EM Pastor's Column
John Piper recently wrote a book, “The Coronavirus and
Christ”. It’s free at www.desiringgod.org, and only 114 pages
long. Please read it if you have time.
The reason I open with an advertisement for a book is that I
hope that we are all productive with the time that God gives us
(and I really hope that most of our people will read the book!). I
know that we are not all like John Piper, most of us can’t write
a book in a couple of weeks… but I do believe that we need to
be as productive as possible with the time and situations that
God gives us.
a recording studio and study room), I’m also very comfortable
learning about and setting up new technologies. I guess having
an IT background helps. However, most of the setup and ideas
for streaming online have been the initiative of lay leaders in the
EM. We have great IT helpers for setting up and working out
technical issues on Sundays (Bob (Cisco), Beeson (SAS), and Junior)
and an amazingly gifted praise team (Sophie, Junior, Pastor
Daniel). Setting up for Sundays has been fun, it’s a blessing to
work with such joyful and talented people. Please pray that our
joy continues as the season continues (hopefully the season will
be over soon though!).
At church, it’s been a huge blessing to see our EM seminarians
(Daniel, Soo, and Chris Bae) thrive and be super productive
during this COVID-19 season. They’ve learned new technology,
video editing, and have flourished in their creativity since
we’ve moved most of our teaching ministry online. The weekly
children’s, youth, and encouragement videos they film and edit
are professional quality. It is a huge blessing having them at our
church. Please thank them if you see them online, and especially
when you see them after this COVID-19 season is over.
For myself, it’s been a bit of a challenge switching to online only
services and ministry. I love meeting people in person. I don’t like
phone calls because I feel too much information gets misinterpreted
and forgotten (the reason I like texts and emails… at least
you have something written down to refer to!), I also always get
terrible phone connections for some reason too. So, I’ve been
trying to contact/check-up on at least 1 family or single person
per day. So far, it’s gone well. Preaching on Sundays started off a
bit awkward, but we have adjusted and are glad that we’ll have
an archive of our Sunday worship services from now on.
I’ve made no progress whatsoever on my dissertation though.
If anyone out there wants to help me research “Acculturation,
Theology and Intergenerational Conflict in Korean Diaspora
Churches” please let me know ASAP!
In all honesty, it’s been quite a bit busier than it was before the
COVID-19 outbreak. But it’s been good. I feel that God prepared
me for such a time as this. I’m an extroverted introvert…
which means I don’t mind being at church by myself (although
the seminarians have taken over the Vision Center and set up
At home it’s been a bit rough for Flora. I think the boys (Jedidiah,
Ezra, and Lemuel) have been ok, since they play and fight
with each other. But everything our house is being destroyed
by their rough playstyle, and they get bored very easily. From
sunrise to sunset our house is a Battlezone… I’m thankful that
they appear to be healthy though, although Jedidiah and Lemuel
have allergies. I was hoping to repair my car (which broke down
soon after this COVID-19 season started), and finish a couple
of renovations and fix a few things (which the boys broke) with
our Coronavirus Stimulus checks, but our whole family received
$0 in stimulus because Flora had an ITIN (tax filing number)
last year. But God’s timing is perfect, right after my car broke
down we received generous gifts from a couple of the EM adult
small groups. Barring any unforeseen changes in income, my
family should be ok in terms of finances, but not everyone is as
fortunate, please remember to pray for and support the people in
our church community who have lost their income. Please also
pray for people who have not received any sort of government
assistance due to their immigration status. And of course, please
pray for all our medical workers to be protected, and for anyone
who has fallen ill to recover quickly (and to not spread the
sickness to anyone else!).
I pray that this season will pass quickly, and the repercussions
from it will not be too severe. But I also pray that as a church,
we’ll have grown closer to Christ and have taken every opportunity
to be his hands and feet and mouthpiece (making Him
known) through this season.
May the Lord continue to protect, guide, and bless you through
this season!
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