What Was I Thinking?

Come and see the works of God;  He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men (Psalm 66:5). Since my last blog entry, much has happened here in South Korea. The President of the country has had to step down, the temperature has gone down, but our spirits have gone up. Pastor DeVries arrived from America the weekend before the American Thanksgiving holiday and started a series of messages on "The Missionary Mindset." Four days later I was on a plan to China to visit a school there as it finished its first trimester. I was able to go on a fieldtrip to a peach orchard with the staff, students, and their family members. Thanksgiving was celebrated during my time in China with friends who made some traditional treats. A great man from Baltimore happened to pass through the area while I was there. I had some profitable meetings with teachers from the school and then headed back to Korea to resume ministry to the church where we had a mini-mester free Bible...

This picture of a little Korean boy with pizza sauce on his face and a bright red heart painted on his cheek speaks to me. He is a picture of all of us who are God's adopted sons and daughters. Yes, we mess up, but God has His heart set on us, and that is never going to change. Because we are in Jesus Christ, God the Father says to us, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." I am loved and I am accepted by God, and I am pleasing in His sight because of my position in Christ, not because I haven't messed up. This is the message that we have been hearing for the last nine weeks or so here in Seoul, Korea - the message of God's grace and the Finished Work gospel. I have needed to hear these messages as much as any of the other people in the church. Having heard the message for about forty years, now I am preaching and teaching the message and living it, I hope. The eyes of the little boy in this picture seem to say, "Who are you and why are ...

My English Bible Study birthday cake at the hospital I have titled this blog Happy Birthdays with an "S" because last week I celebrated my birthday here in Korea several times. Actually, my birthday celebration began more than a week before my birthday when I received this birthday card from my parents. Believe me, it means a lot to receive a card or a letter delivered in the mail when you are living in another country. Other than a flyer from Costco that arrives every two or three months (which I can't read since all the text is in Korean), the once-in-a-great-while card or letter from someone back home is a real treat. Yes, an email is nice, but there's something about holding a piece of paper that has traveled thousands of miles over many days that is special, especially when you see somebody's handwritten message inside. Whoever organizes the periodic sending of a card from people at GGWO in Baltimore gets a big, "THANK YOU!" from me. (If I k...

All I can say is, "It's been a while." For five weeks I was living in China helping friends establish a school there. At one point last spring, I was the person who was going to move to China and be the principal of this school which would be for Chinese elementary and middle school students and any students from any other nationalities who want to learn or to improve their English. But God had other plans, so here I am in South Korea for another year serving the wonderful people of the Grace Mission Church in Seoul. I returned to Korea in mid-July and two weeks later I was on a flight to China with two suitcases, one filled with textbooks for the school and the other filled with my clothes. I arrived on a Sunday afternoon to discover that the keys to my Airbnb rental were unavailable and that I would have to find another accommodation for the foreseeable future. I ended up staying in a hotel for three nights before I can could into my Airbnb place for the next seven ...