March 2, 2007

Dear Friends,

We are well into our first Lent in Korea. Our ministry here has also started in earnest, as we write this letter from Gumi Youngrak Presbyterian Church in the southern industrial city of Gumi. We are here accompanying college students at their new-school-year retreat. They are all about ten years younger than our children, and we have little in common in life experiences. We came with the trust that God will inspire us to love, share, and enjoy each other. Simon is finding his stories tend to be too preachy, but Haejung’s stories resonate well with the students. We thank God for calling us into a true team ministry.

Our settling in efforts are almost complete; we have our driver’s licenses, we bought a car and put it to good use by bringing a load of students to this retreat. The house is almost complete inside, and we have our “stuff” with us including a few baby pictures of John and Kevin. The Rev. Insik Kim, area coordinator for Asia and the Pacific, inaugurated our guest room by being the first overnight guest. We pray that the space will be used often to share the grace of God and the good will of Hannam University, which provides housing for us.

Not knowing the road system and traffic regulations, we invested in a good navigation system to guide us. Simon would not dare venture out to an unknown destination without confidence in the ability of the machine to show the directions (as well as the hidden speed traps). Simon finds the navigation system shares many similarities with God, but with one important difference. Once we set the destination, the navigation system shows the way, and even when we veer off the course it forgives and continues patiently to guide us from where we are, not from where we should be. When we think we know better and take our own initiatives, we generally end up paying the price, such as a dead-end, but it guides us out of the trouble. We don’t follow the directions perfectly. Even as the machine warns us of speed limit violations, we tend to follow other faster vehicles. We think or wish that the fact that there are other cars traveling faster than we are justifies our misdeeds. We know in our heart that no cop will buy that lame excuse, but we continue to behave that way. Forgive us Lord.

The other day, we found a major shortfall of the machine. Simon entered the wrong coordinates for our destination and confidently set out. Only when we arrived at the “destination” did we realize that it was not where we should be but a place we didn’t recognize. The machine can’t tell us whether the destination entered is where we really should go, and because we are following one instruction at a time, we tend not to pay any attention to sights along the route. When we arrived at “nowhere” we realized that we felt uneasy at the strange passing scenes, but our trust in the machine suppressed our concern. When we entered the correct coordinates, the machine again took us to the right destination some five miles away. Unlike the machine, our God guides us to set proper destinations in our journey and also shows us the way there. We pray God will help us fix our eyes on the correct destination, set proper intermediate stops during our stay here in Korea, and follow the directions well.

Kevin and Sariah made their first business trip to India as husband and wife, and they plan to come to Korea in late May. We do not know when John will come to visit, but we hope soon. The invitation goes out to all of you as we have a room especially set aside for guests. One of our main talking points is that our mission is to have fellowship, and our lives are open for intrusion.

During this season of Lent, we want to follow the path of suffering and rejection that Jesus took to make Easter possible. We have several speaking engagements this month and we ask for your prayers.

Grace and peace,

Haejung & Simon

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, 259