praying for healing

last tuesday our church sent volunteers to serve food at a soup kitchen in harlem. we also prepared christmas gifts & led a brief worship. i gave a sermon on the parable of the sower. after the sermon i invited people to come forward to receive prayer. i prayed for a man named larry, who stood at the very front. after i finished praying, he took off his dark sunglasses to show me that he was missing his right eye. all that was left was a skin-covered scab. after he showed me his eye, he said "pray for me! pray for me!". so i prayed for God's healing upon his eye. then i asked people to come forward to receive prayer specifically for physical healing. a few more people came forward. & some who were already standing, raised their hands to receive prayer specifically for physical healing. as our church members were praying with them individually, i had the opportunity to pray for one more person. carol asked me to pray for her diabetes which was causing her pain in her legs and feet.

i am not a charismatic & i don't have the gift of healing. & i normally don't ask people to come forward to receive prayer for physical healing. but i learned something last tuesday. i learned that people are desperate & they need prayer. & for many people (whether rich or poor), a physical sickness is their number one prayer concern.

www.dyingchicken.com

www.dyingchicken.com

it's peter chung's very own blog, describing his mission work in yucatan, mexico.
we're so proud to have peter representing pilgrim church.

hawaii

we returned safely from hawaii. we got to spend time on the ywam (youth with a mission) base in kona. we were blessed to see three "daves" at ywam. rev david & ellen ross were there to lead the korean dts. pastor dave gibbons was there for one week as a guest speaker. & pastor david sung & his family were there attending the crossroads dts. after kona, we spent a few days on the island of kauai.

need thought-provoking questions

by the end of next week i need to record 3 radio programs for kcbn.us. my vision for these programs was to create sermons in response to questions from the general public. but i don't have the questions yet. please send questions my way. please...

the city

my mother-in-law & sister-in-law flew in on monday. after picking them up from the airport, we spent the day in the city. walked the brooklyn bridge, kimbop-picnic-lunch in brooklyn heights, hung around central park, cafe break off madison ave, dinner at hopkee. hopkee is still as awesome as i remembered. the snails, pan-fried flounder, the crab, & the salted pork was amazing.

it's a girl

suhee got her 20-week ultrasound yesterday, & we found out that we're having a girl. i feel good in that i feel like my life & my family will be complete w/a daughter. but i'm fearful because i know that raising a girl will require me to be a lot more gentle & considerate & understanding. ultimately i believe that this is God's plan for us, & that He knows best.

i also thought that having one boy & one girl would lessen the sibling rivalry, in that they can be supporters of each other rather than rivals.

i also thought that guys w/o sisters tend to be a bit awkward w/women. (no offense to my friends w/o sisters). so having a sister will make gideon a better man.

i also thought that 1 boy & 1 girl = good balance/feng shui.

peter chung

peter chung is one of our hard core members at pilgrim church. a few months ago he got laid off from his job w/ibm. he considered that a blessing, as it freed him up to do what he really wanted to do. so now he will be doing about one year of mission work in yucatan, mexico. i actually went on two mission trips w/peter to yucatan, & he thrived in that environment. he will be assisting the ministry of pastor steve won (full-time missionary), and serving the jovenes (young adults) from several churches that we have worked with. peter bought a $500 volvo, which he will drive to yucatan. one man, on a mission, w/his dog, in a $500 volvo. i am so proud of peter, and a little envious of his ability to just pick up & go.

soong-chan rah's book, "the next evangelicalism"

http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/currenttrendscolumns/bookreviews/rockingthewhitecitadel.html

today i was opening one of my mass emails for christian leaders & i noticed a review for a book written by professor/pastor soong-chan rah. soong-chan was my youth leader when i was growing up in a church in new york. so the title of this book review was great, "rocking the white citadel". soong-chan challenges the evangelical church to change it's racist & homogeneous ways. go soong-chan!!!

