Travel to and from Africa is a challenging experience. There are changes in weather, food, languages, and currencies. At one place like Brasvo it was a freezing cold winter, but in Dar Es Salaam it is now 34 Celsius. I lost tooth brush so I asked a stewardess for any toothbrush to spare. As you come in and out of airports, when they ask for money you need to figure out how to handle the situation. And you need to be constantly aware of your luggage for no one knows when it might disappear. Plus the customs officer can go unreasonable: although you explain that the bottle contains only vitamin pills they ask you to open it up, so you have to tear up the gift wrap. And there is jet-lag.
From January 4-5, 2013 African UBF directors scheduled to hold the African Director's new year conference. This time we chose Dar Es Salaam of Tanzania as the venue. There is only one family (Timothy and Hanna Chung) hosting the conference. To support themselves they run a factory making wig with a brand name "Stella").
On the way from LA to Tanzania I made a visit to Romania where there are two UBF chapters - one served by Missionary John Jung another by David Kim. [Officially David is associated with CMI (I do not know what CMI stands for), an organization established by the so called 'ex-ubf' members who left UBF while Dr. Samuel Lee was ministering in Chicago.) Both of the chapters are in Bucharest.
Located two hours away from Bucharest is a second largest city Brasvo where Pastor Young Lee is running a Missionary Training Center. Young Lee was sent by one of the Korean baptist churches in Korea. He is a strong advocate of UBF. At one of the Kimnet meetings in Toronto Canada when there was a panel discussion he volunteered to serve as one of the panelists. After heated discussion he suggested to the floor to adopt "UBF style" as a model for future missionary work. Last October at the Kimnet meeting in Charlotte, NC, he struck up friendship with me. His two sons study in California, one in San Francisco, another in LA. Last December he visited his two sons in LA. On that occasion he also made a visit to LA UBF. Around this time he bid me to visit Romania, so on my way to Tanzania I paid a visit to his ministry not only to get to know and learn of him, but also to pray for UBF missionaries working in Bucharest.
On Dec. 26, at 6:00 a.m. Missionary John dropped me at LAX. The next day Dec. 27 (Thursday) when I arrived at 1:05 p.m. Young Lee greeted me at the airport. [I was not used to rely on local people in the mission fields. So in the past it has been my practice to make reservations myself for the transportation and places to stay, but he insisted on me dropping my plan and stick to his plan, which I reluctantly did.]
Brasvo was in a winter season with snow covering mountains and fields. It was a two and half hours of drive from the airport. On the way we briefly visited Peres Castle a private residence built by one of the rulers of the nation.
At the outskirt of the city Brasvo Young Lee got built a three story residential unit as well as a three story conference facility. The conference facility was completed leaving only cosmetics such as carpets, and furnishings. He says it would cost about $200,000 to make it fully operational as a conference center.
Dec. 28 (Friday) - Young Lee let me to take a look around the facility and community developments such as sports facility, community park, small lake, adventure park, trails, and skiing place. He also ordered me to share the history of UBF coming Sunday at three places - at his church, at a Brethren Church located at Codrea, and a sister church nearby which was branched out from the Brethren church.
Dec. 29 (Saturday) - During morning hours I worked on the report. In talking with Young Lee and his wife Esther, she expressed her desire for a "smart" phone. Her friends in Korea wanted to talk to her on Kakao talk, but since Esther does not have a smart phone, her friend in Korea sort of ridiculed her saying, "You don't have a smart phone?" So I asked her what sort of smart phone she wants. She said, 'iPhone'. So we went to a market, and as a donation to the Young Lee's ministry I bought for her iPhone 4S. I also gave her $100 to buy a iPhone holder.
Dec. 30 (Sunday)
1) 10 a.m. - noon
Sunday worship at the Young Lee's Training Center:
Saturday evening Missionary John Jihun Jung, the director of Bucharest UBF, his wife Monica, and two shepherds (Alex and Doru) and one sister (Andrea) arrived at Young Lee's and slept at the center.
At 10 a.m. Sunday we had a worship. Neighbors, one missionary family visiting Young Lee, Bucharest UBF members worshiped together. The worship lasted two hours. The program for the first hour consisted of prayers, offering, hymns, special songs, a report, instructions, and announcements, etc. and the next one hour was assigned to my report which was comprised of: 1) the history of Korea; 2) the history of UBF Int'l; 3) the history of LA UBF; and 4) the history of universe subtitled "the conclusion of the matter". After the worship we had a photo session.
2) noon - 5 p.m.
Lunch fellowship at the house of Gabriel in Codrea:
Codrea is located about 20 minutes of driving distance from the Training Center.
At Codrea there is a believing family of Gabriel. He is a good-natured, kind-hearted Christian; he is in his fifties. While Gabriel was 19 he was serving the local church as a sunday school teacher. At the sunday school there was a girl aged 13. Soon Gabriel fell in love with the girl (who is now his wife named Esther. There are so many Esther's in the world!] After serving two years of military duty he married Esther his first love. He and his wife Esther produced 7 beautiful daughters in a row, and then succeeded to produce a son Elisei. All seven daughters are beautiful.
