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God's goodness, mercy and his perfect providence

Psalm 23:6 "Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."

Hosea 6:6 "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings,"

I praise and thank God for his great mercy and grace upon this wretched sinner to save me and use me as a silver missionary for the last 6 years in Zimbabwe the most beautiful country in the world. I like Zimbabwe because of its beautiful nature, good weather, clean air ands most of all its good people.

In 1964, when I was a university freshman God sent his precious servant missionary Mother Sarah Barry to me as my Bible teacher and my shepherd. Through John 3:16 which says, "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life." God helped me to confess Jesus as my personal Savior and my Lord. By his great grace God used my wife Anna and I as full time staff shepherds in Korea UBF for 40 years including 6 years as a Korea UBF director.

In 2011 by His grace God brought us to Zimbabwe as silver missionaries at the age of 68 and Anna at the age of 63. There are many points but will only share briefly three things about how God has blessed us in Zimbabwe.

Firstly, God blessed us to meet Him newly and personally. When we came to Zimbabwe there were several challenges such as the culture, language, lifestyle, food, people, situated in an alpine region, loneliness and a security problem. In this situation, we could not but kneel down before God and prayed every night and read the Bible. When we became very poor in spirit and humble God came to us as the Incarnate God through John 1:14 and as the God of mercy through Hosea 6:6 very personally. We had a very close fellowship with God and immediately experienced his answers to our prayers.

Secondly, God blessed us to see God's hope and vision for Zimbabwe and her young people. When we prayed for Zimbabwe, God made us realize that, what Zimbabwe needs is to raise true disciples of Jesus to be future influential leaders. So we earnestly prayed based on this prayer topic. God answered our prayers and blessed me to establish a Korean language program at the University of Zimbabwe and teach the Korean language as a visiting professor for the last 6 years. Through this program God sent us many one on one Bible students. Appolonia who was missionary Rebekah's sheep studied the Bible with missionary Anna for a year and worked as my first assistant of the Korean language program. She studied the Korean language for a year at Keimyung University in Korea and obtained a master degree in Korean language as a foreign language for two years with full scholarship. So she was prepared to be a Korean language lecturer. Chikura who was sent to Korea as a student missionary is studying the Korean language at Keimyung University as a full scholarship student now. Also shepherd Overson is going to be sent as the second student missionary to Korea just after this conference on a Korean government scholarship. And since two years ago God sent us many willing hearted sheep to study the Bible. Through all this God showed us his great vision and hope for Zimbabwe to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation and a missionary sending country.

Thirdly, God blessed us to participate and experience our missionaries' suffering and happiness in Zimbabwe. As silver missionaries, we tried to learn and support our missionaries, rather than teach or give them direction. God blessed us to have a deep love relationship with them and make a solid vessel of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we could know our missionaries' suffering and happiness very practically. Missionaries James and Petra, Caleb and Rebekah in Zimbabwe have been devoting their lives to God as self-supporting missionaries for over 20 years. They are great heroes and heroines in God's redemptive history. We were so happy to co-work with them and to support them in disciple making ministry in Zimbabwe for the last 6 years.

Two years ago the Zimbabwe Immigration office refused to extend our working permit without any reason or explanation. So for the last two years we have been coming to Zimbabwe twice a year on a tourist visa to serve gospel ministry and to prepare for the establishment of King Sejong Institute at the University of Zimbabwe. Missionary Petra succeeded my job at the Korean language program.

Now, through God's guidance we are going back to Korea to serve another plan of God for our life. I am 74 years old and missionary Anna is 69 years old. At this moment my confession through my 6 years of silver missionary life in Zimbabwe is that our God is good, loving and His providence is perfect. Just like David's confession I believe that his love and goodness will follow us all the days of our lives. And we will love Him more and devote our lives to Him continually.

Prayer topics:
(1) To love God more and learn Jesus more.
(2) The establishment of King Sejong Institute at UZ.
(3) Zimbabwe to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation and a missionary sending country.

To our everlasting Father God I give praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever! Missionary Anna and I will miss you all and Africa, especially Zimbabwe. Once missionaries in Africa, forever missionaries in Africa. I love you! I love Africa! May God bless you! Thank you so much.  

One word: God is good.         

Missionary Samuel H. Lee, Zimbabwe

8.20.2017