Goodbye 2008

As I look over my shoulder at 2008 which will come to a close in about five hours I thought I would remind you all of everything that has happened at Corvallis Korean Church in the past 12 months.

1. Last year at this time our English worship service met in the small "chior" room with about 30 people attending. In February we recognized the need for more space and moved to the Gym and just a few weeks ago we had over 50 people in our service! Moving to the gym has been a blessing and a curse. It is great because we can now have a full worship team with drums and a few more guitar players. However, it does require a lot more work as we set up each week.

2. In March we had BreakAway (our spring retreat). Once again we went to Molalla Retreat Center. It was a ton of fun and we all enjoyed watching Daniel and San attempt to dance and sing on Saturday night.

3. In the spring we also had four of our students get baptized. Personally, it was the first time I had ever baptized anyone. Angela, Jane, Stephen and Lois each got baptized. Angela will forever go down in history as the first person I baptized.

4. We graduated four seniors from our youth group. Chris, Jane, Wonmo, and Janet are each attending college this fall. Chris goes to the University of Wisconsin, Jane attends Baylor, and Wonmo and Janet both go to OSU. We miss having them around at all our events but I am glad they still stay in touch with us.

5. In the summer we went on our first ever mission trip. Eight students and three leaders drove all the way to Arizona to work with the Navajo Native Americans. The week was incredible and we look forward to returning in 2009.

6. During the summer we also went on a camping trip to the sand dunes of Florence, Oregon. The trip was awesome! We rented sand boards, ate walking tacos, and laid out under the stars on the sand dunes.

7. We also had an all church retreat in July. The whole weekend was great, especially because we found an air conditioned room to hang out in!

8. We successfully ran a SAT prep class on Monday nights this fall. Well, I say we, but Danny was the teacher...I just pretend to be in charge.

9. Through out the entire year we have continued our weekly high school Bible study on Wednesday nights and youth group night on Fridays. I look forward to both of those nights each week!

10. Finally, just over a week ago we baptized two more students, Sun and Young-i. It was a privilage to be a part of that too.

11. Oh...and just for the recond thats 52 Sunday services, 36 Friday night youth groups, 34 Man Clubs, and 8 BYOLs....and that doesn't include all the retreats.

Thanks for a great 2008...I'm praying for an even better 2009!

Baptisms and Christmas Produciton

Last Sunday we had two of our students get baptized. I baptized Sun and Yvette. For those of you who don't know them, they are sisters. Sun is a Junior and Yvette is a 6th grader.
Besides Sun slipping and falling while getting in the water, everything went great!

I was honored to baptize them both. It was especially cool to baptize Sun because I prayed with her a year and a half ago when she became a Christian.

Here are a few pictures.

Now for the Christmas production pictures. It was a pretty awesome skit, everyone acted really well. I won't try to explain the whole skit, but enjoy the pictures. There's also some pictures of the band that played a little.

Christmas Party

What a weekend we had at CKC! Despite snow, freezing rain, and incredibly cold weather, we had our Christmas party, a baptism service, and Christmas program. This was our third annual Christmas party and every one seemed to have a lot of fun. We played bunco, ate dinner, played some team games, and had a white elephant gift exchange. Here is a bunch of pictures from the party. I'll get pictures up of the baptism and Christmas program soon.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

WE ARE HAVING THE CHRISTMAS PARTY!

So be here at 4:00

See you then!

Oldie but a Goodie

I love waking up and looking out my window at the snow covered fields.

I'm guessing most of you who read this like waking up and seeing the snow because it means school is probaby cancelled.

It's less than one week until Christmas, so I decided to bust out an old, but still great video.

Purpose

Purpose.

Everything has a purpose.

A pencil is for writing, an umbrella keeps the rain off you, coffee gives energy (and tastes good), school is for learning and guns are for killing.

Some things have noble purposes, others mundane and some even evil.

Different things, different purposes.

What good is something if it isn't being used for its purpose. There is a pencil sharpener that sits on the corner of my desk. It has been there for the past two and a half years and I have never used it. Actually, I don't think I even own a pencil. Basically, that electric pencil sharpener serves only one purpose at the moment: a paper weight. It's a pretty good paper weight. When I put paper under it, the paper never falls off the desk. In fact, I don't think I have ever had a better paper weight.

As good of paper weight as it may be...its purpose is to sharpen pencils. And I bet it is a good pencil shapener too.

Isn't it tradgic when something doesn't do what it was made to do.

