December 12, 2008

December 12, 2008
Greetings in the Name of the Lord!
What an exciting evening it was. After a very busy, and somewhat stressful week at school, to end the work week with a Friday night service is a Korean church is quite a treat! The service began at 9 P.M, but we wanted to get an early start, so we could rehearse a special song we wanted to sing in the main service. We were scheduled to sing a song representing our Multi-ethnic service right after the children finished singing. I was asked to introduce our group to the congregation. We practiced going over the song a few times and had a time of food and fellowship, before going to the church service. During this fellowship, my good friend Colonel/Elder Sam Yeol Jang, presented me with a gift. It is a gift I will treasure for the rest of my life! He gave me a leather bound brand new Korean-English Bible in the NIV translation. It is called an enriched version, because it contains numerous pictures and illustrations, and it actually contains their hymnbook at the end. It is not a large as you might think, it is the perfect size for mobility. I kissed it, and hugged him, and fought back the tears as I held it to my heart! It is perhaps the nicest gift I have received in many years. It represents to me, what I believe, the Lord is doing in my life. At the age of 51, I am receiving a commission from the Lord to deliver a message to the Korean people from His people in the Church of God in America. It will take me several years to learn the language, but I am confident that I will do this and try to bless as many people as I can with the love I have stored up in me from the many years of receiving love and good solid teaching from my friends and ministers in America.

I introduced our group to a congregation of what seemed like 1500+ (conservative guess) people. Hanna translated my words, and when I omitted something once, I even noticed she filled it in very nicely for me. I love Hanna, she is a wonderful young lady, and she just always seems to know how to say and do things that please others. She is become the woman of virtue described in Proverbs, just like her mother. I am so blessed to have her translating for me, that I will truly miss her when she goes for six months to Taiwan, but I also know it is important for her to do this at this point in her life.

I told the Koreans that we are attached to the U.S. Military post, that I am a teacher in the American school, but that we wanted to find true Christian fellowship and true Gospel teaching among the Koreans. I explained that we love the Koreans, and we wanted to become a part of their church, rather than gather on Post with other Americans counting down the days until we transfer back to the states. There really is a difference. People on Post are very wonderful people, and their worship here is first class.

The Chaplains seem like very dedicated Christian people doing a great work among the Americans. But I felt led of the Lord to truly try to understand and empathize with the native Korean population. We have been so blessed by the things we have learned and experienced with the folks at Yewon, that we are so excited to make the effort to drive out there frequently. It was about a 60-75 minute drive when we first drove there, but we are learning to get around on better now on the lesser-traveled roads, and can usually make the trip in 30-40 minutes.

The children's choir was truly amazing. The children were all decked out in red and white uniforms, and were singing common English worship choruses. They had been choreographed and had memorized the 23rd Psalm in English! How many Americans would make the effort to learn even one verse in Korean? For that matter, how many of us can even quote the 23rd Psalm in our own language? They are truly being taught to hide the words of the Gospel in their hearts, and given excellent direction in their expression. They were all smiling and a very lively group, led by Hyang Ho Jang, (yes, Colonel Jang's wife and Hanna's mother)!

Then we sang a song that had been written by a sister of one of the members of the Yewon church, originally in Korean, then translated by Elder Clements into English. Rusty told us during the fellowship that he was moved to translate this particular song into English as a gesture to his friend who, an American in Iraq who had been diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer. His friend passed away a few months later, but had received the ultimate healing we all desire from the Lord in eternity. As Rusty explained this to us, his true passion for the Lord and his love for his friend became an emotional moment we all shared together. Rusty may be many things to many people, but I was not exaggerating when I told the congregation that we have been blessed by his ministry as the song and worship leader at the Multi-ethnic services!

The song is entitled: "Let the Fragrance of Your Love Blow Strong".
1. Long ago you knew this day we would gather here to call your name. Thank you Jesus for focusing your care on us and for coming and joining with us now. We want to start by remembering who you are. You're the Christ you rule all things. Your mercy power and your peace you pour out whenever we pray. Jesus heal us of cancers of crippleness, pain from incurable restore us to life, heal our joblessness, hopelessness, bankruptcy, shame, let the fragrance of your love blow strong.
2. Long before we went astray, you were planning what it would take to awaken us to your very love for us, so you came as man and joined our place. You suffered wrong more than any could endure, while as Christ you rule all things. Your death, resurrection have assured Final victory so we can say Lord, you've healed all our cancers our crippleness, pain from incurable restored us to life, healed our joblessness, hopelessness, bankruptcy, shame, How the fragrance of your love blows strong.

After we finished singing, our Lead Pastor said some very nice things about our group, and then he led the congregation in singing the same song in Korean. It was very beautiful to hear it sung by the whole congregation in Korean. The service was unique to the other services on Sunday, in that it was very contemporary. Complete with a super praise team, large Choir, guitars, and a dynamic worship leader we were surprised and blessed to see the congregation lift their hands in singing and praising God. They really get into worship, and the prayer at the end of the service was awesome. The Pastor concluded a great message from Hebrews Chapter 5 about mature believers, then introduced a prayer time. When he was done, everybody said "LORD" (in Korean) in unison, and started a 5-6 minute period of corporate prayer where everyone was praying out loud. People were really fervently praying and even leaning forward and backwards and lifting hands and even shouting unto the Lord their prayers. All the while the piano and a few instruments were playing very loudly and you could sense the excitement of believers communicating with their Lord through their prayers translated by the Holy Spirit! This whole service was so special, Susan and I both agreed we have to come out here on Friday nights as much as possible.

Well, I hope you are getting the sense that we are. Going on this adventure to Korea, was not only a good idea, but it really seems to be a "GOD" idea. Our friend Mona put it best, "I really think the Lord has sent you to our church for a reason". Mona always has the right words...on the way back home a car was coming very close to our vehicle from the other lane, and I noticed it was a newer model very nice car; I said, something like, "yeah come on over buddy, I will put a nice scratch on that beautiful car," (not a very Christian comment, I know), but Mona just pleasantly said, "scratch.com" Then after that whenever we observed another crazy Korean driver, one of us would just quote Mona, and repeat, "scratch.com".

Have a wonderful Christmas! Susan and I have only four classroom days left, then we look forward to our visit with Kari from China and her friend. Hanna will be with us for part of her visit, and after Christmas, Susan and I will be attending the Darak Bang training for 5 days, about an hour and a half south of Seoul. There we will learn 20 strategies of evangelism taught in our church. I hope to learn something I will be able to share with others in the summer months when I come back for a visit to America. We are excited about seeing our sons and many friends and family, but we are equally excited about coming back to Korea next August again.


 
Friedhelm & Susan Illian
a.k.a. Sung-Ho & Su-Ji
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his