News > Latin America

February 6, 2013

 

Dear Coworkers,

 

Thank you very much for your fervent prayer support for me from all around the world. Now I am very much restored to health. In this letter, I’d like to express my gratitude to all of you. At the beginning of this year, I chose Revelation 2:10b as my key verse for 2013: “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.” Although I said I lived for the Lord, I was so weak to do His will. So with a repentant heart for my lack of devotion, I chose this verse.

 
I began my missionary life at the age of 28. But I was lazy and didn’t bear fruit to the Lord. I made many mistakes and lived my missionary life in my own way and couldn’t glorify God. We lived in a few different Latin American countries. But the Lord was merciful to me, and he granted me Honduras as my spiritual vineyard.  Last Friday on Jan. 25, in San Pedro Sula which is known as one of the world’s most violent cities, around 12 noon while I was waiting for the red light to change, two men with guns got out of a car and approached my car. As I noticed them, I quickly made a U turn and they began to shoot at my car. Bullets came through the back door and window of my car and penetrated into the back seats and neck rest area of the front seats. One bullet hit the back of my head and another on my side. My wife, M. Elizabeth, was not hurt at all. A passerby was also shot and wounded.

 

At that moment, I made a quick prayer in Spanish that God might save my life. If not, he might accept my spirit. M. Elizabeth panicked and cried aloud when she saw blood flowing from my head. In that desperate situation, she drove the car to the hospital. Doctors in the emergency room cut my hair and observed the wounds on my head. They were very surprised to find that the bullet in the head didn’t penetrate into the skull; instead, the bullet was flattened and stuck in the flesh. The bullet that hit my side penetrated through my clothes hitting hard the rib cage, but didn’t break any bones. The doctors were amazed and confessed that it was like a miracle they rarely saw. By God’s grace, I was kept in the hospital just one day and was released the following day on Saturday. On Sunday morning I could deliver Sunday message for students.

 

This event caused several changes in me.

First, I became very talkative. I talk constantly to share the testimony about God’s love with many who are visiting me, to a point that people wonder if I was actually the person who was shot by gun. After I was released from the hospital, when I take my children to their school, many students and teachers greet me, give me hugs and tell me about God’s grace upon me. So I too repeatedly testify about God’s grace to me.

 

Second, I realized how deep and marvelous God’s love is. I knew Jesus loved even his enemies, but I couldn’t accept it in my heart. Unintentionally, I hurt some people, and at the same time, couldn’t forgive some people. So Jesus’ teaching of unconditional love didn’t seem to apply to me. Only some who were saintly could practice such love. But after being attacked by gunmen, I realized how precious and beautiful each and every person I see with my eyes was. There seems to be no one whom I cannot forgive; I feel I could love even the gunmen who shot me. I could pray for them.

 

Third, I learned how much the Honduran people suffer from insecurity. I often heard our Bible students pray, “Thank you Lord for keeping me safe today. Thank you for giving me a new day.” I thought this kind of prayer was meaningless.  But through this incident, I realized safety is one of the very realistic and necessary prayer topics of the people here. Every day more than twenty people get killed by gun shots in this city. There are many drug, gang and police related crimes, and about a week ago, the vice-mayor of the city was killed by gang members. Due to this kind of crime, many family members of the deceased become lost and children lose provision and protection. They become members of gangs for survival. In light of this, the fact that I can walk and talk even after being shot is a complete grace and miracle of God.

Fourth, God answered our prayer to enter the university in his own way. We didn’t have a Bible house near the campus, so we had 1:1 Bible studies on the benches on the campus or in the hallway on the rainy or too hot days. But among those who visited me at the hospital, there was an administrator of the national university who interviewed me. He offered me to teach a Korean class from Feb. 11 in the national university. When he heard that my wife, M. Elizabeth, had a degree in educational theory from Korea, he asked her to teach comparative education as well.  But she postponed it until later date. I thank God for the opportunity to meet students freely on campus. In the past when I met students on campus, they often asked me if I was a tourist, if I came from China, or if I wanted to take pictures. Now as a college instructor, I will be able to teach the Korean language and also use the classroom for Bible studies.

 

Finally, I have new family members. After the incident, the police asked me if we had family to contact. As M. Elizabeth told them our family was just the two of us, she felt sad. Then some people we knew here counseled us and comforted us and we had spiritual fellowship. They treated us like their own family members, rejoicing with us and mourning with us. Also, through the letters from coworkers around the world, I felt I was alive because of the prayers of coworkers around the world. I realized that they were my spiritual family. We also could explain to our three children, Jessica, Pablo and Jonathan, why their mom and dad were here in Honduras. Last year when they visited Korea, they asked us why we had to leave Korea and live in a dangerous place. They might not understand it fully, but we explained to them that we lived here because of God’s love. I pray that God himself may take care of them and raise them as second gen. missionaries according to God’s will. 

 

One man whom I didn’t know personally heard about my economic situation offered to repair my car in his auto shop.  My car had many holes and the windows were shattered, so to fix them all was going to be very costly, but he offered to fix it for free. In return, he asked me to give a testimonial sermon to his employees. After the incident, I gained many new friends and prayer supporters.

 

Most of all, I feel as though people around me are my family members, and I found the necessity to live for the Lord and his gospel for the Latin American souls as a witness of the gospel. I am filled with joy and thanksgiving to the Lord for the new day He has given me. The gun shot incident of last week changed my life and will continue to change me. Thank you so much for your prayers. I included one picture: The bullet on the left is the one that was in my head and the one on the right is the one that was in my side.  I pray that looking at this picture, I may remember the love of Jesus who left his heavenly glory and suffered and died on the cross and I may live as his faithful witness for the souls of Latin America all my life.

 

A debtor in Christ,

 

M. David Kang