Isn't it tradgic when someone doesn't do what it they were made to do?

The natural question is, what was I made to do. I'll tell you some of the answer. You were made to be in a divine romance with the King of Kings. You were made to honor and glorify him with your life. You were made to worship. You were made to lead others to the Savior. The list could continue.

The second half of the question is for you to answer.

Someone may be called to be a doctor. Great! Now honor and glorify God in that.

Someone may be called to be a student for the time being. Great! Now let your life be a worship service before God.

Someone may be called to be a janitor. Great! Now serve God as you work.


The tragedy is when someone misses one of the two parts. Either they don't glorify God in what they do...or they are not doing what God created them to do.

So, may our prayer be that we live the life God has called us to live, nothing more....nothing less.
In doing that we will live with purpose.

Everyone has a purpose. Don't get caught living out the wrong purpose.

Christmas Party

As I mentioned in my last post, we have our huge Christmas party coming up on the 20th. Just to remind all of you how fun it is, check out these pictures from last year.

Jane, Sun, Angela, and Eddie at the Bunco Table

Bunco Maddness

Daniel, Kevin, John and Stephen enjoying the mystery dinner

Veronica and Henna

Lois giving the camera some attitude

BUNKO TIME!

Some white elephant gifts!

Daniel being Daniel

Asian (thanks Tae-han) fun

Joe, Angie, Jane, and Timothy playing bunco

A Few Things

For those of you who don't read my wife's blog, our camera broke a while back so we have been without a camera. It's currently in the shop getting fixed and hopefully we will get it back soon. Sorry for not having any pictures to put up recently.

I do want to remind you of two things...

1. The Oneighty Christimas party is coming! The party is Saturday, December 20th from 4:00-7:00 at Corvallis Korean Church. All middle school and high school students are invited to be at the party. We will be playing bunco (a really fun game!), having a mystery dinner, and having a white elephant gift exchange. So, if you are planning on coming please pick up and wrap a present for under five dollars.

2. The all church Christmas service is scheduled for Sunday night, December 21st at 7:30. The youth group will be helping with the service by preparing a short skit and a song. All youth group students are encouraged to be a part of the choir. Even if you aren't a good singer please come...I sang the last two years and I'm terrible...so you have no excuse. We are going to have two practices. We will practice on Friday, December 12th and Friday, December 19th. Both times we will meet from 7:30-9:00. Please plan on being at the practices!

Thats all my annoucements for now. I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend. Oh, and Go BEAVERS!

Fear of Stairs

This story has nothing to do with the English ministry at CKC, but it is kinda funny...

Charissa's parents have a dog that recently had puppies, twelve of them to be exact. On Saturday Charissa and I stopped by thier house to check up on them. We bought along our dog, Macie, to see the puppies. Macie is a funny dog because she is desperately scared of stairs. Charissa's parent's house is a two story house, so Macie was forced to face her fear of stairs. She did a terrible job. After calling for her to come up the stairs, she refused. I ran up and down the stairs to prove to her it was safe...but nothing happened. So, I walked down the stairs, picked her up and carried her half way up. I then set her down on the stairs hoping that she would just run the rest of the way up. It seemed like a great plan at the time but turned out to be terrible. She just froze. I probably could have left her there for hours and she would never of moved. However, I knew that if she could take a few steps she would conquer her fear. So I took her foot in my hand and attempted to move it up one step. She wasn't going for it. I gave up and picked her up and carried her the rest of the way up the stairs. When I made it to the top I realized my pants were wet. Macie had peed all over me. I wish I had a picture to show you. I guess she got so scared she couldn't do anything but pee on me. So the moral of the story...when your dog is scared of stairs, don't force them to climb, they may just pee all over you.

A Thank You

You ever look back over your life and see God at work?

I wanted to take a moment and just mention three people who I am absolutely convinced God placed in the right place at the right time.

The first is Chris who is actually in Wisconsin right now at college. But about two and a half years ago he moved to Corvallis, Oregon from Korea. Coincidentally, he moved to Corvallis just two weeks after I started working atCorvallis Korean Church. He lived with host families for two years while finishing up high school. Last spring his mom came over from Korea to be a part of his graduation. She pulled me aside and mentioned that she was thankful for me and being a part of Chris' life...I immediately told her, it was just the opposite. I am the one that is thankful for him. You must understand, if it were not for him, the English ministry at Corvallis Korean Church would not be where it is today. He helped to start and lead our English worship team and was a constant encouragement to me. I thought I was being hired to encourage him...but he encouraged me. We miss him, but know he is doing great things on the other side of the country.

