G.Hope Oct – Dec 08 Newsletter Out Now, and a Few Other Tidbits

For those of you who are already a part of the Friends of G.Hope group, this is old news. (No need to be left out; you can join up here.) G.Hope’s latest newsletter is out; you can get it right here.

You will be familiar with some of the stories already if you’ve been following along on the blog—Diallo and Theo’s baptisms were covered here; the post on the Northern Ireland trip is here, of course. But the news of the upcoming celebration of Easter Sunday / our 6th church anniversary / installation of our dear friend Ms. Penny Meads as a deacon wasn’t shared on the blog yet. So you should check it out.

I also asked the Friends of G.Hope group to pray (which is what the group is for); if you are a praying person, I’d like to ask you to join in. In the last few weeks, our little church family has been experiencing a lot of personal difficulties. One member is undergoing foreclosure on her house, two are grieving the loss of their fathers, and still others are dealing with tremendous life-consuming struggles. Thanks in advance.

On Sunday, March 8th, 4 of the young people on the N. Ireland trip team and I had a chance to visit City Line Church to share about the work going on at G. Hope the upcoming trip, and we received a very warm response, for which we are very appreciative.

Now, this is a story that didn’t make it into the prayer list email. After the service, as the teens and I were interacting with the congregants, someone called out, “Q jundosanim!” (Jundosa is a Korean church title for youth pastors; literally means ‘evangelist’.) I looked up, and I saw a woman whom I recognized, but it had been many years. “Oh my gosh! Benica?” The last time I saw Benica, she was in the junior high youth group at Cherry Hill Korean Church that I led during my first two years in seminary… almost fifteen years ago. She was not a kid anymore; she was now an adult.

The funny thing is, almost the first thing she said was, “We were so bad with you! I’m so sorry!” while her friend was laughing next to her saying, “Yes, she is! When she saw that it was you up there today, she was sitting there feeling really bad.”

But now, she’s a grown-up, responsible elementary school teacher taking care of kids coming up after her. It was good to see her; it made me feel like I’ve been accomplishing some things in life along the way. And it made me feel like a real geezer. Now, through the magic of Facebook, I’m getting reconnected with more of that crowd from that period of my life. All of my pasts are making a comeback into my present. A little surreal, in a good way.