5-year anniversary

suhee & i were married 5 years ago on august 14. in some ways it feels like yesterday. we celebrated by taking a trip down to cape may.

getting older

yesterday i called my car insurance to add roadside assistance. the agent was confused to see that liberty mutual owed me $80.00. she asked me if it was my birthday recently. we then realized that when i turned 36 a few months ago, my rate went down. i guess i'm now in the old-man age bracket. soon i'll be getting discounts at the diner.

attn: jonathan

hey jonathan. i wanted to show you that i'm getting into wide-angle photography. i love how you can change the perspective & get funky shots. last week i got the sigma 10-20/3.5. in the past my philosophy was that i wasn't going to get any dx lenses (because i thought fx bodies would be affordable in ~5 years). but then i realized that i'll probably never get an fx body, & an fx wide-angle-zoom costs a small fortune.

i saw an article in nikonrumors.com which convinced me that dx is here to stay. in the past people argued that 35mm film would be replaced by medium format film. but people appreciated the smaller size & cost of 35mm, which obviously kept it alive. & the quality was good enough. i think the same thing will happen w/dx. it's smaller/lighter/cheaper than fx & the quality is good enough.

i always respected the golfers who used old/cheap equipment, but played really well. as opposed to the guys who had the best equipment but got no game, "all show and no go". i envision myself growing into an old man w/old & outdated photo equipment, but still getting decent shots.

day in the city

we went into the city yesterday. went to adorama photo shop to rent a lens (nikon 85/1.4); ate lunch at union square; took the subway to central park (sheep's meadow); ate a second lunch at the shake shack in madison square park. gideon loved riding the subway. he kept referring to the train as one of the characters from thomas train. and he cried when we had to leave the subway station.

church staff retreat

we recently had our church staff retreat (sunday night to monday afternoon). about 20 of us went. we do this twice a year. it's exciting to be part of a rapidly growing church; & it's exciting to witness all the challenges & changes. on the way home some of us got dinner at the rutgers grease trucks. it was my first time there. i got the fat darrell, which maxim magazine rated as the #1 sandwich in america. it includes chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks & french fries.

chilling w/master k

last weekend i visited my old muay thai school to support the grand opening of their new location & to watch some amateur fights. master k (well-respected muay thai fighter & trainer) was there to coach some of his fighters. master k gave gideon some free pointers on the heavy bag.

it's in his blood

lately my dad has been yelling at me to get rid of my motorcycle. he said that he doesn't want gideon climbing the bike, and he doesn't want gideon to ride when he gets older. i assured my dad that gideon doesn't climb the bike.

this morning after our morning jog, gideon got out of his jogging stroller and started climbing my bike. i'm pretty sure that when he gets older, he'll be riding with or without my permission. he already loves cars.

korean bible?

so our church will soon encourage all our members to start using the new-er version of the korean bible. apparently the language in the new-er version is less archaic & easier to understand. the new-er version also comes w/a new hymnal. which means we all need to re-learn the numbering system for our favorite hymns. when i ask people if the new-er version is a more-accurate translation based on better scholarship, i don't get a clear answer.

someone (trusted-source) recently told me that this whole thing is about money. apparently the copyrights on the old-er version expired, and they stopped printing it in korea. so whoever owns the copyrights on the new-er version is going to make a lot of money. this person also said that the new-er version still uses archaic language.

so the hymnal in the new-er version does not come w/the english verses yet; but it will be available in the future. which means many people will buy the new bible now; then they will buy it again when the english-version of the hymns are included.

one of my seminary professors (murray j. harris) was part of the translation team for the niv bible. he said that all the scholars/translators were against the red-letter edition of the niv. it was just a way for the bible-publishing companies to make more money. because masses of people felt like they needed to buy the red-letter edition. & it misled people into thinking that the words in red-letter were more-inspired & more-important than the rest of the bible.

"it's all about the benjamins"

gideon's new haircut

it was actually suhee who wanted me to give him a mohawk.

noodle house

this will be my last blog about thailand. in a rural part of chonburi province stands a well-known noodle restaurant. a chinese couple has been running this restaurant for over 50 years. all the ingredients are fresh & local. it was really good & really cheap & the place had so much character.

muay thai

as part of my cultural & anthropological studies of thailand, i got ringside seats to a night of muay thai. muay thai is the national sport of thailand. after the championship fight, we got to take pics w/the champ. there was so much energy (& gambling) in the building as people passionately cheered for their fighters.

more on thailand (the food)

after being away from the internet for so long, i'm going through a blogging-binge. in thailand we were surrounded by many varieties of fresh tropical fruit. i learned that mangosteen is my favorite fruit. the hut is a typical outdoor coffee stand in the countryside, where 5 large ice-coffees are under $2. the pic of the flying waiter on rollerblades was taken at the world's largest restaurant. those monkeys are known to hang out beside the road by a small mountain in ratchaburi province. unfortunately i didn't get to try/taste monkey.