Secondly, Jane, who is currently at Baylor,but will be returning home this weekend, moved to Salem from Kansas just weeks after I was hired as well. Ironically, her family moved into a house just minutes from mine and Charissa's. Her family became active in everything that happened at Corvallis Korean Church. When I first met her I never would have guess that Charissa, Jane and I would spend countless hours driving back and forth from Corvallis to Salem. She too was a constant encouragement. There were Friday nights when we first began Oneighty that I would be worried that no one would show up..but I could always count on her and Stephen (her little brother) to be there. She was also a part of our original English worship team and is a big reason for why we are where we are today.

Finally, a guy named Danny returned to Corvallis after spending some time in the Phillipines on a mission trip. Sometimes you don't realize how important people are until they are gone. Danny normally leads our worship time on Sunday mornings. He has taken over after Chris went to college and has been a great leader of both the worship team and others who come on Sundays. Last Sunday, he went to speak at a church in Portland which meant we were without him. Luckily, worship has nothing to do with who the leader is...so we were still able to worship God, but it just wasn't the same with out him leading. I'm thankful that he will be back this Sunday, but am sad that he will be going to China in the spring. I will miss his leadership, his love for God, and his ability to worship God.

Thus, I will say this....I am pretty sure that two and a half years ago when God told me to head to Corvallis and work in a Korean church, God also called Chris, Jane, and Danny to Corvallis because God knew that a new, young, inexperienced pastor would need their help.

So, in the spirit of thanksgiving, Thank You.

Is there someone in your life God has used to impact you? Why not let them know.

Scary Stuff

Prayer is scary.

Yep, you heard me right. I'm a pastor and I think prayer is scary.

I want to rethink prayer. Well...maybe "rethink" is the wrong word. I want to understand what it means to pray. I'm not talking about praying before dinner or before an important test...I'm looking deeper than that.

Today, one of the men who spoke at the conference I was at said, "I challenge you to pray for the impossible." Pray for the impossible?

That's stupid.

By definition, impossible means it can never happen.

Lets rethink the impossible.

A child born of a virgin mother...impossible.
A blind man, lame man, and deaf man instantly healed...impossible.
A man beaten, nailed to a cross, and buried in a tomb dead, yet, rises from the dead...impossible.

Maybe God is all about doing the impossible.

Thus, I come full circle...I'm scared to pray for the impossible...what if God actually does something incredible. For the impossible to happen it will mean that I have to give up trying and allow God to do all the work. It will mean that I am stretched, broken, and left with only God to sustain me...and thats a scary thought.

As scared as I am...I might be more excited. What if God does do the impossible?

So, here is my new prayer...

I pray that our youth group will grow to be too big for our building.
I pray that our students will not just show up on Sundays for church but will be the church every day as they interact at school.
I pray that our students will share Christ with every person in their school.
I pray that every week new students will come to Christ.
I pray that 100% of those at oneighty will live sold out lives for Christ.
I pray that all 100 college students who came to the opening night of EPIC will come to know Christ if they do not already.
I pray that lives will be radically changed and eternally altered.

I could continue...but you get the idea. Will you pray for the impossible?

Bowling Night

Currently I am in Portland at a Pastor's conference. I have a lot of thoughts to share..but I'll hold off till the end of the week...

Last Friday night Oneighty ventured off to the bowling lanes in Corvallis. Everyone seems to love bowling. We always have more students show up for bowling night than we expect. This year was not exception. We had a ton of fun...some people were good, others not so good, but I won't mention any names.

Here's a couple of pictures from Friday.

What a day...

I'm currently sitting at a Starbucks in Portland, waiting patiently for my wife to arrive. It might be awhile, she is just leaving Salem. It feels like it has already been a long day! I got up around 5:30 this morning and drove to my parents house and jumped in their truck and headed for Seattle. My little brother was running in his final cross country meet of his college career so I went to cheer him on. It was fun, just an early morning.



After stopping for Coffee and a Donut shop in Seattle we were lucky to watch the whole race with no rain falling on us! That was amazing since it rained the whole car ride to Seattle. After the race we loaded back up in the truck and headed home.



Which leads me to this Starbucks (where I have purchased my second coffee of the day). My parents dropped me off across the street actually at a McDonald's. In just over an hour I will be heading to a wedding for Darren and Sarah. So, I have time to waste as I wait for Charissa to show up to go to the wedding. After changing into my nice, wedding clothes in the bathroom of McDonald's I walked over here. So, I wait.



