Following His lead

Funky rabbits update. everything's great accept the bruises and mosquito bites

The funky rabbits, (Jiyeon and Jiseong) are doing just great. Jiyeon is going to the adult care center every week helping the old, making lei's (check picture) and learning to climb on everything on campus. Jiseong has bruises all over his body, again climbing & jumping off everything he can. 

We're still battling with the mosquitos. and we've discovered new roommates we never knew we had. Armies of ants, rats, geckos & humongous flying cockroaches. Two geckos have made our ceiling lamp their homes, so the funky rabbits are thinking of names for them. 

The kids favorite snacks are frozen gogurts (yogurt in a tube) and favorite activity is swimming in the campus pool almost everyday. As you can see, Jiyeon has turned into a local Hawaiin girl.Jiseong still misses his Wii player, but learning to enjoy playing with the boys in mother nature's playground. We still can't get our 070 internet phone to work. apparently the routers here are so old that it doesn't support more modern wireless protocols for our 070 internet phones to work. hopefully the campus will upgrade them in May.

Please keep up in prayer. That we continue to madly fall in love with Jesus. and that He surprises us with his love everyday. Our families health and safety. (and the mosquitos stop biting us)

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Christian life is simply just discovering again and again and again that Jesus is madly in love with me.

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Today was one of the strongest testimonials i've heard about madly falling in love with Jesus. Dan Baumann shared his amazing story of how he was wrongly accused of espionage and thrown into the most infamous high-security prison in Iran.  But in the unlikely place, under the threat of execution and in the midst of despair, Dan witnessed the powerful triumph of God's love over fear. 
He started his story with his insignificance. His inadequateness. Thinking people of great integrity, people who have the ability, and genes can do amazing things for the world and for God. But he reversed that notion by saying that when you give yourself to Jesus, God will do great things with the weak & ordinary people. So isn't God such a great God?

A little history on Dan Baumann, He is a YWAM staff since he was young, and was in Afghanistan for 10 years in the 90's. When he was imprisoned in Iran, his mothers first prayer was "don't release Dan until your will is done"


Everything you want to do for God will come from the intimacy with God. Wow... can we be friends with God?


When Dan was 16 he was pondering on what it means to be intimate with God. He was throwing rocks at a river and he asked God that question. and he heard an inner voice say, "Can i throw rocks with you?" what does that have to do with intimacy? what do you mean? and he asked again, and he heard the voice again say "Can i throw rocks with you?" this happened several times more, and all he could hear was "can i throw rocks with you" and then he realized that God was so so madly in love with him that He just wanted to be with him. Not only when i'm reading the bible, at church, but also when i'm walking, playing basketball, or throwing rocks. Jesus just wants to be together with me, like a friend. 


Some more of the gold nuggets he shared with us
- Christian life is simply just discovering again and again and again that Jesus loves us. that He is madly in love with me. 
- When you discover you are loved by Jesus, then you realize what to do next. and then you again realize more how much He loves you, and you want to love Him back. 
- Where is the safest place in the world? It's exactly there God wants you to be.
- I want to lean so hard on Jesus that when He moves, I fall down. 
- When God told him to get on a bus to Iran, he felt he wasnt' ready, and was afraid. thinking i'm not qualified. Exactly how we can feel when God calls us. 
- You cannot kill a deadman. we've given our lives to Jesus so many times, that is our confidence in the midst of persecution. 

 

The apostle Peter would have made a killing in the stock market

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Ed Silvoso came to speak at our Thursday gathering today. (Loren Cunningham was here too, just getting back from a trip from Asia, He's touring our bases in 43 countries for YWAM's 50th anniversarry, he's on his 18th country now). Ed Silvoso is a reknown speaker from Argentina, and the founder of Harvest Evangelism.  I never heard of him, but everyone was excited to have him speak today, sort of felt like a rock star was here. 

