I wake up several times throughout the night. Default is to pray when I can’t force myself to sleep, but sometimes that's easier said than done with the prolonged pandemic. What’s funny is that whenever I talk about the challenges, people think I’m joking or exaggerating. They say, “But you’re always happy” or “You can [...]
South Korea is battling floods and landslides right now. It’s the longest monsoon in seven years. My heart goes out to those affected because they will also face a long and difficult recovery, with lots of hazardous cleaning up to do. We would wish to put the past behind and start over, but it’s not [...]
A lot of thoughts and opinions were raised about the coronavirus pandemic. On the one hand, our ears were daily tuned to the announcements coming from the government and public health authorities. On the other hand, we heard many Christians say that the pandemic is a wake-up call to repentance from God. I agree that [...]
Growing up in Korea some years after the Korea War, I was so proud of my father who studied in America. I remember how in grade school teachers customarily asked survey questions like, "Anyone has a family member with a college degree?" In a classroom packed with kids, I was the only one who raised [...]
Rep. John Robert Lewis, civil rights legend and longtime Georgia congressman, passed away last Friday at the age of 80. Reading the news, I thought about my visit to Albany in southwest Georgia some twenty years ago. I remember driving by little cabins and cotton fields stretching to the horizon against the Southern blue sky [...]
It was wonderful to have in-person service at our 11 AM service this Sunday. With thankful hearts, we will continue to wait with vigilance for God to open more doors for us. In the meantime, we will celebrate each other’s presence keeping 6-feet apart with masks on, humming hymns rather than singing out loud. By [...]
I spent this Fourth of July morning looking for one of my hearing aids that had suddenly gone missing. A good two hours of GPS tracking was to no avail. Then my two daughters, who are currently staying at home, joined the search with the metal detector they got me for Father’s Day last year. [...]
Our Reopening Task Force is currently working hard to make sure that the upcoming reopening of our worship hall will be safe and well-organized. In-person worship service will resume after we receive the approval and certifications by the District and Conference offices. In the meantime, we start with a 40-day 24-hour Nehemiah Prayer Relay, beginning [...]
The Council of Korean-American Churches of Greater New York is hosting a 3-day webinar (June 22-24) to share thoughts on how to prepare for a world post-pandemic. I will be giving a talk on “Post-Pandemic Ministry: Opportunity to Renew the Essentials,” through which I hope to encourage the audience that crisis can be transformed into [...]
I read a piece by Heekyung Ahn, a Korean-American journalist for The Kyunghyang Shinmun, in which seven scholars across various fields weighed in on the socio-economic implications of the coronavirus pandemic. One topic that stood out was the accelerated shift to a more sustainable green economy. The pandemic forces us to rethink hyper-globalization in favor [...]