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El Camino UBF (California)

September 25, 2012

 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1

I was born in Jinju Korea in 1967. My father died in my sophomore year of college, and my grandmother died the next year. The reality of death hit me hard and I trembled because of the fear of death. While I was walking on the street, I was scared that a crazy taxi would hit me; when there was thunder and lightning, I could not use an umbrella for the fear of being hit by lightning; and also, during night time, I could not sleep, but got up and sat in the center of the room, hoping that I would survive even if the house was hit by lightning. With the fear of death, life had no meaning. I didn't know what to live for and how to live, because everything was meaningless. My life was like a ship whose anchor was cut off. But God had mercy on me. He sent his servant who taught me the Bible. I'd never been in church. So I could not understand anything my shepherd said. I could not understand any Bible verse or passage. But strangely enough, whenever Bible study was over, there was deep peace in my heart. Because of this peace, I kept studying the Bible. In 1989, at the summer Bible conference, God blessed me to accept Jesus Christ based on John 3:5, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." Through this I was born again. To me, Jesus is the light who removed the fear of death from my heart and showed me what to do with my life. God's mission to take care of college students as a shepherd was more than life to me, who had been suffering from no direction in my life.

1n 1990, my shepherd gave me Hebrews 11:6 as my new year's key verse. "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." I wanted to please God, and this verse showed me that, in order to please God, I must have faith. Then, I came to wonder, "What is faith?" Hebrews 11:1 showed me what faith was about. "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." But this verse seemed so abstract and I could not understand what faith was about. I asked many shepherds about this verse, but no one gave me a clear answer. I decided to wait until God would give me the answer. In 1992, I married, and on November 9th, 1993, God sent me to America as a missionary. Every Saturday, we had the missionary testimony sharing meeting, and one day, as I was hearing a missionary's testimony, God gave me the answer about faith. In those days, usually a shepherd or missionary served 2 to 4 Bible studies. If anyone served 4 Bible studies, he was considered a hard working servant, doing many Bible studies. If anyone served 7 Bible studies, it was really a miraculous work. Nobody was serving 7 Bible studies. But strangely, one missionary always shared his prayer topic of serving 30 one to one Bible studies. I could not understand this at all. In my eyes, serving 7 one to one Bible studies might be possible if pursued with all heart and strength, but serving 30 one to one Bible studies was impossible; so I thought that he was just offering lip service for show. But while I was hearing the missionary's testimony, I realized that faith is being certain of what we do not see. Until that time, in my eyes, serving 7 teams' one to one Bible studies was possible; that much was what I could see at that time. But this verse showed me that, if I had faith, I would be able to see what I could not see before. With the eyes of faith, serving 30 teams’ Bible studies looked possible. Faith is like special eyeglasses, made in heaven; they have a special function. When we put on the eyeglasses of faith, suddenly we begin to see what we could not see before. While those who do not have faith say, "It is impossible," "It is not there," "We cannot do it," because they cannot see it, those who have faith say, "What are you talking about? It is possible! It is just right there!" because they can see it. Those who have faith are certain of what others do not see; they are certain of what is not visible yet. It was a great revelation; I was so amazed. Then, suddenly, a prayer topic came to my heart; I said to myself, "Ah, then, even I can establish 50 chapters in California." This prayer topic, then, has been a clear vision and direction for my mission life. 

After 10 years' mission life in America, God helped me pioneer a new chapter at El Camino College in the summer of 2004. Here, God wanted me to be a shepherd for the lost, for the wounded, and for the demon-possessed. During the fall semester, I found sheep and taught them the word of God. Then, during the winter break, I gathered some of them who showed spiritual desire and had intensive Genesis Bible studies with them. Three students joined in Genesis Bible studies, and when the new semester began, they participated in God's work and served one to one Bible studies. We focused on one to one ministry during the spring semester. Then, when the summer came, I served John Boos through Genesis Bible studies. Since then, one to one Bible studies and intensive Genesis Bible studies became the tools for us to serve God's work. 