His message was mind-blowing. He spoke of how whole states, whole countries can be transformed by the Gospel. and to do it, the marketplace must be changed. Ed defined marketplace as three areas. Business, Education and Government. Currently Hawaii, is quickly becoming a Christian state, the Philippines, mayors of cities, owners of hotel chains of more the 2500 are changed by the Gospel and whole cities, countries, schools, and businesses are reformed with success in finances and incredible growth in people coming to Jesus. In business, the Early Church founders were mostly community leaders and highly successful businesspeople. The writing of the Gospels was entrusted to Luke, a medical doctor; Matthew, a retired tax collector; Mark, the manager of a family trust; and John, a food supplier. Lydia was “a dealer in purple cloth.” Dorcas was a clothes designer. When Peter the apostle was unable to catch any fish, (imagine the fish market must have been dreadful) Jesus guided him to catch tons of fish. What do you think the apostles did with the fish? throw them away? No, Peter probably made a killing at the fish market. I also got excited about Myungbock Lee, the president of Korea, (who is openly Christian) and North Korea. The gospel can change and reform Korea, especially more than ever when South Korea can reunite with North Korea soon. (think, what will happen when Kim Jongil dies?)

From slave to sonship

Takeaways from "Fatherheart of God" lecture

- Isiah 51:1 - To gain understanding is the beginiing of wisdom. When we begin to understand our family, we begin to understand where we came from.  The bible refers to the rest of us as orphans. (John 14:18) before we know Jesus that is. That's what Jesus tells us. But because of the cross we become the sons of the Lord and we give ourselves to God. But we still love our orphanhood even though we are Christians. People in our lives they all hurt us. people of authority, friends, etc. But we need to know where we are from. and we are all at different levels of coming out of orphanhood. Sometimes as Christians we love  by the head and not by the spirit. because we are programmed by other Christians to live a certain way. 

- Mathew 22:37~40 says we need to love God first, then others, then myself. But sometimes we need to love ourselves first before others. Because some of us can love others, but not ourselves. They live in an orphan spirit. I know God loves me, but i don't love myself. Sometimes pastors go to missions to fulfill a love deficit. They don't love themselves, and want to receive love, but the end up hurting thier ministry. 

- Sometimes we feel God is a punisher, we think that because of an earthly father. ex) movie Annie. She was brought up on an orphanage but could not except her new father's love. 

The journey we will take is from slavery from to sonship. The definition of the Son is to be lead by the father. 
A slave is bound by fear. ex) what will people think of me? Our actions are derived from our want to be loved.

Slaves : lead by the flesh
- Fear, disregarded, Bondage, Flesh, "reason", no inheritance, ignorance
- driven by performance
- replaceable
- you don't reap the benefits of your hard work. 

Son : lead by the spirit
- Fearless, Belonging, Freedom, Spirit, Revelation, Inheritance, Knowledge (privilege to learn)
- always forgiveness
- able to get things, availability 
- once a son, always a son

Serving God is not a duty. It's a relationship with God. 

My purpose in life is to bring joy to God's heart

Here are my take aways from Thursday's lecture

- What you believe about others, is what becomes. If you believe someone doesn't like you, that's what happens. We believe that God is who is Holy, Perfect and Almighty who is both creator and the judge of the universe and therefore who is feared by all creation. That God is at the same time a personal being, wants an intimate loving relationship with man and therefore we can communicate with God. Therefore we believe that it's important to learn to hearing His voice so that We can bring joy to his heart (our goal in life) by obeying God, fully (immediately & completely, which is the way we live), out of our intimate and passionate love for God. 

- If you are intimate with God, you are God's friend, and your prayers are effective. 

- A word about Holy. Holy means you are not effected (구별된). example,  I can meet with friends who drink and smoke or do drugs, but i do not drink and smoke with them. i am not effected by their ways. A great example our school leader gave was Bill Hybels of Willow Creek community church. He looks worldly, looks materialistic, looks upper middle class, looks professionalistic, but has God's heart. His heart, his lifestyle is seperate from materialistic group he is reaching out to. He lives a Holy life. 

- Doing Church ministry does not mean we live a holy life. sometimes we have the form, but not the heart. Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart. Man can judge only by the outside. The important thing is the motive of your heart. If ministry and serving in the church is more about reputation and power, you slip away from holiness.

Weekend at Hapuna Beach and Livingstone Church

This saturday our whole Go Asia DTS team went to Hapuna Beach, one of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii, it was our first weekend to relax and soak some sun, and get to see the local scene. We had some Korean food, made sand castles, and got to know our fellow brothers and sisters better through fellowship. It was a blessed and happy time for us to bring unity.

