And what made me appreciate it more was that Michael Son and Jimin Yeo decided to come back to the Hanmaum church. God guided them to this place again. In the spring of 2019, they started the first English speaking mokjang, Egypt Mokjang, named after the outreach ministry they served. Out of my deliberation and reminding myself of the guidance of God and the journey that led me here, Michael and Jimin came to my mind. I felt that God had a plan for Michael to become His servant, and Michael had achieved the first milestone in his spiritual training for it.
So I approached him, conveying my thoughts, and we decided to allot some time to pray about this and confirm that this mission was from God. While Michael was praying about this ministry, he saw an exceptionally beautiful vineyard in his vision. There, God asked him “don’t you want to be in charge of this vineyard?” Then He picked a grape from the vine and had Michael try it. The taste was incredible! Through this vision, Michael received God’s calling. However, Jimin was not aware of this, so Michael prayed that God also would give her the same heart if this path was the right one. Soon after, Jimin shared with Michael that God had poured on her a heart to serve the English congregation, and she was later assured again in her dream. Finally, they were appointed as Youth Group Director in January of the year 2020, and started the English congregation ministry.
Youth Group Director was the start of the English Congregation Ministry that we had already had. [Refer to: November 2019 Echo of Love, “English Speaking Congregation and the vision for the Youth Group”; August 2019 Echo of Love, “Dreaming of Our Children’s Church”] “The vision for the English congregation” was incredibly precious and hence ‘unquittable.’ Therefore, we had been praying for it. Through the ‘English Living Life Program’, ‘English-Korean Translation Ministry’, and ‘English Ministry’, we prayed as a church; it was a ministry we specifically devoted ourselves to. Within that vision, the Youth Group was a seed towards the English congregation. It was Michael and Jimin who devoted themselves to that vision.
Before then, the Youth Group was not receiving spiritual nutrition; it was in such desperate of a situation that a spiritual CPR would have been required. The two, knowing the difficult situation beforehand, stil jumped into the ministry. However, starting from March of that year, the COVID pandemic started to worsen, and it came to a situation where we could not have in-person services anymore. In a time when CPR was needed, the consequence of not being able to meet in-person anymore was spritiauly hurting the children even more. Even during those times, Michael and Jimin worked tirelessly without looking back to save the children with devotion and love. Through the spring and summer online missionary school, they shared their vision of the English congregation with the children. Furthermore, in September of that year, they combined the college group and youth group to create the English-speaking community, and started online service together. Additionally, although there was still COVID in November, they started in person services, and finally in December, they chose the name Tree of Life for the English congregation, establishing its identity. It was their first concrete step toward being an independent congregation. Because we were in the pandemic, the start looked shabby, and there were few who understood that situation along with them. However it was Michael and Jimin who kept their eyes only on the Lord and held tightly onto the children, serving with their tears.
To be continued…
From, Pastor Jiwon Choi