Yilan Church, Taiwan

Pastor Chung HaeSub

 

It is 6 a.m. on Sabbath morning.  I feel sorry for my wife as I see her preparing for Sabbath lunch without any complaints even though she must be tired from cleaning the church yesterday.  It was such a burden for her to apply for PMM, since she didn’t want to go through adventures or challenges like most of the women.  After my endless persuasion, however, she finally said, “I would like you to do something you like.  I don’t want to get in your way.”  That’s why I am both sorry and thankful for her all the more.

The journey of a missionary is filled with trial and error, mistakes and struggles, and things they’ve never experienced before.  I have all kinds of stories to tell, though I have worked as missionary for just three years now.  Looking back on those times, sometimes I feel excited, funny or embarrassed.

I thought much about what I could do well on arriving at this mission field.  I also pondered about what I had in me that could be used for God’s work.  I was given a chance to learn Taiwanese for a year thanks to the help of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division, but I was still poor at it.  Nothing seemed to go smoothly because I was in need of help with various issues, such as the culture, geography and dialects of Taiwan.

Then I came to the conclusion that meal ministry was what I could do well after all.  That’s because many Taiwanese people were very much interested in Korean food thanks to the Korean Wave.  As a result, I was never hesitant to invite people to my home once I got to know them just a little bit.  That was done quite often, to my surprise.  Sometimes I even did so two times a day, putting my wife at a loss.  She wasn’t used to inviting people home even in Korea, and had such a great burden to cook Korean food as the representative of Korea.  That was not all.  There were some people asking my wife to teach them how to make kimchi, which her mother or the deaconesses made for her in Korea.  It must have been difficult for her to change from a student to a teacher in a day.

To make a long story short, she is now an expert at preparing meals.  It’s not a big deal to her if I invite some people over because she can deal with any situation.  She now has no problem helping anybody make kimchi anytime.  She makes it so well that some even say her kimchi is the best ever.

It’s now 8:30 a.m.  My wife is setting the table.  It seems she that has already finished preparing for the Sabbath lunch.  The food is sufficient and delicious enough to feed around 40 people.  How I wish many would come and enjoy it!  It leaves me heartbroken, however, because just three or four people come on some days.  My heart aches because she has prepared food with all her heart, but for how many people, she doesn’t know.  In fact, I feel sorry and upset for her all the more because it’s my responsibility to bring in more seekers after truth.  Now her job is done.  The only issue I have to deal with is feeding them the spiritual food from heaven.

I start praying in secret in the back as my wife cleans up.  I pray, “Dear God, please help me feed heavenly food to those coming to my church today.  Be with me so that my wife’s toil may not be in vain.  Please lead more and more people to thirst for Your Word and come to this church so that my wife may have to prepare more food for them.  That’s the only way she can feel encouraged despite her hard job.  And please strengthen me!”

3.jpg     The baptismal service during the evangelistic meeting in June 2006

1.jpg Taiwanese teachers from elementary school, middle school and high school as well as college students visiting Korea for its cultural experience and evangelistic meeting organized by Uiran Church in January 2007