A letter from Choon and Yen Hee Lim in South Korea
February 2013
Dear Friends in Mission,
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up (Isaiah 43:18).
Happy New Year! The new year stands before us like a chapter in a book. As we write our book of Acts, we wonder how God will use us in this year. We pray to discern what the best for our actions and deeds are as we set visions and goals for this year. We are looking back on our Hualien Aboriginal Campus Ministry (HACM), which we planted and watered for more than 13 years. With God’s grace it grew up more than we planned and imagined. But our new year passage reminds us that we do not dwell on the past, but instead move forward with a new thing, serving as Regional Liaison for East Asia, covering China, Taiwan, Japan, and North and South Korea. Please pray for our new ministry.
On January 13 we were invited to attend a ceremony of “the Year of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Korea” at the Myongseong Presbyterian Church in Seoul. From October 30 to November 8, 2013, the WCC's 10th Assembly will be held in Busan in South Korea. The theme of it is “God of life, lead us to justice and peace.” Many members of different denominations got together to have a dinner and then worship the only and same God. There were 2,013 choir members to celebrate the year of 2013 and more than 10,000 believers to praise and thank God for having the WCC Assembly in Korea. For more than two hours we were speechless during the events, such as the sermon of a chairperson of the WCC preparation committee, Rev. Sam Whan Kim, video presentations, a drama, Korean traditional and Western style dances, solo and duet, etc. One hundred forty countries and 349 religious bodies will participate and discuss world peace and justice in the special assembly. Please pray for peace and reconciliation in the world, especially in the Korea peninsula through dialogue.
A gift from God in the beginning of 2013 was Sunny Park, whom Choon met in 1986 in Korea. At that time Choon was an exchange student from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Seoul and served the Chongam church as an English Bible teacher on Sundays. One day the pastor introduced Sunny, an elementary student, to Choon to help her in some way. She had no parents and her grandmother took care of three children. (Her story was in our mission report in 1992. Her father died in a car accident as he was doing a delivering work near the Seoul Train Station and she became an orphan.) After this encounter we helped her until we finished Island Medical Mission in Korea.
Since we left the mission work in 1996 to serve the HACM in Taiwan, we had no communication with Sunny. Last month we met her at a seminar in Seoul by accident. Now she is married. She graduated from Sungsim University and graduate school in Seoul and then went to Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul and became an evangelist. We saw her only when she was in elementary school to junior high school, but now she is an evangelist and a mature woman. We were so happy to see her new face, changed from sad to joyful. God truly protected and nurtured her and equipped her in all different ways. With God’s providence, we plan to do God’s mission with her in Korea.
We are amazed by the many ways our lives have been turned, shaped, stretched and blessed beyond all our imagination. We thank you all for your part in it.
We are deeply thankful that you will continue to be with us in our new faith journey throughout 2013 through prayers and financial support. We also pray to Emmanuel God for your blessings in the midst of an unstable world. All glory and praise be to God.
Together in Mission,
Yen Hee and Choon Lim
New address in South Korea:
Rm. 202 Korean Church Centennial Building
135 Yunji-Dong, Chongro-Ku, Seoul 110-470, Korea
Office: 82-2-766-9147 Fax: 82-2-766-9149 Cellphone: 82-10-7522-4951
Email: choonshiklim@yahoo.com, choon.lim@pcusa.org
The 2013 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 204
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