It's Time to Focus on Missions Again
Dear CoaH,
There are many churches that have not sent any short-term mission teams in the past three years. Our church, too, had to give up sending teams to the mission field for safety reasons during the first and subsequent years of the pandemic. But thank God that in 2022 we have finally sent two teams to the Dominican Republic, and another team is getting ready to go to Nicaragua in the fall. We are grateful that we can focus on the overseas missions again. Someone from the KM short-term team to the Dominican Republic said that it was such the best experience ever, far more enriching than any other short-term mission trips he had gone on before.
I am visiting a mission field also. I will go to Kyrgyzstan tomorrow and come back in about ten days. It will be my first time ever since the pandemic. I am already excited at the thought of comforting the missionaries and the local leaders who have been isolated due to the long pandemic. As you know, our church adopted these unreached people of Kyrgyzstan for more than 25 years. Since the beginning, we sent out five families including two lay leaders. Every year, we have been sending short-term mission teams from both the KM and EM. Now, after some 25 years, all of our commissioned missionaries have left the field, and our church is focusing on supporting the local seminaries that have been established. I hope that this visit will be of great encouragement to the Bishkek, Osh, and Karakol seminaries. A church member recently gave a large sum of offerings for the Kyrgyz seminaries, so we will share it during this visit. I am sure they will be greatly encouraged. Please pray for me, pastor Tim Song, and elder Ken Baik for a safe trip.
Let us work on renewing our commitment to the Lord. We need to restore dynamic worship on Sundays. I am glad that more people are coming out to the Saturday morning prayers. We need to restore our zeal for world missions. We know that missions will be restored when worship is restored. Also, when missions are restored, worship is also restored, because there is a special relationship between the two. Mission is all about introducing worship where there is no worship. If worship overflows within us, we become immersed in mission work, and when we do mission work, we become more mindful of worship.
Blessings,
Pastor Minho Song
