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!