The first sheep was M. W. He is a 6.2 feet tall and an handsome American student. When his parents divorced, he realized what life was about; he said to himself, "If life is like this, then, I will not be a grown up," and he closed himself toward to the outside world and withdrew into himself. At that time, he was just 6 years old. Then, for the next 12 years from Elementary to High school, he never did any homework, and he slept during all his classes. He had no meaning, no purpose, and no direction for his life. He did not learn anything during this 12 years' education period. As a result, when he came to El Camino College after high school, he couldn't read or write English. Also, due to severe self-consciousness, he could not look at people directly. Amazingly, after studying the Bible with me two times, he began to attend our worship service. Then, whenever I started the message, as he had done for the past 12 years, immediately, he fell asleep, and when I finished my message, he woke up. He did this for the next two years, every Sunday faithfully. But his presence itself was a great encouragement to me; I was comforted a lot. Later, the disciples grew in the ministry, and when we had to organize the worship service, I assigned Moses to be the presider. Jesus says to his disciples in John 11, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?" Based on this, I wanted to see the glory of God by faith in the life of this young man who was as good as dead. I was confident that what God desired was not a glamorous and fancy looking worship service, but to value one soul highly and reveal the glory of God through weak people. As Moses presided, our worship service became like a heavenly comedy. Even though he presided, he didn't know how to read the passage, so during the responsive Bible reading, we had to read the verse for him word by word, and then he repeated it barely, stammering, then, we read the next verse. Sometimes, when newcomers came, they wondered a lot, and sometimes, people were angry. But after worship service, when we explained to them what kind of person Moses was and what God was doing in his life, all of them were deeply touched by God's grace, and they rendered glory to God. On the last day of 2006, when I looked back on the past year, I was depressed and sorry, because I could see that there was nothing good I had done for God, but only mistakes, errors, and faults. I was so troubled and sad. Then, God helped me to see how I had shepherded Moses and I realized that He had been very pleased with me for that. When I realized that God was pleased with me, I was very thankful and happy. That night, concluding the year 2006, I and the other five disciples gathered together and shared our thanksgiving topics. When my turn came, I shared my thanks topic that God was happy with me for how I had shepherded over one brother. While I was sharing it, Moses kept nodding his head, saying, "Uh, uh," showing his agreement. I wondered why he was doing so. After that meeting, the disciples gave me a thank you card. When I came home, I read it, and there, Moses had written: "I know how pleased God is with you." I thanked God. Through Genesis Bible studies, Moses accepted Genesis 1:26, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Through this, Moses realized that God made him in his image to live a glorious life of a challenger, pioneer, conqueror, and ruler. Then, still without knowing how to read or write English, he dedicated himself to one to one ministry. In 2007, he surprised all of us by serving 18 Bible studies every week; indeed, we saw the glory of God in his life. God blessed Moses to establish Sam, a very smart, fast reading student, as a disciple. Moses is very humble and gentle, and God gave him a great talent in fishing so that many students happily accepted his invitation for Bible study.

When I began the pioneering work, I had a direction that I would not rely on any method or program, but I would teach the Bible only. So, I was not going to have a conference for the next three years. But, one brother, whose mother was attending a very big and influential church in the area, asked me if it would be okay for him to attend her church's conference. I felt alarmed. So, I suggested that, instead, we would have our own conference, saying that if we did it, it would be much better than that of a big church. That's how we came to have the first conference in the spring of 2005. Five sheep attended this conference; I established three of them as messengers. But because they were completely raw sheep, it was impossible to train them at all. Moses barely read the message, and we earnestly waited and prayed that he would somehow finish it quickly and successfully. Finally, I gave up, and decided to entrust all things in God's hands and just enjoy the conference. God accepted this conference and gave us such deep peace and rest in our souls. There was no toilet paper in the restrooms, and the food was all kinds of herbs, vegetables and kimchi, which they had never tasted before. But when there was the presence of God at the conference, they were happy and enjoyed such strange Korean food very well, saying that they were eating healthy foods. Among the five, four of them became disciples and served the pioneering work as Bible teachers, and M. W, J. B, and K. S grew as ancestors of faith in our ministry.

J. B. accepted God's calling to be a shepherd and Bible teacher for college students based on Luke 5, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men." Soon, he transferred to CSULB and served God's work there. But he could not find any sheep there; instead, he made an excuse, saying that, unlike community college students, university students were too busy and had no time for Bible study; during the whole semester, he barely served one or two Bible studies. I didn't say anything, but waited for God to speak to him. During the summer, we studied John's gospel. Then, God spoke to him through John 4, "Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest." God opened his eyes to see the golden harvest field of CSULB. In his eyes, it seemed that university students were not ready for the gospel; it seemed that they were not interested in spiritual things because they were busy building their careers and pursuing success in the world. But he realized that, in the eyes of God who saw everything, so many students were waiting for God's help and salvation. He realized that in God's eyes, CSULB was a golden harvest field. When this word of God came to him, he was determined to serve God's work with all his heart and strength. When the fall semester began, he struggled to fish students wholeheartedly, staying at school until late night. Soon he served 7 Bible studies, then, 12, then, 20. He did not stop there, but continued fishing and finally, served 30 one to one Bible studies; then, later, he even served 39 one to one Bible studies. Now his prayer topic is to serve 40 one to one Bible studies. God blessed his heart and loyalty and established S J, J F, S C, J P, A Z, B N, and A Y as fully committed disciples. Right now, he is in the Master's program at CSULB to be a professor shepherd. 

