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 “For even the Son of  Man did not come to be served, but to serve…” (Mark 10:45)

In 1975 I was attending evening classes at a public health college. I was invited to one to one Bible study through Dr. James Suh, who came to teach the class. This was a turning point in my life. Through John 5:8, Jesus saved me, a paralytic full of fatalism and defeatism, and gave me a new life.

 In his time, God blessed me to establish a house church with Missionary Abraham Hwang, who was full of passion for world mission. Although he had a secure job as banker, he was attending evening Spanish classes at the Foreign College for Latin American mission.  Missionary Joseph Ahn was serving Mexican mission all by himself as an ambassador, leaving his family in Korean for mission, and needed a coworker. Through the prayers of shepherds Maria Ahn and Mark Yang, in 1983, we were sent out to Mexico as missionaries. At the time, Sae Han was two and a half years old and John was 8 months old. We left following Genesis 12:2, leaving our children at our parents’ home, in order to fully serve mission work.

Dr. Samuel Lee invited me to the Chicago Christmas Worship Service that year. His heart was broken toward me, since my children were left in Korea.  But instead of saying “My heart is broken because you are not with your children” he said, “My heart is moved.” He noticed my teeth had a gap, so he immediately brought me to a dental clinic to correct my teeth. Then, I was able to open my mouth widely, laugh loudly and carry out one to one without any problems.

During this time, Missionary Joseph Ahn was feeding many Mexican sheep. Later, Missionaries Maria Ahn and Timothy Rhee joined us.  After one year, Missionary Joseph Ahn finished his embassy term and went back to Korea.

 1. One to one, Discipleship

First, I made a rule for myself. During the daytime, I would engage in fishing and one to one, and everything else would be done in the evening. Every student I invited, saying, “Hola! Would you like to study the Bible?” Despite my poor Spanish, many students responded to one to one Bible study.

In 1985, there was an earthquake unprecedented in Mexican history and through it, 40,000 people were killed in Mexico City.  The entire country fell into chaos.   Even when the entire country was groaning under the power of death, God blessed all my sheep to keep their promise to come, and I had 15 one to one Bible studies during the week.

 For financial independence, we had to go to suburban towns to sell things, and we lived in a tent for several days.  Still, I had to drive 4-5 hours in order to keep a promise of one to one, and I would come back to the tent in the middle of the night despite the danger of robbers.

 The sheep who came to Bible study all looked like precious princes.  However, to grow as disciples of Jesus, they had to overcome beggar and slave mentalities. Therefore, Missionary Abraham taught them to offer a tithe and live a sacrificial life. Then one day, the brother of our first fruits disappeared. We overcame heart breaking pain and continually struggled, with God’s help, to raise several leaders.  Then, through one brother, the Holy Spirit movement came, and all growing leaders ran away.  In this despairing situation, one sister leader, Edith, kept her faith to the end like Abraham.  Whenever trials like this came, I decided many times to follow God even alone, remembering Noah who followed God alone. I decided to become a mother of all young people who were wounded with a broken family and lived like orphans. 

Edith was the oldest daughter of all the kids her mom had through three husbands. She had suffered unbearably from sexual abuse as a child. But she lived common life at my house and continued one to one Bible study.  Through John 4:26, she accepted Jesus as her true husband like the Samaritan woman and became a life-giving Bible teacher who carried out 20 one to ones per week. Through this one person’s influence, numerous spiritual leaders were raised. 

Missionary Timothy Rhee also diligently engaged in fishing and one to one.  His first sheep Leticia began to attend SWS. Shepherdess Antelma kept SWS coming from a three hours distance. She lived a common life with the Missionary Timothy’s family and became the ancestor of faith who bore the most fruit in Guadalajara UBF.  The sheep of Missionary Joseph Ahn, Gustavo and Amalia, who ran away and returned, raised two missionaries, Efrain in Peru UBF, and Gonzalo in Guadalajara UBF. 

One CEO, Blas, was going to destroy his family because he indulged in immoral relationship with his secretary. But through one to one Bible study with Missionary Abraham, he was born again and grew as a great man of God. He could have lived in a yuppie town driving a fancy model of a car. However, he humbles himself and goes out for fishing with his wife. Not only that, he is a great shepherd who is teaching the Bible to his 100 employees.

 In 1991 Missionary Timothy was sent out to Guadalajara UBF with seven coworkers. Currently 55 members are the now worshipers on Sunday. Shepherd Blas also was sent out to pioneer Acatlan and 25 members are now Sunday worshipers there. Our apartment was crowded with many sheep. But Missionary Abraham was not satisfied with just the number; he challenged inner growth.

