Thursday, December 24, 2009

PRAYER UPDATE!

hello!

it has already been 2 weeks since i've been here.
man time flies.
nonetheless, it's been exciting times :)

first i want to share prayer requests in addendum to the ones posted last time!

- pastors: it is really tough to minister for them here, in light of resistance and seeming lack of fruit. please pray that they'd be strengthened, that they'd remember that GOD is with them and HE is the ONE that has called them to this ministry and that they'd be encouraged in knowing that although it is hard to perceive fruit, their work is truly GOD's work.

- kids and youth: one pastor reminded me that they are the future missionaries of this world! so please pray that they grow in the knowledge and love for GOD. that they would be instructed and built up by the church to be a light here in Colombia and abroad.

- adults: ah! hardened hearts. veiled hearts -> the stress of money. many families are suffering financially, that they would find comfort not in more money, but in GOD!

- colombia: this is a spiritually very hungry nation. many people have been telling me about christian "churches" that take offering and promise wealth (seed of faith). and through this scheme many "pastors" are becoming wealthy. therefore, many christian churches are being generalized with these "churches" and hurting their ministry. there is also a large presence of cults. please pray for more workers for the kingdom in this harvest and also for the people that are looking for spiritual freedom in these enslaving "churches". that HIS truth would free the people of colombia. (ahh! Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. matt 11:28)

- ideas for ministry: especially for young adults.

- unity IN CHRIST!: among the young adults, between the young adults and the adults, and within the church as a whole.

- that GOD would build up disciples within the KOREAN community.

- church: ah! the church is a beacon of light, truly. that GOD would empower these churches with HIS SPIRIT. that the truth, the gospel would be preached and that it would be sewn into their hearts. that GOD would use these churches to redeem HIS people and transformed lives. ("where two or three come together in my name, there am i with them - matt. 18:20)

- ministry in bosa: bosa is a neighborhood in the poorer area of the city. ah! i asked for prayer about this last time. AH! and GOD answered. i am really excited to be able to serve this neighborhood by teaching english to the kids. please pray that it would be used for the HIS purpose and the furthering of HIS kingdom. i have no idea what to do. ah! it's from 1/11 - 1/20

- bosa: the ministry of Carlos Cadena. that it would be God-centered and in-Spirit.

- more opportunities for one-on-ones and GT's (GOD talk :P)

- daily, continual, prayerful, humble, dependent, watchful, patient heart. look to HIM, behold HIM, abide in HIM all day.

- accountability and friendship. ah! i called albert and sheldon and AH! having a brother point you towards CHRIST is such a gift. brother in Bogota!

- and finally, join me in praying that even through this short time God alone would be glorified to the fullest in everything that will happen!



OK!

picture time.

hm. so i decided to check out a English-speaking church by missionaries called United Church of Bogota (UCB). i went to their Thursday Fireside Fellowship and they were having a Christmas Party! GOD is good, we are truly ONE family under CHRIST.

















we went to visit bosa.
and the dogs here are cool.

LION DOG
sad story.
his owner died.
and the neighbors say
they can hear
lion dog
cry.


































the barking dog was barking at us from the rooftops.
thank goodness it didnt jump down to attack us.

have you guys played command and conquer: red alert? (#3 from vid)




bible study at OMC!

















bible study was followed by a fierce pingpong duel. the pastor's family was victorious!


















TAXIS are my main mode of tranportation


















Colombian Money























DERICOUS FOOD

















how can i pray for you!?


in great expectation for God's work in Colombia,
your brother in Christ.
- leo

Thursday, December 17, 2009

BACK TO THE FUTURE

RANDOM PICTURES!

















my room!

















my old church (how it looked before)

















the church NOW!










i remember seeing huge cockroaches at school in Colombia.
i saw one today on the street.
it was scary because it was so big. flailing legs, hairy torso and flapping wings.
i had to kick it upright because its backside was so scary.













power rangers scary.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

PRAYER REQUESTS!

Hello!

It is truly a gift to have fellow brothers and sisters to join in prayer for this trip. Looking at an ever-growing list of prayer requests, I was at first dismayed: “How am I gonna be able to pray over all these things?” But then I was so encouraged after reading Romans 15:30 as Paul asks: “I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.” Ah! You are with me in this mission trip and together we are praying!

Prayer Requests

Many of the Korean people go to church here, but for most it is simply a societal gathering and custom. This is so much more dangerous because sin and spiritual blindness are covered by a false sense of fellowship with god. Something like: “I go to church, so I’m good with God and I can do whatever I want…yea yea Jesus died for my sins, whatever”

1. The adults (ajuhshis and ajoomahs): Because the Korean community is so small and many people work in the same industry, it is very easy to fall into gossip. Please pray that God would teach them to tame the tongue, as it has hurt many of the youth and young adults and it makes them stop wanting to come to church because they want to avoid dealing with the adults. Also, as leaders in the church that they would be role models for the younger generation in their love of Christ. Who can the younger generation look up to?!

2. Youth and Young Adults (my friends): That the Gospel would move from their heads to their hearts. As a church-going community, many know of God but don’t know Him and what the gospel truly means. That they would see God’s amazing love and kindness, perfectly shown at the cross, and that this would lead them to repentance. Thatt they would love the Word. Bible is not BORING!

3. Church: That it would be a Christ-centered, Word-loving, life-giving, Spirit-filled, Spirit-led church. For the pastors, that they would find accountability. In the midst of all this darkness that it would truly shine as a light.

4. “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few…”: Please pray that God would send workers to this community and the church. Maybe a youth/young adults pastor? SM (Spanish ministry)?

5. Colombia: It is a country of cultural Catholicismwhich really means subtle agnosticism. A belief of traditions without having the Truth as foundation.

