Our New Children
On the first morning of the short-term mission
trip, we met with team members at a hotel in Lima..
All of them were enthusiastic, open minded, and
their hearts were filled with the love of Jesus. I felt
eager to become like them.
When we were halfway through our schedule, we
had time to pray for the children of Peru at a rural
church there. Because I cannot speak Spanish and
the children cannot understand English, I prayed
for them in Korean. As I was praying for several
groups of children, I saw my own son praying by
himself on his knees on the dirt floor. I was so
proud of him but was also saddened. He seemed so
lonely going through adolescence by himself with
his parents being indifferent to his challenges at
times.
My Realization
I believe it is God who helped me to realize this.
I kneeled down next to my son, put my arms
around him, and prayed out loud. I felt tears roll
down my face. I felt a deep love for my son once
again from the bottom of my heart. I confessed
my sins to God and asked for His forgiveness. That
night when we returned to our hotel, I said to my
son that we should go back to the moment we first
met when we did not have any animosity against
each other and were happy because of each other.
On the last day of the
trip to Peru, Matthew
and his dad, Jin Yong
Oh were visiting the
last church in Lima.
They spent the last
couple of hours with the
children at the church
before departing to the
airport. Then, at that very hour, an amazing thing
happened. There were three children that came
into Jin Yong’s eyes.
Throughout the week, he was so moved by the
Holy Spirit that he decided to sponsor one or two
children when he went back to U.S. But, here they
found three children that had no sponsors, waiting
for someone to sponsor them. The fire of the Holy
Spirit came upon Jin Yong’s heart. “These are the
kids that our God has entrusted to my family!” He
had no doubt about that. After talking with his son,
immediately he told the COJ staff and everyone
got so excited that a few other missionaries decided
to sponsor kids there as well. All of a sudden, 8
more children were sponsored at that very moment.
Hallelujah!
Through Jin Yong Oh’s support, the family
is able to buy all the groceries
they need to eat for the month.
We made a promise not to argue about who was
right and who was wrong anymore.
The next day, I shared our resolution with our
team. I wanted to win the war against Satan by
proclaiming our resolution. Our team blessed
us and prayed for us. I was overjoyed.
Back in Columbus when I think back, I see that
things have changed significantly. Although
disagreements arise from time to time, I am not
shaken anymore and try my best to understand my
son. I will not fall for Satan’s tricks anymore.
I praise God for what He has done and our Good
Lord who continues to work in our lives every day.
A few days later, through the sponsoring procedure,
the three kids became Jin Yong and his family’s
sponsored kids. Now, 3 more children have
attained the hope and new dreams by the grace
of God. We believe that these 3 children will also
become the mighty army of the Lord to spread the
fire that came into their lives through the obedient
servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious
day it was! What a wonderful God we serve!
www.coj.org
11