thailand experience

in thailand we worked with missionary/pastor paul kim (paulmkim.com). paul's parents have been faithfully serving as missionaries in thailand for over 30 years. they have been leading chonburi mission center for many years. chonburi mission center includes a church, a seminary & an orphanage. here is a pic of some of the orphans having a water fight. the last pic is w/pastor jaroen & his wife. pastor jaroen is a great leader of the karen people. the karen (pronounced currinn) are a people group that came from burma/myanmar into thailand as refugees. they were literally being killed off by the burmese. (actually the karen people were featured in the movie rambo IV.) pastor jaroen has planted many churches in many karen villages.

chicago road trip

after returning from thailand, i went on a road trip to chicago w/our nj guy's small group. we left on thursday night; drove there in 12.5 hours; arrived friday morning; ate at jim's original polish sausage for breakfast; ate at gino's east pizzeria; walked around the city (millenium park, michigan ave, navy pier); went up to the john hancock building lounge; ate kampung-chicken at great seas; then drove home the next day. it was an awesome trip. as expected the highlight of the trip was the time we spent driving.

elementary school teacher

i recently returned from a two-week mission trip in thailand. i worked as an elementary school teacher at bahnsohm elementary school in chonburi province. the public school canceled all their classes for a few days so that our team could teach english.

george verwer's sister, barbara

last night our church hosted a yearly multicultural-ecumenical worship service. during the refreshments afterward, i met george verwer's sister (barbara). george verwer is the founder of a mission organization, "operation mobilization". when i was in high school, i used to listen to his sermons on audio cassette.

memorial day picnic

on memorial day we had a picnic w/our church crowd. we went to shepherd lake in ringwood state park. some of our guys went early at 7:30am to reserve tables & grills. at around 11am they stopped letting people in because the parking lot was full. our group really stepped up in bringing good food. we had kalbi, kimchi, sangchu, & we even had high-quality naeng-myun (pre-packaged & individually wrapped by john yum).

how the other half lives...

last night kenny's boss gave him some of his season tickets to the mets game. so instead of going to small group, we went to the game. the new stadium is very nice. & i got to see chan-ho park pitch against the mets. our vip tickets were 15 rows behind home plate. i never had such nice & expensive seats at a sporting event. the tickets were $175 each. here's what i learned about the vip section. the seats are bigger, softer & more comfortable than regular seating. the fans & stadium staff are more polite. the vip section bathrooms & concession stands are much nicer & less crowded (no lines). & even though kenny forgot to get the vip parking pass, the parking attendants let us park in the vip parking for free after kenny showed them our vip tickets. nice.

house of jon bon jovi

every sunday morning our youth group has their worship in the main sanctuary at 9:30am. during that time i lead a bible study for some of the parents of our youth group students. last week one of our bible study group members invited us over for lunch. what made it so special is that she lives in a house that jon bon jovi used to live in. when i was in eight grade, bon jovi was huge. & i've been a "closet" fan ever since. favorite song being, "wanted dead or alive". so the house is huge & beautiful. jon bon jovi bought it for his parents, & before he got married he lived there w/his parents. he gave his parents the master bedroom & he took one of the smaller bedrooms. i thought it was interesting that a millionaire rockstar lived in w/his parents. the kims (who live there now) are known in the neighborhood as the asian family who moved into the house of bon jovi. they said that they keep hearing stories of how jon bon jovi is a really good person. one example being that he never got divorced.

a friend of mine used to produce music for jamie fox, before jamie fox became such a big celebrity. they used to record their music in the former home of marvin gaye, in order to soak in his "mojo". when my son was playing in the former bedroom of jon bon jovi, i kept thinking that maybe he could soak in some of that "mojo" & become a rockstar too.

honoring the life of Tak Kim

jeong kim is a good friend, faithful church member, & leader in our ministry. last sunday his father passed away due to a heart attack. he was only 65 years old. i was at the hospital with the family on sunday night. though it was a tragedy, i remember thinking that mr. kim was blessed to be surrounded by family members who loved him so dearly. he was blessed to have raised and left behind three grown children, who will carry on his memories and legacy.

the funeral service is tonight at 8pm & tomorrow at 10am (central funeral home, 809 broad ave. ridgefield). i will be giving the sermon at the morning service. i am encouraged to know that many of our church members will be there to support jeong.

