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"How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!" (Psalm 133:1)

I always praise and thank God whenever I think about our family who has been able to co-work together with others in the Lord and has been practically served with love and prayers by many co-workers around us. I earnestly pray that God may continually use and bless our family to know God and the gospel of Jesus better and testify and share his love and grace. Even though we are such terrible sinners that are unworthy and undeserving to serve God’s work together, only by the grace of God we could co-work, love each other, and pray in unity. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!"

We safely arrived in Korea on August 9.  Ha-young, my daughter, caught a cold, but upon arrival we took her to the hospital right away. She was treated well and is okay now. Recently, she also went in for her regular check-up of her heart due to her previous heart surgery at the ASAN General Hospital. With great shock, we received the doctor’s diagnosis that said she would need to have heart surgery again. Dazed and hurt, M. Gloria and I lost our senses for awhile and did not know what to do, but just cried a lot. It was too hard for us to bear to think that her little heart should be cut open again and endure many hard times even after surgery. She is so pitiful to have the same hard heart surgery she had 3 years ago. It was too painful for me to even see her bright smile.

Dear loving co-workers, please pray for Ha-young and us. Last night, M. Gloria and I could not but eagerly pray to God for the right direction in this desperate situation.  The following are our prayer topics:

1. Get strength both physically and spiritually with confidence in God’s love for us  “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given" (Isaiah 9:6).

2. Ha-young to have good health to bear the hard surgery (a thorough medical check up is on the 18^th and the surgery is scheduled for the 25^th).

3. Her pulmonary artery to widen since it has narrowed again since the last surgery. The pulmonary valves could be ruined, so the doctors need wisdom. I pray that God may give the doctors wisdom and enable them to carry out the best surgery. Also, I pray that she may have the third surgery after she’s grown up. This is possible if the surgery is done very successfully.

4. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds" (James 1:2). M. Gloria and I together repented deeply before the words of God in Isaiah 8-9 while we visited Korea this time. When I look back on my mission life, I can hardly say that I lived bearing the grace of God ever since Ha-young’s last surgery three years ago, as well as my own health problem. So I repented before God in my prayer. Humanly speaking, it is too hard to bear this hardship though, we don’t want to just sit and do nothing. Rather, we heartily want to bear fruits of repentance and be trained to be purer in believing the love of God who did not spare even his own Son Jesus for us and for Ha-young.  

Dear co-workers in love, I am really thankful whenever I remember your prayers, love, and serving. May God continue to bless all the precious servants of God one by one to testify to the gospel of Jesus and to co-work beautifully in him.

M. John J.