Amazing Grace

Finally in Australia

The movie Amazing Grace, which is the true story of William Wilberforce, has finally arrived in Australia. It'll be a great outing for small groups to attend together and discuss afterwards. The official movie website offers some resources and study guides for you to use, which you can access here.

Podcast Updated

Last Sunday's sermon is uploaded and can be downloaded on iTunes here or through the podcast player on the right. And the sermon outline can be downloaded here. Have a great week and let's continue to stay in prayer for the Korean hostages in Afghanistan. Praying for a peaceful and quick resolution to this crisis.

Currently Listening Your Love Broke Through: The Worship Songs Of Keith Green By Various Artists There Is A Redeemer (Michelle Tumes)

Healing and Hope

Healing

Siew (Sue) is a congregation member of Wesley Church whom we've been praying for, for the past several weeks concerning her cancer. Last Sunday we just found out that God had completely taken all traces of cancer out of her body! Praise God for His healing hand and His answer to our prayers! Our 3:00pm service has a time set apart for healing prayer after each service and it's been amazing to see how God has been answering so many prayers in the past few months. Many have been healed, there are testimonies of divine protection in times of danger and hearts that have been recommitted to Christ after years of apathy towards Him. Just wanted to honor God through this short testimony about His faithfulness and power =)

Door of Hope

And I also wanted to promote a special ministry here at Wesley. The women's ministry of Wesley Mission has a special program called "The Door of Hope", which is a recovery ministry for women who have been sexually abused. It's a 10-week course seeking to help bring restoration, strength and hope in a safe environment. For those who would like a presentation done about this ministry in your church, or if you know of someone who could benefit from this program, please let me know and I'll be happy to connect you.

Podcast Updated

Last Sunday's sermon is also uploaded. You can listen to it in the podcast player on the right or download it through iTunes here. And the sermon outline can be downloaded here. I'm taking them through the purposes of a church and hopefully it'll help them establish a good foundation for the years to come :) Please continue to pray for me and for my time at Wesley, that though it's a temporary position for me, that it might be a fruitful one. Thanks.

Currently Listening Much By Ten Shekel Shirt Healer

Sydney, Coffee and Chocolate

Sydney with Sabastian

Hermann, Minsang and I took Sabastian around Sydney on Monday. It was awesome to hear about the ways God blessed the New Life retreat last week, and I loved talking ministry with a fellow brother who has a passion for His Kingdom being built through the local church. I'm looking forward to see what God has in store for us in terms of future partnership. For those who don't have facebook, here's a link to some of our pictures. It was Sabastian's childhood dream to go inside a warship, so he was like a kid in a candy store when we went past the Maritime Museum.

Coffee and Chocolate


The Rocks in Sydney is going to have an "Aroma Festival" this Sunday (July 22) from 10am to 5pm, celebrating coffee, chocolate, tea and spices ... and chocolate! =) I think I know where I'll be having my lunch break this Sunday =) And here's a link to the list of venues that will be having stalls that day. For lovers of coffee, chocolate, tea and spice ... I think that covers almost everyone, no?

Currently Listening Achtung Baby By U2 Ultra Violet (Light My Way)

Humble Eyes

Podcast Updated

Just uploaded this week's sermon on humility, entitled "Humble Eyes". You can listen to it through the podcast player on the right or download it through iTunes here, and you can get the sermon outline here. We'll finally be getting to our church series next week and begin developing Wesley's structure to be a bit more efficient and effective for growth and ministry. God always seems to be bringing a new group of old friends to each service, which I count as a gift from above. So thanks for those who make the time to come out. I count each of you as a gift.

A Song Behind the Sermon

This topic of having "humble eyes" is something God was teaching me throughout my college years. It was one of the biggest lessons of my life during those years, tearing away my desire to live for people and instead, to live for the Audience of One. It also led to me to write one of my first songs, with the same title. You can hear a sample here. Here are the lyrics:

Humble Eyes

A humble heart and humble eyes
To see myself as common in my eyes to see You
Ears to hear You, a heart that loves You
More than my own life I give You, Lord I need You
More and more I need You, more and more I need ...

Your humble heart, Your humble eyes
That saw Yourself as common in Your eyes that saw me
Your ears that heard me, Your heart that loved me
More than Your own life You gave me, Lord you saved me
More and more I need You, more and more I need ... You

ANZ

Kiwi Buddies

The picture above is the group of friends from New Zealand who visited last week. It was a blast hanging out with them again in the city. It's been over 2 years since I last saw them at a retreat in Auckland. A lot of NZ reminded me of Vancouver for its natural beauty and its combination of mountains and the ocean. For those who plan on visiting Sydney, make sure you also set aside a few days to explore New Zealand as well ... if you're going to come ALL the way over here, you might as well hit that country too =)

And thanks for those who prayed for my niece Jaelyn, she and my sister are well and finally went home a couple of days ago. Can't wait to hold her =) Have a great week ... in His presence.

