From July 14th through July 16th, most of our mokjanims, mokyeonims, and I will be visiting Houston for a ‘leadership conference’ that happens once every five years. As you know, the Nashua Hanmaum Church is a “union church” made up of eleven house churches. The Leadership Conference is a place where attendees ‘ponder upon the union church’, ‘pray for the union church,’ and ‘seek God’s will concerning their role within the union church.’ Head pastors from house churches around the world attend as guest speakers for this event. Throughout the conference, attendees will listen to the experiences of the speakers, learn from them, and pray with them as well. I pray that through this opportunity, God will individually speak to leaders of the church and show them His dream and vision.
The mokjanims and mokyeonims have decided to devote their time, financial resources, and life to prepare for the next five years of the Nashua Hanmaum Union Church. They will take three days out of their busy life. They will have to put family matters behind and use their vacation days from work. They have a tight flight schedule as well. They will leave early Thursday morning and come back late Saturday night. They will also have to pay for the airplane tickets which have substantially risen in price these days.
Thus, the Hanmaum Church has decided to offer financially support. Mokjanims and mokyeonims handle pivotal roles in both the union church and each house church. However, the church’s financial support for them was miniscule. Actually, to be more accurate, the union church offered no financial support to mokjanims and mokyeonims at all. If the church was not able to make financial support for this trip as well, I was going to personally pay for the entire trip somehow. Thankfully, however, God has poured His grace out on our church and made it possible for our church to provide financial support for the plane tickets.
However, even though the church has offered support for the trip, there will be mokjanims and mokyeonims who will return the cost of the trip back to the church. In fact, I have heard that some have already decided to do so. I really respect those who have once again decided to make “another voluntary sacrifice” on top of their already sufficient devotion.
I request all of you to pray. For the safety of the journey back and forth, for God to speak to each of us, and for us to be filled with the Holy Spirit in midst of the gathering… please devote yourselves through prayer.
Following the shepherd
Pastor Jiwon Choi