Missions

A few nights ago, I randomly decided to browse through my journal that I wrote in while I was in China last summer. As I was reading through the different entries I had written before, during, and after the trip, I was, metaphorically, transported back in time and a flood of memories gushed forth. It was a good solitary time between me and God, as I was being freshly reminded of different experiences and convictions from the Lord.

Last night, my roommates and I went to check out a local church's missions banquet. The church, Open Door Presbyterian Church, is a Korean church that gave birth to an English congregation that meets independently. Though they are two entities, they often times interact very closely, as is the case with their summer missions trips. During their missions service where in which the 7 summer missions teams did a presentation as well as the pastor gave a short sermon, I was blown away at this church's commitment to missions. This was a church that not only talked the talk about going to the ends of the earth; they were wholly committed to the evangelization of every people group.

This church, like I said early, sent 7 summer missions teams comprising of more than 100 people of its Korean and English congregation. They also have sent out long-term missionaries that are serving faithfully in Africa and Central Asia, as well as financially support many others. One of their teams that went to an East Asian country had the opportunity to enter into a closed country, not only to missionaries but to most citizens of the world. When they showed pictures, I felt God was reawakening my heart to the work of missions. And during the prayer time, it was one of the most refreshing prayer times I've had for a long, long time.

I'm going to attend the church on Sunday to see what it's like on an average Sunday and to see if this is the church for me. The only reservation I have is that it is predominantly homogeneous in its makeup, with a few non-Koreans. But in terms of the one value that I refused to compromise on, this church is all that I could've wished for in its pursuit of reaching the nations. We'll see what happens...