How did Young Lee get to know this family? It happened this way. Once upon a time when Young Lee visited a church where Gabriel's father was an elder, Gabriel's father showed strong interest in knowing the Bible truths. So he used to visit Young Lee's place and asked many questions on the Bible. Soon they became friends. Then Gabriel's father passed away. Since then Young Lee filled the void, so all seven daughters and Elisei call Young Lee "grandpa" (actually they say 'halabouji' which means in Korean grandpa.)
All of Gabriel's kids love Korea, so although they do not have TV at home they learned by themselves Korean pop songs. The daughters know how to play guitar, and they sing Korean songs like a pro.
How did the lunch fellowship go? They invited to lunch me, young lee, his wife, John Jung, his wife monica, Alex, Doru, and Andrea. We went to the house in two cars. Outside was freezing cold. Their house is located at a humble place adjacent to a gradual wooded hill. It is a two story house, with a backyard located in the rear where they grow chickens and vines. The first floor consisted of a hallway, dining place, and kitchen. Upstairs are living quarters. Because it was during winter break all children were at home except the twin daughters who had to work in town. The dining hall was cozy. They served traditional Romanian food. All dishes were delicious, especially the food called "Sarmale".
After we were done with food the daughters came around the table, and sang songs playing guitar. The song was sweet and they were beautiful so two UBF shepherds watched them singing and they were swooned. And we talked and talked. The fellowship was so pleasant that I felt as if I were in a third heaven. And the fellowship lasted until 5 p.m. But we had to tear ourselves from the fellowship, for all of us did not want to be late at the evening Sunday worship at the Brethren church where Gabriel is one of the leading servants.
3. Evening Worship
The Brethren church is situated about 5 minutes of driving distance. The way they run the church program is similar to LA UBF. There is no one imposing on the church congregation as "the" 'pastor'. Each sunday several 'brethren' take turns to serve a message. Family members also participate in various functions such as choir. Like UBF shepherds speakers do not get paid and they have their own careers.
As soon as I arrived at the church, I handed over to a young man in charge of media control room a stick containing video clips and power point. They started worship with hymns and prayers. The presiding person named prayer servants whereupon they stood from the congregation and prayed. One person (a middle aged? father) prayed in a loud voice shedding tears!
Gabriel's family (including Elisei, but not his sisters who went to serve a special program at another church) along with UBF members were seated up front. I was given 25 minutes including translation. So I cut short the presentation focusing on the word of God especially Luke 2:10, Acts 1:8, and Isaiah 9:1-2. The translator Emmanuel was a handsome young man. He and I prayed that the Holy Spirit work powerfully. And The Lord answered our prayer. I could see that the congregation who filled the sanctuary were responsive.
4. Second worship
As soon as my sermon was over, Young Lee hurried me to the next church in the same town. [UBF members continued to have fellowship with the said Brethren church. Then since Monica is in her first trimester of pregnancy, they went back to Bucharest that night.]
When I arrived the congregation were already ready to start the worship. I went up to the control room and gave a stick to a young man. Since I ran short of time, I asked Elisei (he is only 12 years old boy, yet very computer savvy; in fact he turned three video clips I gave him into a short movie using windows movie maker on his sister's computer) to work with the man in charge of the control room.
The worship program started with hyms and prayers and then I and Emanuel (the translator) took the podium and spoke. But there was a small glitch - the slide was so slow to turn pages that I asked the man in the control room to stop and we proceeded without the power point. The Lord was graceful, so the message rang out.
After the worship, there was a talking fellowship with people. Then one handsome young man approached, introduced himself to me. He said, "I know Samuel Lee. I know Sarah Barry. I studied the Bible with Wesley Yoon. I really want to live as the Bible teaches. I want to become a shepherd. Please pray for my wife for she does not believe." I promised to pray for him and his wife. And we took a picture.
5. Dinner Fellowship
Gabriel invited to a dinner at his home me Young Lee, Young Lee's wife, Missionary Sandu and his wife Luminutz, Sandu's two children, his wife's sister and her husband along with their two children.
It was already very dark. Yet the streets were well lit up with Christmas lights. They served another Romanian dish consisting of noodle mixed with home-made meat and toppings. The soup was so tasty so I asked the mom, "What is the name of this soup?" She said, "soup". Since I liked the Sarmale she served it again.
After the main course they served the home made cookies/cakes along with drinks like coffee or tea.
Then followed a special music session. With Luminutz playing guitar her children came around the table and sang songs. The youngest daughter then came out and surprised everyone by memorizing the Moses' Ten Commandments (not a short but long version) fluently. She went so fast and her memory was like a man playing a tape-recorder. And the voice was like a spring bird singing.
Sandu's wife's sister is a medical doctor. Between the doctor and Gabriel they started discussing about the condition of Gabriel's heart, for apparently Gabriel has an issue with his heart. I asked Young Lee what was the problem. And I was reminded of the heart problem I used to suffer from. Mine was stress-related. As they started paying attention to me, I shared a "Biblical remedy" for the stress-related heart diseases, that is, Proverbs 4:23, Philippians 4:6-7, and Isaiah 30:15.