In the mean time...It's gotten pretty dark out and I love big cities at night. Some of you know I would love to live in a big city just to be able to look out the window at night. You see so many interesting people. There's a lot of interesting people in this little Starbucks. I have already (in like 20 minutes) been asked if I am Tyler and Derick. Once by a guy and the other by a girl. I guess they are meeting people here...oddly as I look around, they are both still waiting for Tyler and Derick.



If you are actually still reading this, congradulations, because this post is pretty much about nothing. But I will end by saying, I'm excited for church tomorrow. We're talking about humility for the second straight week. It's not really a fun topic to discuss...mainly because I'm not that humble. You could probably accurately discribe me as a pridefull person who is persuing humility but continually fails. But I'm excited for church because I actually like church. I like getting together, worshiping, eating, and simply hanging out. I feel bad for people who sneak in the back of a church just before it starts and quickly exit at the end...they don't really experience church. Considering that church isn't a building or a program but people...If you don't interact with people it really isn't church. So,

Choir Concert

On Wednesday night Daniel, Veronica and I went to watch Jae's choir concert at Cresent Valley High school. Jae is a Sophmore in our youth group and moved here this past summer from Korea. I think he has been to every single youth group even since he moved here. I don't think he has missed a Sunday morning, Wednesday night, Friday night, or retreat. That's pretty incredible when you think about it. The concert was pretty fun, OSU's choir was there and sung a couple of songs which was pretty amazing.

I am always amazed at how many songs they sing that talk about God. Its interesting to me because it seems like in today's society people are so eager to take God out of the class room. People have tried to remove the "under God" phrase from the Pledge of Allegiance and teachers can rarely speak of God in the class room. Yet, the choir can sing over half of their songs about Jesus, God, and Heaven. It is really cool, but kind of strange.

To take it even further, I wonder if people realize what they are singing out or if the people listening are really listening. Songs are sung about the blood of Christ, about salvation, and the hope of eternity. I'll be careful not to judge people's hearts, but I wonder if every member of that choir really thinks Jesus died for them, conquered death, and has gave them eternal life.

Anyways, just a thought I had.

In the end, Jae sang great...or his choir did, its kind of hard to hear just his voice.

Halloween

I feel like it has been a long time since I last updated. Sorry for the long delay, I've been really busy.

Last week, on Wednesday night, Man club (our high school Bible study) went on a road trip to Salem. The Corvallis School district didn't have school on Thursday, we used the oppurtunity to do something fun! We went to the "Nightmare Factory" at the Salem Deaf School. I think Sun holds the prize for the most scared, I don't think she ever opened her eyes while in the haunted house. John was probably the least scared as he led our group.

Here are two pictures from the night.

Here is our group and a creepy guy who was walking around scaring
people while we waited in line.

I'm not sure what is wrong with Sun in this picture.

To Obey or Not Obey

She can be really annoying at times. It feels like I continually have to say the same things over and over again, "stop, get down, leave me alone, don't bite." I guess she is only a puppy and I should be more understanding. Macie (my puppy) just doesn't seem to get it sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if she will ever grow up and understand the difference between what I want her to do and what she would rather do.

Every night when me and Charissa head to bed we put Macie into her little kennel. It certainly would be a terrible idea to let Macie have free roam of the house at night. We would most likely wake up to find things chewed, torn and destroyed. We also don't want to leave her outside in the cold and rainy Oregon weather. Therefore, we put her into her bed for the night. The problem, Macie hates it! It's not like she is doing much late at night anyways. In fact, most nights as Charissa and I watch TV she sleeps quietly in the room with us, you wouldn't think it would be a big deal for her to sleep in her bed. When we get up and call her and point to her kennel she rarely comes. Most of the time she plays that game where she stays on one side of the kitchen table and I try to catch her. If I go one way she moves the other. When I try to turn around and go back the other way, she turns around as well. The worst is when she makes it into our bed room and hides under the bed. I'm not really sure how she does it, she's getting kind of big to fit under there. It is nearly impossible to get her out. I have to reach under the bed and grab her by the feet and drag her out. There are glimpses of hope when she willingly goes to her bed for the night but those are few and far between.

To continue my complaining tirade, she also is in the bad habit of jumping on you. I don't know how many times I have pushed her off me saying, "Down Macy!" She still jumps right back up. She is getting better about not biting but still has her moments. It drives me crazy sometimes. I just wish she would learn how to be a good dog and not such an annoying one.