Currently Listening U218 Singles By U2 Original of the Species

My Beautiful Niece is Born

Meet Jaelyn Chung

My sister just gave birth to her first child, a beautiful and very cute daughter named Jaelyn. I'm pretty sure I'm not being biased by saying that my niece is very very good looking =) She's still in the hospital right now due to a slight infection so please pray for her quick recovery so she can go home to Mom and Dad soon.

I love this picture (below) of her peeking through one eye to see who's watching her. I'm sure my dad will be going photo crazy so it's just a matter of time before I'll have plenty of pictures to show off. Hopefully I'll be in the US soon to visit my new niece =) Can't wait!

Regular Update

And for my regular podcast updates, last Sunday's sermon outline and MP3 can be downloaded here, part 2 of our "Growing Firm Foundations" series ... a look at digging deeper into God's Word.

Kiwi Blessings

An extra blessing for this weekend was seeing a lot of friends from New Zealand who flew over for the Hillsong Conference which was held last week. I haven't seen most of them in over 2 years. It's very cool how God's been enabling me to reconnect with a lot of old friends these days both physically and through the net (well, mainly Facebook!).

Currently Listening X&Y By Coldplay Talk

Reflections on Blessings Past, Present and Future

Matt, Paul and Me

Happy USA and Canada Day

First off, Happy 4th of July to my American buddies. Some of the Korean-Americans in Sydney had a nice BBQ dinner last night to celebrate the birthday of the good 'ol US of A. And also Happy Canada Day to my Canadian buddies. I think it was last week (?) :P Oh Canada.

Ministry Food

Matt, Paul and I (pictured above) had a nice lunch last week to catch up on things and to talk ministry. They both started seminary and I've been enjoying the new questions they have now that they're starting to get their feet wet a bit more in ministry. I'm very hopeful for the future of the Australian church with a whole new generation of ministers being raised up in this country. May their passion be pure and may Christ be their everything.

Podcast Updated

The latest sermon has been uploaded to my podcast and you can download the sermon outline here. I'm also in the middle of trying to organize the past sermons a bit better - by text and hopefully by topic in the near future. It's located in a new link I made called sermon archives. I only have the Ruth series and some of the 1 Timothy there right now, but my goal is to get everything there eventually (MP3 and outlines).

I don't know why I'm like this, but I always want to keep organizing things more and end up spending so much time trying to think of more efficient and effective ways to access information. Anyone else like this? I'd love to talk through organizational systems with someone ... anyone? :P Anyways ...

Heart Transition

With the possibility of moving back to America becoming more of a reality (after leaving the US over 12 years ago!), each day is filled with so many mixed emotions. I get excited at the thought of living closer to friends and family members that I haven't seen in years (and in some cases decades!), celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas again ... and a new vision of seeing the Kingdom of God grow in a new city. But also, it makes me appreciate every friendship and partnership that God has blessed me with here in Australia over the past 6 years. So much has happened ... and so much is yet to come.

Past Goodness

But ultimately, with faith, I'm always excited about the next adventure God has in store for me. Throughout my life, whenever God led me to a new country ... though I was nervous at first, God blessed me in ways I could have never imagined.

USA. God raised me, saved me and called me into ministry in this country. I'm thankful God brought our family here on July 4, 1976 (USA's 200th birthday!). It freaks me out to think about how different my life and faith would have been if it wasn't on this path of grace God led me on in the city of Chicago (baby!). It was through my youth group days that I tasted the joy of salvation and first got my itch for ministry. This is where it all began.

Canada was one of the happiest times of my life ... and it was a place of healing for me, a place of falling in love with learning (and books!) and a place where the community gave me a taste of heaven - it was amazing. And by far, the most beautiful place to be and enjoy God's creation (as long as it's not raining!)

Korea expanded my vision for His Kingdom, challenged me in ministry like never before, and pushed me to grow in every area of my life, while gaining a heart for the nations by meeting wonderful people from all over the world.

Australia expanded the capacity of my heart to embrace people for life and be willing to lay down my life for the flock that was entrusted under my care. I was ready and more than willing to lay down my life for my family at New Life. I love them so deeply. And I could never trade the joy of seeing so many lives change ... to see lives fall in love with our Savior and have Christ be their everything.

Future Grace

So though I didn't know those things would happen before I went to each place, I'm glad that they did. And in light of God's goodness in my past, I'm can look to the future with equal expectation and excitement, knowing that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ. And for this moment now, to be thankful, content and happy to be in His presence. Peace.

Currently Listening The World As Best As I Remember It, Volume 1 By Rich Mullins Step By Step (O God You Are My God)