mission trip: yucatan, mexico

last week, six of our church members went on a mission trip in yucatan, mexico. we spent the first three days leading a retreat for jovenes (young adults) at mesias church. we expected 20 jovenes, but over 50 showed up. we spent the next three days assisting the leadership of a youth conference for over 100 students. the highlight of the trip was doing evangelism in the parks late at night.
more pics at: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtWrNu5bsmLG2A

mouse

i woke up this morning at around 5am in order to go to the early morning prayer service. i heard a repeating scratching sound in the house. i thought i might be a thief trying to pick the lock. but i found a mouse in our kitchen sink. it was swimming in our green salad bowl. i would have taken a picture, but i was in a rush to get to church. so i just set him free outside.

retreat last weekend

we had our retreat last weekend. the guys look so funny in this picture all holding their marshmallows.

bottled-water-taste-test

some of the guys from our small group were really passionate about holding a blind taste-test for bottled-water. so they ran it last week at our meeting. 8 of us were tested. kate & i got the highest score. we guessed 4/6 of the water brands correctly. i would have gotten a perfect score if i didn't mix up voss & poland spring. i rated fiji as the best one. on my comment card i wrote for fiji, "tastes the most fresh & the best". everyone agreed that evian tastes heinous.

david wilkerson's prophecy

so i was on facebook the other day & i noticed a link to a blog/article written by john piper. on his blog for march 9(desiringgod.org/blog/) he talk's about david wilkerson's lastest prophecy. back in high school, i watched the movie (cross and the switchblade) which was basically a biography of david wilkerson. btw eric estrada was one of the actors in that movie. throughout high school & college, i would visit david wilkerson's church (time square church). so i guess i was always a fan of david wilkerson & his ministry.

but i was disappointed to hear about his latest prophecy. he believes that a major catastrophe will hit the new york city metropolitan area soon. and he claims that God told him to store up a 30-day supply of food & other essentials for survival. it's interesting to see how john piper handled this awkward "prophecy".

david wilkerson is a leader of hundreds & thousands of people. i'm curious as to where he receives his accountability or any sort of "checks and balances" in what he teaches.

danny oertli concert

danny oertli was here to give a concert last weekend. it was great to see him. danny plays a james olson custom guitar. sweetness.

more snow...

ash wednesday & lent

today is ash wednesday, which marks the beginning of lent (the forty-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter). last year on ash wednesday we had to meet friends in the city for dinner. we had dinner in the east village, where a lot of young & trendy people hang out. i remember wondering why so many of those young & trendy people on the streets had black marks on their foreheads. until i realized that they were catholics observing ash wednesday, with the cross marked on their foreheads with ash. i was impressed with how they were totally unashamed of their religious practice. today i'm meeting someone for dinner in midtown. i'm interested to see how many people in midtown will have the ash on their foreheads tonight.

for lent, i usually encourage my church members to fast from something worldly & feast on something godly. it think it's a great tradition which helps you to see how dependent you are on certain worldly things. this year, i will be fasting from a website called pbase & i will be feasting on the bible. pbase is a website that lets you see thousands of pictures taken by any particular lens or camera that you search. i spend way too much time researching different lenses on this website. for all that time that i would have been looking at pbase, i hope to be in the bible. maybe i will even get ahead on my one-year bible reading plan.

clover coffee machine

i recently went to ridgewood coffee company & had an amazing cup of coffee. they have a clover coffee machine, which is very rare & expensive. it brews one cup at a time, & they charge about $3.50 for a cup. they even give out copies of articles about this new coffee machine, which is expected to revolutionize brewed coffee. here's what i learned from the articles & the guy working at the coffee shop. the clover was created by stanford engineers. it costs $11,000 & only about 250 of them exist. & starbucks recently bought out the whole company.

friends from high school

i went to a funeral this morning for the mother-in-law of one of our church elders. i went to high school with the daughter (grace kim) of this elder. i haven't seen grace since high school. though it wasn't a cheerful occasion today, it was really good to catch up w/grace & to meet her husband.

last month i connected w/gene lee over facebook. i haven't seen him since high school too. it was really weird to hang out w/him & to see him play w/my son. i can't believe that i graduated from high school way back in 1991. & it's really strange to reconnect w/high school friends who are now in their mid 30s. my memories of them will always be as teenagers.

celebrating my dad's 70th birthday

my dad will be turning 70 in march. we celebrated his birthday last week w/a trip to orlando. my parents, me, my brother, my sister, & our respective families. it was the first time we all took a vacation together. my parents were really happy to see the whole family come together like that. my mom already started talking about how we will celebrate her 70th birthday in a few years.

the first pic is of shamu, the killer whale at sea world. the next two pics are from the holy land experience theme park. the passion play was really good, very high quality.