The funny thing is (bear with me for a moment) I think I'm a lot like Macie. I wonder if God ever views me like I view Macie. Certainly he doesn't look at me as annoying and He certainly loves me more than I could ever love a dog. I wonder how many times he has said to me, "stop" and for a moment I quit but eventually I return. I wonder how often I run hiding under the bed thinking that if I can't see him he must not be able to see me. I see glimpses of hope in my life but I am reminded continually of how rebellious I can be. Does God ever say, "I wish he would just grow up and understand the difference between what he wants to do and what I want him to do."

Maybe someday I will figure this life out. By the grace of God, I am eternally secure not because of my ability to obey, but Christ's ability to save. Still, I struggle to do what is right in the eyes of God. Maybe one day, I will learn what it really means to obey. Who knows, maybe even Macie will figure out someday.

Friday night

I'm sitting in Greek class right now (we are one a 10 minute break) and I thought I would put some pictures up here from last Friday night. For all you middle school and high school students remember that we will be having our own Halloween party this Friday night, which basically means we will have lots of candy. Also, in a week and a half on Friday, November 7th we will be going bowling.

Lois and Young-i playing the "pushing game."

Veronica and Alicia

More "pushing" game. Chi-ho isn't in youth group...but he likes to play games.

"Do you love your brothers and sisters."

One more from the "pushing" game.

Eddie and Jason practicing Karate

Joe trying not to get caught. It looks like Alicia is about to

have her arms pulled off in the back ground.

Light saber wars...technically Young-i isn't allowed too use

two hands...

A White Guy, Seafood, and Koreans

I am a white guy working in a Korean church. The first question that I get asked by people who find out what I do is, "do you know how to speak Korean?" I always respond with, "no." I have learned a lot in the past two and a half years working here. I've learned a lot about what it means to do ministry, but I have also learned a lot about Koreans.

Every Friday morning there is a moms group that meets for a Bible study here at church. Normally, around noon their Bible study is over and they all go home. Today was different. Together, they cooked lunch and asked me to eat with them. They had cooked a "seafood" soup. I'm not sure what the real name of it was but it was definately seafood and noodles in a bowl. Just for the record, I'm not a real fan of seafood. In fact, my motto is, "if it swims I don't eat it." With this in mind, Pastor Paul and I sat down for lunch with a bunch of Korean ladies. I'm pretty must used to being the only white person in the room at these kind of things. In fact, I have come to expect it on a daily basis. The funny thing is, my church knows me too well. They know I don't like seafood so they offered me a different soup. It wasn't as spicy and was a lot less seadfoodish. I thought it was really good - it tasted like chicken noodle soup to me. I was happy that I didn't have to eat something I didn't really like...but I was a little disappointed when I realized the soup I was eating was really the soup that was made for all the little kids. So, here I was sitting in a room with two tables. One table for the adults, one table for the children. All the children are eating the "chicken noodle soup." All the adults are eating their "seafood" soup, except for me. I guess if there is one good thing to take away from this story, it is that they didn't send me to the kids table.

Anyways, I thought it was kinda funny. But I also wanted to add, even though I don't speak Korean I rarely feel out of place. I may not fully understand what is being said, but language is so much more than just words. I can usually figure out what is going on just by paying attention.

So, I'm thankful to be working in a Korean church. I may not always enjoy the food, but they seem to understand and make sure there is food I will like, even if it is children's food. I may not understand eveything said, but I can still communicate. God works in amazing ways. If you had asked me 4 years ago if I would be sitting down for lunch on a Friday afternoon in a room full of Koreans to eat seafood soup...I would have laughed and said, "no way!" Now I wonder how I could be doing anything else.

Youth Group

I'm sitting at church right now, drinking my dutch bros coffee and I thought I would post some pictures from Oneighty. I know some of these pictures are old...but they are still cool.

This was the first youth group night of the year. We had some fun with water balloons.

Jason and Angela had an "accident"

This is probably a year old...but still funny. We were making mummies for halloween last year. I'm not exactly sure who is under all the toilet paper. Maybe Joe?

Pie eating contest

Part of our scavenger hunt last year.

More scavenger hunt

Whip cream in Stephen's mouth...not sure why he has crutches?

I hope you like the pictures...I have hundreds more...they'll get up on the church website sometime soon...until then, this will have to do.