied at Westminster Theological Seminary for his M. Div. as well as Ph. D. in Systematic Theology.

Pastor Steve has English congregation as well as Korean congregation at Jubilee. Unlike many other Korean American churches, Jubilee has two congregations worship and fellowship in harmony. They meet and decide together on important church matters. From Korean congregation's standpoint, it is an investment in the next generation and they yield the prime time of 10:00AM to the English congregation. It is a healthy and community church that is not church-centered but Christ-centered, serving the people in the community under His Kingdom.

Pastor Steve also teaches at Westminster and in country C in Asia. He is a gifted teacher and preacher.

I was asked to preach to the English congregation and also teach a session on the ministries that take place in Rwanda. I shared the Word with a title "The Calling in Christ" based on Ephesians 4:1-7 and talked about Business as Mission (BAM) and UOB ministries/other ministries in Rwanda. Many told me that they were challenged. Praise the Lord.

We had dinner with the elders of the Korean congregation session. Their relationship seemed very cordial, exhibiting oneness that is also not so common among many churches. I was blessed and encouraged by them. After dinner, we also spent time with a young couple, Insoo Kang and his wife Sarah from the English congregation, over tea and dessert. It was very encouraging to hear their commitment to the Lord in their walk in faith.

I drove from Akron in Lancaster County to Norristown and drove back in the evening. Physically I was tired, but I rejoiced greatly the fellowship time with Pastor Steve and Mona Park, his wife, and his children. Pastor Steve and I participated in the Project BGAN ministry together and he also presided over the Passage of Life ceremony for Amanda when she turned sixteen.  I praise the Lord who kept us in wonderful friendship with Pastor Steve and Jubilee Church. - Jeffrey

Trip to New York (May 2013)

Empire State Building, NY's icon

New York City... is a city that is attracting many visitors for various reasons. The reasons for attracting visitors to New York City include the sky line of Manhattan, the Broadway shows, tens of museums, all kinds of foods from all over the world, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, the Time Square, Harlem, United Nations, 9/11 site, Wall Street and many more.

New York City is a special place for me and Kristin. Kristin first came to the U.S. and settled in New York. She worked as a nurse in New York and lived in this city for eight years. She still has her mom and three brothers and their families living in New York or New Jersey.

I worked in Manhattan for four and a half years and lived in Queens Borough New York. Joyce, our younger daughter also worked and lived in New York for a few years.

We had a family reunion briefly with Joyce, who is now serving as Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal Africa. Amanda and her husband could not join us because Amanda is finishing up her service at US Air Force and is getting separated from the service on May 23rd as Captain. Her husband, James, is a pilot. He is now in training to switch his responsibility to fly Special Operations Aircraft. So they could not join us.

ESB in artistic form 

On Mother's Day, May 12th, we worshiped at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, which Rev. Tim Keller is the senior pastor. He preached on Sunday, May 12th, about Idolatry. We celebrated the Mother's Day over lunch at a restaurant in Chelsea, called Pounds and Ounces, a trendy place popular for young people. Sujin, my niece and daughter of my younger sister, also joined us. She studied and now works in New York. The foods were great, particularly the desserts, but our fellowship was only greater. After the lunch, Kristin and I strolled in Manhattan for a couple of hours walking more than 20 blocks.

On Park Avenue

Our visit to New York includes an important task, the task of purchasing a variety of supplies that we will need for the next one year. Many of them are food supplies, but also include other supplies, such as medical and clothes. COSTCO is our favorite place. It has all kinds and you can buy many in bulk at affordable prices. Whenever I see the foods and goods stored at COSTCO, I am amazed at the overwhelming abundance. Abundance precludes scarcity and thus diminishes our appreciation of them.

Another important things to do in New York include seeing family and friends. Both of us have family and friends. They are precious and highly valuable. Due to our short stay, we could not see all friends, but we had great joy of seeing some. Among them were our two friends who climbed with me Mt. Kilimanjaro in September 2011 and their wives. They are Mr. Jay Yoon and Mr. Jaesup Choi. My friendship with them is solid because of the six day hiking on Mt. Kilimanjaro slopes.

Yoons and Chois

Mr. Yeunho Suk and his wife are another couple we saw. Mr. Suk is a Yonsei Alumnus and senior to both of us. He has responding to my e-mails from time to time and has always been welcoming us to New York.

Mr. and Mrs. Suk

Another group of young people I get to see whenever I come to New York is my former colleagues from Colorado who are now working in New York. We cherish the time of working together in Colorado as well as New York.

In New York, it is great fun to eat a variety of foods. All experiences will be one time, but they are good enough to restore to us our appreciation for delicious gourmet foods.

Young friends from Colorado

Sujin and Joyce, cousins

 Kristin and I enjoyed our visit to New York, short but sweet. We lived and worked in New York, but we never toured New York. So we agreed to tour New York next time we will visit the Big Apple again. We will.

 Food... food... food...

We appreciated our visit to New York, but my mother-in-law did not recognize us, both my wife and me, when we visited her. A year ago, she welcomed me with a big and bright smile last year although she could not speak, but this time she gave us no facial expression. As before, I hugged her saying "I love you" she changed her facial expression a little bit but quickly returned to no expression. Nonetheless, we prayed for her that she may have peace and hope in her heart in the last days of her life on earth. Mercy upon her, oh Lord. - Jeffrey