News > North America

“Do Not Despise Small Beginnings.”

Zechariah 4:10 “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand. (The seven lamps represent the eyes of the LORD that search all around the world.)”

Part 1. 2015 Annual Review

• The overview of God’s work

My key verse for 2015 was 2 Corinthians 5:7, which says, “We live by faith, not by sight.” The people of this world are influenced by the things that are seen. We are tempted to live in the same way, by looking at problems of this world. But we should look beyond the problems and look forward to the glorious kingdom of God. I chose that key verse to make 2015 the year of faith. I planned every activities centered around faith. Last year’s main activity was Canadian Summer Bible Conference at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario from July 9-12, 2015, with the theme, “Faith that pleases God.” It was the first Canadian conference where every chapter in Canada participated by sending at least one person. We had 288 registrations. It was our sincere prayer that each attendee may learn faith that pleases God, and 26 group Bible study leaders may grow as excellent Bible teachers. We had a panel discussion on faith, where we discussed questions on faith we collected through our conference web site. Personally, I learned that faith that pleases God is to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. When we declare Jesus as the Son of God through our Bible study, dry bones will come alive. Canadian ministry is like dry bones. Many people, including myself, have been saying, “Raising disciples among Canadian students is impossible. Our strength is gone.” But at the end of the conference, I saw a vast army, raised by the Holy Spirit, to conquer 300 campuses in Canada.

Last year many changes occurred. Several students left after graduation. Luke West, who has been serving in our ministry last 5 years, graduated with a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, and went to UCLA for his Ph.D. program. Also Somang Chung went to Korea to work at Korea Polar Research Institute. Their departure left a big hole in our ministry, especially in praise and worship team. We earnestly pray that God may send a replacement. But I thank God who raised Calvin, Edmond, Esther Lazo, and En Hua as leaders. M. Peter Cho, who has been serving last 8 years, obtained a tenure-track position at UNIST in Korea, and he and his family are going to move to Korea at the end of January 2016.

• One to one Bible study and disciple-making ministry

We had Clubs Day invitation ministry on September 9 and September 15. Total 105 students signed up. Also we set up tables at the University of Toronto Sidney Smith building 5 times a semester for the invitation ministry. Many of our students participated in the outreach.

Coffee with God: After Clubs Day, we invited them to informal meeting, entitled, “Coffee with God,” where we served coffee and talked about questions about God. Sam Mukwedeya and Sheila Htoo shared their testimonies on how God blessed their school studies through Bible study. Total 24 people attended, including 18 students.

• Conferences, Bible schools, etc.

First, Easter symposium. We had Easter celebration on April 3 and 5 by studying 1 Corinthians 15. In particular, Somang prepared a lecture on “The slavery of death.” We learned that fear of death produces slavishly pursuing success and not admitting our weaknesses and pretending to be OK to others. We are enslaved by desire for success and fear of being ordinary. Christ freed us from slavery to death by his resurrection and by opening the door of the glorious kingdom of God. Now it is OK to be ordinary because we are the holy children of God who prepared the glorious kingdom for us. 

Second, summer Bible conference. We had a united Canadian summer Bible conference on July 9-12, 2015. God sent 21 attendees. Luke West delivered the opening message on Hebrews 11:1-7, and Sam Mukwedeya shared his testimony at Faith Symposium about his struggles and faith in God in obtaining a permanent job after graduation.

Third, God has blessed our study of 2 Corinthians at the beginning of the year to live by faith, not by sight. We studied Hebrews 11, faith chapter for preparation for the summer conference, and Isaiah 9,11,12,40 for preparation for Christmas worship service. We studied 4 “I AM” statements from John’s gospel in September for new students. We studied Luke’s Gospel throughout the year.

4. Serving guests; coworking

First, Campus night in Chicago. We sent Sheila Htoo and Wah Paw to Chicago for Campus Night celebration.

Second, Curie Lee from Chicago and Johannes Lee from Germany came to the summer conference and shared their life testimonies.

Third, Labor Day workshop. On August 29, Canada UBF had a workshop on discipleship by inviting Pastor Ron Ward and David Won. Andrew Christopher, Andy Stumpf, and Luke Hong were also speakers. We used the discipleship manual made at Leadership Development Workshop in Chicago.

5. Thanksgiving topics

By God’s grace, he granted 7 people (Henry Kim, Joshua Lee, Paul Chang, Paul Lee, Charles Kim, John Lee, and Paulus Cha) in Ontario licenses to perform marriages. There are many second gens and shepherds who are in marriageable age. This project was started in 2007. There were many obstacles on the way, but I thank God for his mercy. May God use this for his glory to establish many house churches.

My term as the Canada coordinator ended in December 2015. I thank God who has given me strength to carry out my duty as the Canada coordinator for the last 4 years despite my weaknesses. Many times I did not know what to do or what to pray for. But God helped me to fix my eyes on Jesus, and reminded me that my prayer is to glorify Jesus in my life and Canadian ministry. I was elected to serve another term for 2016-2020. I pray that God may give me strength to serve.

Part 2. 2016 Vision and Strategy

• 2016 Key verse

I chose Zechariah 4:10 as my key verse for 2016. It says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand. (The seven lamps represent the eyes of the LORD that search all around the world.)” (NLT) Many people want to do great things for God and get discouraged thinking that their work is insignificant. When our efforts go unnoticed, we may feel like little people, filling little places, performing little deeds. This is especially true for one to one Bible studies. In fact, many students quit after several Bible studies, and we wonder whether we are wasting our time. Many envy big ministries with glamour and a lot of activities. But Jesus began his work in the manger. Jesus says in Matthew 25:21, “You have been faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things.” The day of small things done by the Spirit is the day of precious things and will be the day of great things in that great day! Little is much if God is in it. God rejoices in what is right not necessarily in what is big. Men might look with contempt on the humble work of God through his humble people, but there are other eyes, God’s eyes, that gaze upon their work with joy. Even greeting a newcomer makes a big difference to that person. I pray that I may be faithful with small things. If we realize that working by God’s Spirit is the guarantee for the success of work done for God, we will avoid the error of measuring the importance of things by their size. 

• Conference and Bible school plans

We will have Easter Bible symposium on March 25 and 27. 

This year, due to World Mission Report in Korea in June, we are not going to have summer Bible conference. Several people will attend World Mission Report and missionary conference in Korea.

      3.  Ministry Strategy and Prayer topics

When I was appointed as the Canada coordinator in 2011, I had a prayer topic to increase the Sunday worship service attendees to 500 and 1 to 1 Bible studies to 1000 per week by 2015. Those prayer topics have not been realized. Our Sunday worship service attendees remain around 320, and 1 to 1 Bible studies around 220 per week. I was disappointed in our coworkers who did not engage in 1 to 1 Bible studies. Then I realized that they are limited by their jobs and many circumstances beyond their control. When I fixed my eyes on Jesus, I could realize that my focus was misplaced and began to pray that God may be glorified in and through our coworkers’ lives in their given situations.

I also realized that we should rethink our approach to 1 to 1 Bible study. In the past, 1 to 1 study meant that a Bible teacher teaches a student the Bible in a formal setting with a question sheet. However, 1 to 1 Bible study should be about mentoring and encouraging on a personal basis. So if a shepherd/missionary/student encourages and counsels a fellow shepherd/missionary/student/friend/coworker with the word of God, it should be regarded as 1 to 1 Bible study. We should look around us to see if anyone needs encouraging and counseling with the word of God.