I also want to thank you for your emails and prayers for the former student from ICS-P who is now at a high school in California. I have had several phone calls from JC this past week and he is doing much better. I spoke with him Sunday morning and he shared with me a Google Document that he put together to help him with his struggles so that he develops good habits. He is including on the Google Doc about getting started in a daily reading of the Bible. Thank you for your prayers. Several of you wrote with suggestions of persons in the California area who may be able to be a help to JC. Thanks so much. Please continue to pray for this dear young man.
This will be a shorter post as I am not feeling so well as I write this. I started Friday evening to have some spinning sensations. I particularly noticed them when I got up from a chair or got out of bed. On Saturday morning, I got up and went to our church's Men's Prayer Breakfast and was feeling pretty good. Following the prayer breakfast, I met with a former SYME student and dear friend, David Baek. After our meeting (I will share a bit more about David and our meeting later in the post), I drove back to my apartment and was feeling nauseous and burping a lot. I also began to have the spinning sensation again and getting headaches. When I would lie down, things got better, but returned shortly after getting out of bed. I was able to sleep OK, but I didn't go to church on Sunday because I woke up to the spinning sensations and nausea and burping. It is somewhat better, but I have been advised to see my doctor in Itaewon on Monday as soon as possible since it could be a bigger problem. I would value your prayers.
As I mentioned, Dae Kwang Church had its monthly Men's Prayer Breakfast on Saturday. We had this one at the new Attractive Coffee shop. The shop moved from its former location to a much larger facility and is now opens Monday through Friday at 5:00 AM, AND it is now serving breakfast and lunch items along with the delicious coffee! In Korea, it is very hard to find coffee shops that open before 9:00 AM. Some open at 7:00 or 8:00, but not very many.
We had an enjoyable breakfast and Pastor Mike shared a brief study of what Proverbs says about finances and handling money. I always enjoy the fellowship and studies and then our prayer time at the close of our time together.
Dae Kwang Church's Men's Prayer Breakfast on Saturday! (Sorry for the blurry picture.) Clockwise, left to right: Jesse, Pastor Mike, Barry, David Baek, Jacob Morse, and GGG.
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After the breakfast, I had made arrangements with my dear friend and former SYME student, David Baek, to meet to discuss his upcoming visit to the USA. David and his wife, Victoria, are full-time missionaries with Word of Life (WOL). They are currently ministering on Jeju Island, the island just off the southern border of South Korea. Each missionary for WOL needs to raise financial support and since David and Victoria are Korean, it is very difficult for Koreans to raise any financial support from their home church in Korea. The Korean churches will only support those who are sent out from the church to be missionaries. So almost all of the WOL Korean missionaries have to return to the USA from time to time to raise their support. David and Victoria have been used mightily of the Lord on Jeju Island at a church where there are many young people and young couples who are either young in their faith or struggling with accepting the Lord or struggling with various problems. David and Victoria have built some fantastic relationships with these young people and the Lord has been blessing. Both David and Victoria are having a hard time leaving for six months to raise support. The young people are also sad that they have to leave right now. So I have a few prayer requests from David and Victoria:
* They leave to go to America on February 7. Someone has graciously paid for their flights to and from Korea! They have also paid for their flight from Chicago to Florida! But when they arrive in Florida, they will not have transportation. They will need a vehicle to travel for at least four months as they travel around Florida as well as most of the following states: Virginia, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana. If you know of someone who may have a vehicle that they could use for about four months or any part of four months, please contact David directly at the following email address: david.baek25@gmail.com . Please pray that a vehicle will be provided.
* Since they have not traveled to many churches in the USA, they are in need of church contacts that would be open to them sharing their testimonies and let them know of the ministry they are involved with through WOL. If you are a church leader or know of a good church that would want a wonderful couple to share concerning their missionary work in Jeju Island, please also contact David Baek. Or you can contact me and I can relay the information to them. They will be in the Chicago area for a couple weeks upon arrival and then Florida. If you have possible dates and times when they could share at a church's missionary conference or a Sunday morning worship time from March through the middle of July, please reach out to them. They could also share as the missionary speaker at a Christian camp or retreat.
* If you would like to be one of David and Victoria's prayer supporters or the Lord puts it on your heart to support them financially, I know that would mean a lot to them. You can contact them at the email address above to get more information about supporting them.
David Baek shortly after we finished the Prayer Breakfast getting ready to talk with me about questions he had about raising financial and prayer supporters.
David with GGG before he left to have several other meetings on Saturday. Please pray for this dear brother and his wife, Victoria, as they prepare to raise support in the USA.
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I also had the privilege of spending some time with another dear friend and former SYME student this past weekend. JiSang called to ask if he could stay over at my apartment on Friday night. He was coming down to help Pastor Mike and his wife Alicia with their computers. You may recall that JiSang helped me by restoring all of my data that was lost on my computer. He also got me this wonderful device that I can store data and pictures on so that I don't have to slow down my personal computer. He came down to do the same thing with Mike and Alicia's computers. He arrived Friday evening with my favorite chicken - Saku Saku! :-) We enjoyed a wonderful time together before I went to sleep so that I could get up for the Prayer Breakfast. I think he worked a few more hours on the computer stuff and then woke up as I was leaving for the Prayer Breakfast to finish working on them. It is always great to see JiSang and fellowship with him. He left on Saturday around Noon to meet Mike and explain all that he had done to speed up their computers. We plan to have another visit soon - a visit that won't involve computers! :-) Please continue to pray for this dear young man as he seeks to serve the Lord.
Here I am with JiSang in my apartment. He had just opened the package that had this new "toy" in it for him. He had ordered in the USA and my sister, Julee, sent it to me for him. I should have gotten a picture of him right after opening it and playing with it. He was like a little boy opening presents at Christmas time! :-) So excited and happy!
Here is JiSang, the computer expert at work while enjoying Saku Saku chicken at the table in my kitchen!
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OK, this got longer than I thought it would. :-( Thank you, as always, for all you do for me. Thanks so much for your love, care, encouragement, emails, regular mail, prayers, and gifts! You are very special to me. Please let me know how I can pray for you, too. Enjoy this week! February is almost upon us!
Love, Gregg
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