We also went to Livingstone Church nearby the University of Nations. It was a beautiful small church right beside the shore. The sermon was really full of the Holy Spirit, and was shocking to some of our Korean pastors from Korea. It was really just worship, and listening to the Word. No Apostles creed (사도신경), No benediction (축도), No formalities. The focus was our worship heart towards God.
 
 
 

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God doesn't need us ... period

Take aways from today's lecture on "Hearing God's Voice"

- We are spending time with God here at the University of Nations to be sent out. There is no returning home. If we do go home, we are being sent home. 
 
- Mission is a fancy word for being sent out. We will all go out, and we are all missionaries. 
 
- To become a mission, planning does not work. You have to live there first. You have to know the people, know the city, know the culture before you go. 
 
- Don't go home and tell people what great things you will do. 
 
- How do you prepare for a mission? one step at a time. Don't jump. Don't run or you will hurt yourself and others. The key is hearing God's voice. 
 
- God doesn't need our money, God doesn't need our ability, God doesn't need us period. Because He can do anything. He created the world. He is almighty. He doesn't need us to proclaim the gospel. He wants us to participate in His work for our benefit. God doesn't need workers. So why does God call us? Why does He call us to DTS, Why does he send us out? Why does God give us a heart to go out to nations? 
 
- Wrong understanding of the Bible. We hear many times that even if i was the only person on earth, God would still send his son Jesus to die for us. No where in the bible does it say that. 
 
- What makes me valuable to God? What makes me valuable? It is ONLY because God loves you that you are valuable. Only in the eyes of God, not to us. Others can hurt us, if we know we are valuable to God, we can even forgive and love our enemies. 
 
- The fear of the Lord is the start of the knowledge of God. Not the love of God.  Imagine, that fearful God loves us! oh my! That fearful God, the God that killed nations, came as a non-threatening carpenter, an approachable person to die for us. 
 
- Always put on a filter when listening to the lectures. the filter is the bible. Always have a question mark about the teachings, not to doubt, but to grow deeper in the Lord. 
 
- So how do we feel God's love? do what children do... how do children learn about their parent's love? they play around their parents, they involve everything. Involve God in everything we do. 

Yes we are saved! There is kimchi on Kona Island!

Yes God is with us! We stopped by the International Marketplace on Kona Island and in the corner is a tiny Korean food store where they sell Kimchi! They also sell black pig meat (흑돼지 삼겹살) and other sorts of yummy Korean food we miss and crave for so much. They even do delivery if we order enough. To order you can call 808-331-8050

 

 

Tunnel of Fire

Today we did something called the tunnel of fire, where we divided the Go Asia DTS members into 2 teams. The young YWAMers under 30, and the older generations YWAMers over 30. We created a tunnel where one team would create the tunnel by raising hands on two sides and the other team would go through the tunnel, but as the Holy Spirit moves us, we can trap a member and pray for that person, let them go, and then trap another person and pray again. 

We then switched so the other team would create the tunnel and the other team would pray-trap. We called it the tunnel of fire as we asked for the fire of the Holy Spirit.

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New school, new friends, new ways to play for Jiyeon and Jiseong

Jiyeon and Jiseong are settling in their new schools at the Foundation School here at the University of Nations. The school is very multi-national with children from Norway, Columbia, Canada, USA, Korea, Brazil, Holland, and a few more countries. 
 
Differences between life in Bay Area and University of Nations. 
 
What keeps us up at night. 
California : bad allergies, itchy eyes, stuffy noses. 
Kona Island : mosquito bites! very very itchy
The allergies we had in California have completely disappeared, but i think our family as a total got more than a hundred mosquito bites in two days!
 
Entertianment 
California : DVDs, TV, movies, Wii
Kona Island : Swings made of pots and rope, climbing trees, beautiful sunsets, imagination. 
More playtime outside, Jiyeon and Jiseong's skin is getting darker and darker every hour. 
 
Groceries : Almost everything costs double here! since everything comes on a boat to get here. Did you know electricity if the most expensive in Hawaii out of all the 50 states?
 
Everything is new here, so we're still adjusting. 
I'll be sure to share more fun happenings soon. 
 
 

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