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Six years ago, three young men, were sent to Wuppertal to attend university. They were John Youk, Josef Hong, and Jonathan Hong. They went there with the key verse Daniel 3:28, “Then Nebuchadnezzer said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God.” With this key verse, they decided to live pure lives among the students there. Although they were young, they were determined to live before God and to serve him while they were in school. God blessed this prayer topic. They each enrolled respectively; John Youk, the College of Education focusing on sports and art: Josef, the College of Education focusing on Art and English and Jonathan, the School of Theology. As they began to make friends there, immediately, they saw the need to evangelize to them. So they began a Bible study group for the few that were interested in Bible study, every Thursday evening. Though they did not have any jobs and had little money, they still provided food for the group after the study.

Soon the few friends that attended began to invite their own friends, and the number grew exponentially. It grew so much that students were sitting out in the hallway to hear God’s words. Josef, John, and Jonathan took turns leading these bible studies. The students were not only drawn to the word of God but more so to these young men’s pure life styles, their love and conviction for God, and their giving attitudes when they themselves had so little. Because there were so many students, the young men would often come to Cologne and ask for support, most importantly for female bible teachers. Three years later, around 1999, they began to lead their own Sunday worship services as well as the Bible study. However, the students came to the Bible study group but not to Worship service. They began to have a sense of problem. Somehow for three years they’ve been leading group bible studies, but no one really wanted to commit to worship service. By now, due to the number of students and the volume it made the neighbors began to complain for some time. They made the decision to end the Bible studies on Thursdays and have those who were really interested come on Sundays; which were shockingly none or a few from time to time. A year later, Jonathan had to leave for Heidelberg for a praktikum. For one year, John and Josef lead the worship service although many times no one attended. This was a very difficult time for them. They felt a feeling of confusion, desertion and failure. However, they continued on. A year later, Jonathan came back and John and Josef had a couple new students attend Sunday service.  

Paul and I have been participating in Cologne ministry all those years. While engaging in various works of God, God also led us through intense spiritual discipline with problems I had with some of coworkers. But God used it as a way to open my spiritual eyes to see my sinfulness and the need to grow deeper into the image of Jesus Christ. As much as the discipline was intense, God gradually granted in me a freedom from which I was bounded by. As we went through them, God also planted a new vision to go out and engage in pioneering work. We were looking for “where” and he opened our eyes to see the Wuppertal ministry where three young men struggled persistently to spread the gospel. John, Josef, Jonathan, and now Paul and I were attending the service with two faithful students, P and M. P was a good friend of John Youk, whom he met at the university courtyard as John was showing off his break dancing. P is a truth-seeker. He has been looking for the meaning of life for a while and searched for it through different religions such as Buddhism and some others. John invited him to Worship service. He then began one to one bible study with Paul, driving to Cologne every week for a whole year. God changed him and gave him a new desire to live a godly life and joined the common life with other shepherds, participating in the work of God. He later invited his own friend M. After Paul and I began attending, an old friend of Jonathan from theology school, had invited a friend to service. Her name is N. N is a Catholic who was looking for a shepherd and who soon began bible study with me. For one year, Paul and I commuted to Wuppertal every Sunday for worship service. Paul served by delivering the message along with other men, and I served the ministry with food. In August 2011, Paul and I made a bittersweet decision to move to Wuppertal permanently. I say bittersweet, because we had to leave our jobs, family, and the Cologne ministry, who weren’t ready to let us go, and yet it was sweet because we knew we can continue the work God has begun in us and in Wuppertal.  

With that major decision the questions we had were, “Are we making the right decision? Is this truly what God wants from us? Are we to sacrifice everything to move to Wuppertal?” We believe “yes” as we considered all aspects of why we were doing this. God proved to us that he was with us in our decision through several events. First, God granted bible student to each of us. Second, in November 2011, Paul’s sister, Sarah Youk moved to Wuppertal and decided to join our ministry. Third, when we made a decision to permanently move to Wuppertal, it meant practically we would both be jobless. Especially, for Paul as an architect, it wouldn’t have been easy to find a new job near Wuppertal. But amazingly, Paul was called for an interview in February 2012 to a company near Wuppertal, which is one of the top 3 largest and established architect firms in all of Germany and he received a job. It was a miracle. God also provided the perfect apartment in a great neighborhood to raise our children. We are more than convinced that God is with us with our decision to move to Wuppertal.

Now, there are 6 coworkers in Wuppertal; each of us with different strengths and weaknesses. We know each other well and our history and yet we all love each other despite ourselves. We pray for a more structured ministry. What I mean by that is 1, coworkers prayer meetings, 2, group bible studies, 3, 1:1 bible studies. Right now we have 9-12 worship service attendants.

Prayer Topics:

1.    Wisdom and strength from God to lead this ministry
2.    New worship service attendants
3.    Good coworking and unity
4.    Powerful and soul-quenching messages from Paul, Josef, John, and Jonathan
5.    1:1 Bible studies with M, P, and N
6.    For all of us to grow in prayer and deeper knowledge of God’s words
7.    Establish godly house churches