LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD

Mission Report
JiYong Kim
Key Verses: Mark 12:29-31
“ “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.””

Praise be to God who is good and whose love endures forever. When I was wandering in darkness and lust 5 years ago, God brought me to Cincinnati in such a mysterious way to reveal his glory to me and make me a testimony of his glory to others. My past 5 years were sequences of God’s grace. He helped me to feed on his word. He helped me to get my Bachelor’s degree in Music at CCM and provided me with everything I needed, which I had never even dreamed of when I was in Korea. However, on the way to Korea in August this year, I was bitter rather than thankful, because I was so tired both spiritually and physically. I was determined to get as much sleep as possible while I stayed in Korea, away from all kinds of trouble and burden. But instead of physical comfort, God gave me such a great gift that can cover all my grumpiness and fear. In fact, I had to physically suffer even more because Shs. KyungHee called me to the Center every two or three days. KyungSung Center is so far away from my family’s house it takes nearly two hours, taking the bus and the subway and walking quite a distance. And Seoul has horrible traffic jam almost all the time. I had to suffer mentally, too, because my family live without the word of God. But God’s point of my visit to Korea was to teach me to love God. Thank God for giving me spiritual renewal and the new direction of my life through this trip. May God bless this mission report so that God’s powerful work may be revealed.

When I got home in Korea, my father was awaiting me with loads of trouble, which I wished I could have avoided. When I stayed in Korea this time, he talked to me more than we had been talking to each other in the previous 25 years. My parents were never in peace with each other for many years, although they somehow stayed together. He had many other issues about his life he hadn’t been able to solve by himself. For sixty years he had nobody to talk about his inner problems with. So now he was lonely, depressed and angry to the point that he was physically disturbed and couldn’t trust his own family, stuck in his suspicion and imagination. The next day I got there, he told me that he had been able to keep himself from committing suicide only because I was coming soon. My intention of the trip was purely my own comfort and ease, but God wanted me to serve as his messenger for my family. I was thankful that God had been equipping me with the Word of God while I was trained in Cincinnati so that when I faced even my own father’s problem I might not be swayed or distressed but be able to help him with God’s Word. When I gave him Ephesians 6:10-12, he suddenly began to recover both physically and spiritually and showed great interest in the Bible. After a long conversation, he was so happy that I was a Bible teacher, even calling his own daughter his mentor. He bought a Korean/English Bible for himself and began to read it day and night, asking me questions about the Romans. He said that he had now found that the Bible is written by the living God and he decided to read the Bible for the rest of his life. Shs. KyungHee suggested that he study with Sh. Hong-Il Seo. Although my father was skeptical about having one-to-one Bible study at first, when he heard that Sh. Hong-Il is a doctor of Oriental medicine, which he highly depends on, he agreed to study with him. He also attended the Sunday Worship Service once, when he heard me share my life testimony and mission report. He was really happy to meet Sh. Hong-Il and, although it is a long way for him to go to KyungSung Center, decided to study with him every Tuesday. A few days ago, my father even told me that he wished my mother studied the Bible, too. I thanked God for his marvelous work on my father and for sending me to Korea at his right time. Now I have the prayer topic that God may make him a shepherd for his family, which I never thought of. I had never imagined such a thing as my father’s change. He teaches business English classes at a college and his intelligence can be used for the gospel. I pray that he may be raised up to be an excellent Romans Bible teacher, inviting his students to the Bible and testifying the gospel to college students. I give thanks to the Lord, who brought me to Cincinnati not only to save me but also to reveal his glory and save my family and even further. May the Lord have mercy on my father and help him to keep growing in the knowledge of God, who is good and almighty.

God also worked mightily in me and gave me abundant spiritual blessing through this trip. When I first went to KyungSung Center, they were having the “makeup” Conference for those who could not make it for the Summer Conference. After the makeup Conference, we went to a place called Ae-Yang Won, almost 7 hours away from Seoul, which was built to remember Pastor Son, a martyr who lived the gospel and followed Jesus till his death. Before I went to Korea, M. Sam gave me the homework to While I was there, I had the privilege to share my life testimony and mission report with Romans 8:38-39 the key verses. Through this I was reminded how God had brought me to Cincinnati to reveal himself as God the Creator and to make me walk with God. When I was in Korea 5 years ago, I was despaired because of my sin and hopelessness. But God carried me on eagles’ wings and grew me step by step, giving me victory in school and providing me everything necessary. He called me to this particular place called Cincinnati so that I might not depend on people but seek God’s face, solely dwelling in “the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Everything that happened to me for last 5 years happened so that I might firmly stand on the foundation of the love of Christ. I deeply thanked God for the evidence of God’s work in this sinner for the past 5 years and was amazed to see that the coworkers there who heard my testimony were also thankful. While I thought nothing was really happening in this quiet ministry, the same God worked mightily in each of us with the Word of God to prepare us as his witnesses. I became truly thankful that I belong to Cincinnati UBF where God is definitely working.

This trip to Korea truly awoke me to the beautiful truth of the love of God. My last Bible study with Shs. KyungHee was Mark 12. Mark 12:29-31 says, ““The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”” Then I realized that everything I learned in Korea was summed up with this one rule. Ever since I began to study the Bible, I never gave myself wholly to the Lord. Although I was serving God with my body, I was always half-hearted and always looking for something else. When I was leaving Cincinnati a month ago, I was praying to get a clear direction of my life while I was there. As I graduated last year and M. Sam began to talk about my marriage, I was always busy calculating how I would take care of my own future. But through Jesus’ words I realized that in my future plan there was no God and that the point of my life should be to love God with all that I have: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” If my life has any direction, this is it. This is a tremendously beautiful commandment because it is the Lord our God who has given us this commandment, who loves us. As I left Korea, I prayed with Shs. KyungHee that I would offer my life to God as a missionary, loving the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength, serving college students in Cincinnati with the same love. Then I could see why God had brought me to Cincinnati 5 years ago in such an unusual way according to his plan to use me as his servant for UC students.

Praise God whose love never fails. Thank God for showing me that God is living and that the gospel is true. I would have been depressed at the news that Minsun left if God didn’t prepare me with the vision of the gospel through this trip to Korea. It is God who works for the good of those who love him. May God help me to go fishing faithfully and prayerfully and to bear the fruit of the Spirit this fall quarter. May God help me to love the Lord my God with all my heart and with all my soul and with all my mind and with all my strength. Amen.

One Word: Love the Lord your God