The whole focus of the entire ministry is one to one Bible study. Once students accept Jesus' grace, they study Genesis during the summer or winter; as soon as they finish Genesis, they participate in the one to one battle. And we do not hold any other meetings such as prayer meetings or fellowship meetings, except Sunday worship service and Friday testimony sharing so that they may focus on one to one ministry freely and not be bothered by so many meetings. Other than one to one ministry, one thing we emphasize is deep and sincere testimony writing. It is because testimony writing is directly related to their spiritual life. The word of God is food for our spirit; in the word of God we find all important and essential spiritual nutrients such as comfort, encouragement, courage, strength, vision, the joy of finding the secrets of the kingdom of God, knowing God, enjoying fellowship with him, and forgiveness. Indeed, the word of God is real food for our spirit. When the first disciples grew, they didn't know the meaning or importance of testimony writing. So, after several months, their testimonies had no depth, but became dull and superficial. I had a sense of problem about this. When they accepted God's word for the first time and made a decision to live for God, they were new wine; but if they did not come to the world of God's word through personal testimony writing, eventually they would be old Christians, and there would be no difference whether they became disciples in our church or went to other local churches. I prayed about this, and decided to challenge them. I could have explained to them logically, but if I did so, I sensed that there would be no fundamental change. There should be some real challenge that would shock them and set them on the right track. I was afraid that they would be angry and go away. But I was determined to challenge, because, if I didn't, eventually, I would lose them any way. But when I challenged them, thankfully, the disciples did not entertain human thinking; instead, they came to have a sense of problem about their testimony writing; they came to me and my wife and asked us very humbly and sincerely what a testimony was, and how they should write it. They began to struggle to write deep and sincere testimonies according to our instructions. As they struggled this way, sometimes, they wrote really deep testimonies, and sometimes, they enjoyed others' testimonies, and they came to understand the meaning of struggling with the word of God. They themselves found the joy of coming to God's presence through testimony writing. Then, they began to write their testimonies really deeply and sincerely, basically 7 pages, sometimes, 10 pages or even more. They also taught their sheep to do testimony writing absolutely. Because everyone wrote such deep and long testimonies, often our meeting, which started at 7 pm, lasted until 1:30 a. m., and one time, even 2:30 a. m. 

Last year, as I attended the 50th anniversary in Seoul Korea, I was greatly inspired, and God gave me the vision of serving 300 one to one Bible studies. In my eyes, it would be absolutely possible by establishing 10 Bible study warriors who would serve more than 20 Bible studies each. When I shared this prayer topic with the disciples, they were all inspired to pursue and fulfill it. Indeed, all our shepherds and shepherdesses gave themselves fully to the one to one battle in 2011. Even newly growing disciples - Herman and Jean - served 10-15 Bible studies. Through this prayer topic of serving 300 one to one Bible studies, God established many mighty warriors - not only those who had been serving many Bible studies before, but also those who were weak grew to be mighty warriors for God's kingdom work. In order to serve about 20 Bible studies while taking care of their fulltime school load and part time job, they had to make real wholehearted and concentrated efforts, and they did it, by fishing many hours at school everyday. When we saw these disciples working so hard for God's work and having so many Bible studies, we were all amazed and inspired greatly. When R C began to serve 14 Bible studies, and then, 18, 19, we were all blown away; when we saw E G serving 19 Bible studies, we were all shocked. When they served such great work of God, their words and attitude changed; they became confident of who they were, and what God could do for them. They became reliable and powerful. Indeed, God established them as mighty warriors in the year 2011. Right before the fall conference, we served 301 Bible studies; then, the following week after the conference, we served 302, then 303, and finally, 321 Bible studies. We all were amazed at this, and praised God.

This year, we pray for 400 one to one Bible studies. It cannot be done by one person working hard. But when God's Spirit works among us, inspiring and strengthening us, and as a result, when we all pursue this prayer topic together in one mind and heart, we can fulfill it and render glory to God. May God bless our one to one battle abundantly. May God use us in his salvation work effectively.

One Word: Faith is being certain of what we do not see.