For this he focused on three things in addition to Bible study. First, he taught offering a tithe to God. When a spiritual leader was raised, the pledge to offer a tithe was included.  Our leaders offered tithe absolutely despite their low income. Someone offered their entire yearly bonus as a Christmas offering, and another person even offered their scholarship as offering. When we tried to purchase our own center, we didn’t want to send our offering to Chicago, but rather use it for purchasing our center. However, we decided to serve world mission first and sent it.

Second, we planted a manger spirit and an independent spirit. Once, we sent to Chicago the offering Missionary Joseph Ahn gave us, and we decided to be independent even though we were so poor. Latin Americans indulge much in a party culture and they never prepare for tomorrow.  In order to challenge this party culture, we declared that we would never have birthday parties. We decided to live a manger lifestyle like Jesus did.

Third, Missionary Abraham visited all leaders at 5:00 am to bring them to the center to teach early morning prayer. Missionary Abraham himself engaged in deep personal Bible study and prayer. He kept a list of all prayer topics in the pocket of his T shirt, and whenever he had time, he prayed.  During his prayer, so many names of each country in Latin America were flowing out.  Someone once asked me, “What is my husband’s greatest point?”  While we would walk together, I would talk much, but he never would respond. Why? When I turned to him, he was praying. Don’t you think I am greater, living with such kind of husband?

From 1995, our Mexico City center began to pioneer many chapters, and many missionaries were sent out. So far, 14 chapters in Mexico City, including Cuautitlan, IPN, Iztacala, Monterry I,II, Morelia, Guerretaro, Saltillo, Santo Tomas, Tepic, Zapopan, etc have been pioneered. M. David Hong, Pablo Lee, Andrew Park Have been co-working with my family faithfully and served God’s work without any recognition.  In addition, God has blessed my family in many ways. God himself established beautiful house churches and have been using them in American campus pioneering. Once, our son John declared that he would never marry in UBF and we were shocked. But God sent him to Korea for his job, which he did not like to go.  But as soon as he saw one beautiful woman of God in Kyung Sung UBF, he opened his heart widely and established a house church with her. Through this, God made us laugh. Missionary Abraham was so excited that he clapped his hands while eating, and clapped even while sleeping.  

2. World Mission

Through the 2002 Latin American International Conference, Mother Barry gave us an unexpected prayer topic, “Pioneer the 33 countries of Latin America independently in five years.” Since then, many Korean missionaries were sent out to other poorer Latin American countries and even many native shepherds were raised as missionaries. This was a new history in Mexico.

The shepherd family of Efrain and Eugenia immediately went out to Peru that year. Missionary Efrain grew up in a broken family, but he was freed from the slavery of immorality and the power of death through John 8:11. Then God blessed him to get a high salary job as a government computer programmer. However, he was tempted every day to commit sin with his secretary. Realizing that it is better to die for world mission rather than die for committing sin, he immediately resigned his job and went out as a missionary.

Isidro and Edith, who were the pillars of our ministry, also were sent out to El Salvador.  Missionary Isidro was tormented by guilty feelings due to immoral realationship and wanted to run far away. But he was changed through one to one Bible study, especially John 15:5.  When he remained in Jesus only, God blessed him to graduate from college, and establish the most blessed house church with Edith, the Abraham of faith of our ministry. After marriage, Isidro suffered from hunger because his wife gave all their food to her sheep.

When Isidro arrived at the campus of San Salvador National University, he prayed and wrote his phone number on the wall that had posted job advertisements. Then, someone attached a grade list so that the job advertisement was hidden. Then Isidro became the only applicant for that job.  During the job interview, the boss rebuked him, “You are the one who removed the job advertisement” and refused to hire him. However, when the boss listened to his testimony of how he came as a missionary, he was moved and employed him. Then, both Isidro’s job and visa problems were dramatically solved. In ways like this, 16 missionaries have been sent out to other Latin American countries, including Bolivia, Argentina, USA, Canada and Brazil.

Praise God who made Mexico a priestly nation for the world, not a beggar country.  M. Daniel Park at Anam UBF, who is my elder brother, retired from Chul-do College as a dean and was sent out to El Salvador as a silver missionary. God blessed our center to raise 25 native house churches and 150 Sunday worshipers each week.

I am now a grandma of four grandchildren. I am the most blessed woman, for such an old woman as I, to be able to cross all over the campus together with our beautiful leaders, to engage in fishing and one to one. I pray that Mexico may send out missionaries to conquer all the 33 countries of Latin America, and then the whole world with the gospel of Jesus Christ, so that Mexico may be a missionary sending country.

One Word: Mexico: A priestly nation and a missionary sending nation.