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.