Around this time the twin sisters came back from work, making the number "7" daughters complete. The talk spread over to myself having 'five grand-daughters'. Then Esther (Gabriel's wife) said, "My mother has 41 grand-children, and my grand mother has 82 grand children." I was shocked so I asked again, "How many did you say?" Then Damaris said, "41 and 82 - my mother's mother has 41 grand children, and my great grand mother has 82 grand children!" "Wow!" I said. And it was a true "Wow".
Pursuant to the encouragement of Pastor Young Lee, I shared with the congregation one word for the seven daughters who are all unmarried: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 [Every in the expression 'every good and perfect gift' includes a husband who is good and perfect.] Then I prayed for the family that Gabriel would live to be 120 years young and beyond, until he sees all of his children getting married and produce grand-children as many as the number of stars in the sky.
It was already close to midnight, so we tore ourselves from the Emanuel family, said "good bye". Young Lee drove us back to the Training Center at Brasvo.
Dec. 31, 2012 - Fellowship with Missionaries in Bucharest
1. Lunch fellowship
In order to pray for the missionaries working in Bucharest area, especially Missionary David and Rebekah Kim and their coworkers, serving college students in Bucharest, I talked to Pastor Young Lee and hosted a "year end lunch fellowship among missionaries working in the capital city."
The appointment was made so the meeting would take place at a Korean restaurant called Dami located near the airport in Bucharest.
To catch the meeting on time Young Lee, his wife, and I left (in a minivan) Brasvo at 9:30 a.m. for Bucharest. When we arrived at the restaurant, about 20 missionaries were gathered waiting for us. They are from all different denominations such as Baptists, Methodists, etc..
During the eating fellowship I talked with Rebekah Kim, the wife of David Kim. She is 'the first' Korean missionary in Bucharest, Romania, I was told. David and Rebekah were discipled by David Woo, the director of Incheon UBF. While I was at Chongno in early 1970's, I used to get along with David Woo and his shepherd Peter Surh. David Woo is still serving students at Incheon UBF. Rebekah and David were dispatched by Incheon UBF.
Rebekah was instrumental to pioneering the former USSR in 1990. At that time we prayed hard that The Lord would open the door to USSR for the gospel. While the iron curtain was still drawn down, Rebekah Kim was working as a nurse missionary in Hungary. One day David Woo called her and asked her whether or not she could go to Moscow State University and get an admission letter for James Whang. By faith she obeyed. Along with one native shepherd who speaks Russian she went to Moscow by train. Despite many obstacles she secured an admission letter from the MSU, thus opening the way for Korean UBF missionaries to go to Moscow, and pioneer the former USSR.
She and David work with another missionary family: Andrew and Esther Lee who are also from CMI. Andrew works at Goldline company which deals with export/import of timber. They have two children (Jihye 23 working on bio engineering at Seoul National University; Jiun 19 who recently received an admission letter from the Korea University.) Rebekah and David do not have children, so they adopted Romanian children.
Missionary John Jihun Jung also attended the lunch fellowship. He met and talked with missionaries associated with CMI (David and Rebekah, Andrew and Esther). Before we started eating, each missionary stood up, introduced himself or herself and the ministry he or she is serving. And Missionary John Jung is youngest missionary. He said, "I am glad that for the first time in my mission life in Romania, I could attend this kind of meeting and have fellowship with senior missionaries. Thank God."
After the eating fellowship, we had a photo session. I realized that the Korean missionaries working in Romania need a lot of support, especially loving attention and recognition, so they would be greatly encouraged to brave hardship and serve The Lord in their respective mission areas.
After paying the bill for the lunch, I said goodbye to all, especially to Pastor Young and Esther Lee.
2. Bible study with John and Monica Jung
After the lunch fellowship, John Jung gave me a ride through the downtown Bucharest. He also showed me around the college campus he is pioneering, the Bible center where Bible students are having a common life, and then he invited me to his house located near the airport.
At his house Monica's mother (Romanian) was babysitting their first son (3) Yustin (Nakwon in Korean). Monica looked healthy although she has a lot of morning sickness (3 months pregnancy). She said she has a good memory of my wife Rebekah Kim, and I said I will share it with my wife when I go back.
Since my fight for Tanzania leaves at 6:20 p.m., I served a short Bible study on Micah 5:4, "He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of The Lord and in the majesty of the name of The Lord his God." I warned them especially John that he would not rely on his enthusiasm, integrity, and strength alone. Then we had a joint prayer for the following prayer topics:
- To establish 84 house churches (shepherd families) serving 56 national and 28 private universities and colleges campuses of Romania BY THE YEAR 2020;
- For Alex, Bogdan, Doru, Andrea, and Bernica to grow and eat daily bread faithfully
- Sunday worship messages on Luke and Exodus by John Jung
- Monica's Safe delivery (scheduled to go in July, 2013)
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