6. The Korean churches will be sending out teams to the Colombian Amazon in January (3-4 day trips). You know what to pray for ☺ EVERYTHING!

Some personal prayer requests!

7. Accountability: This prayer request reminds me of when Jesus sends the seventy-two in pairs. I wanna ask God for a brother to share with, be accountable to, to GT with, etc. I can’t see the long in my own eye, but a brother can.

8. Humility: It is easy for me to think that I got it all figured out and be “above it all”. That I would always look unto the cross and the cost of my own sin. It is only by grace that I am loved. Also, that I would remember that it is not wise or persuasive words but the power of the spirit that transforms hearts.

9. I might have an opportunity to serve at a school in an impoverished neighborhood. God is it your will for me to serve there? Ah! I see so much selfishness and pride in me NOT wanting to serve there (it wasn’t my intended purpose to come here GOD! ☹). Please pray that even if it is not His will that I’d be willing to go if it is.

10. That I would continue to join in the culture.

It’s a long list of prayer requests. Praying for all of them at once might be too much so if there is any one request that is near to our hearts, we can pray for that one earnestly.

Please God capture the hearts of those who don’t know you. We beg for you to move.

There is much hope! “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet” (Romans 16:20)

YES!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

PRE-ARRIVAL GOALS!

Hello!

I wanted to share with you guys some of the things I hope to do during first couple days of this trip. Please keep me accountable!

  1. At least have one meaningful, God-centered one-on-one with a friend.
  2. Meet with the pastors from both local Korean churches and ask how I can best support their ministry

Practicing the Presence:

  1. Begin and end each day with intimate time with God.
    1. Submit each day to HIM and ask to be reminded of purpose
  2. Mediate on a specific verse each day
  3. Journal everyday and write daily ACTS prayer (Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication)

Oh man, all these things will have fruitful, God-glorifying reverberant effects only because of the Spirit’s work. So I ask for prayer that I would not fall into the temptation to seek control in the works that only the Spirit can do.

Thanks!

Writing to you from Avianca Flight 1049.

2 hours before Bogotá!

(Uploaded to blog three days after arrival :P)

Monday, December 7, 2009

DEPARTURE UPDATE!

Thursday, December 10th
10:30 AM - DEPARTURE

Let's hang out at the airport 9:00AM!

LAX
Terminal 2 - Avianca

NOT Tom Bradley (Sorry)

Saturday, December 5, 2009

LEO TO COLOMBIA!


Dear Friends, Loved Ones, Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

Hello!

As many of you know, I recently graduated from college and I’ve had the chance to play and pray! I’m so thankful God has shown me to cherish personal and intimate moments with Him and during these times I’ve come to realize how hopeless I am to make God-glorifying choices and I’ve learned to ask Him for His clear direction and guidance for my future. And for these past months, slowly but surely, God has been changing my heart, instructing my mind and growing my soul.

In the midst of waiting for God’s instruction for my future, my friend from Colombia came to visit America. We began talking about our church and our friends, the youth and the young adults there. It seemed like they were struggling, and although many had gone out to church, it was simply something to do on Sundays.

Our thoughts were: “Ah! Our generation needs Jesus! They need to know Him!” And from that day everything just began to click! There was an immediate call to go. I was to simply be a pointer and an arrow to Him in Colombia. To share that only God can change hearts and bring them from death to life. So my prayer is to ask God to meet them, that they would know Him and that God would reveal His unbelievable, unfailing love for them, most clearly demonstrated at the cross!” With this calling, I’ll be going to Colombia.

I am really lucky to have the opportunity to serve God’s kingdom directly, to be a pair of hands at the Korean church in Colombia, and to go back to my friends and share of His love with them.

Please pray for me: that I’d remember I am nothing and that fruit only comes from abiding in Him: humble, constant and complete dependence on Him. That I would daily be led and empowered solely by the Holy Spirit. That love would abound in my heart for His work and His people. That each moment would be a step of more of Him and less of me.

But, it’s not only me that’s going! Isn’t it awesome that God has called each and every one of us, as the church, to the Great Commission? So please join me in God’s kingdom work in Colombia within the Korean community through prayer!

Let’s pray that the Holy Spirit would open the eyes of the Korean youth and young adults to the hopeless death in the world’s view of comfort and success, to the sin that so entangles men to fruitless bondage, to the truth that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But let’s not end there for we know that it is God’s kindness that leads us to repentance, and that although the wages of sin is death, the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord! So let’s pray that in light of their humility and realization of depravity, they would see the perfect answer in Jesus Christ, that they would come to see the beauty of God’s love for us at the cross, that they would love Jesus as their Savior and Lord, that they would be amazed at the grace poured out through Christ to us who were once called enemies of the Almighty God!

With Jesus Christ, our Great Redeemer, there is great hope! Once justified we know that there will be a complete transformation: the Holy Spirit will form them and mold them to God’s pleasure!

Let’s also pray for the Korean community in Colombia as a whole! That God would teach the older generation to love Him and completely transform them. That their leadership would be Christ-centered.

For the Korean church/es, that His truth would be preached, that they would be of one heart and one soul, and that God would rise up and send workers for His harvest within the Korean community and outwardly to the people of Colombia. That He would build disciples for His purpose.

Most importantly, please join me in praying that even through this short time God alone would be glorified to the fullest in everything that will happen.

I’ll be updating you through this Facebook group for specific prayer requests and happenings!

AHH! THANK YOU!

In His Love,

Leo Ham

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Jesus' Obedience to the Father

We look unto you Jesus, as an example of perfect obedience to the glory of God the Father.

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." - Phil 2:5-11

Marvel at the submission of the eternal Son to the eternal Father, carried out with absolute fidelity to the Father's will, with nothing but joy, and happiness, and satisfaction. Learn afresh this moment what life is supposed to look like. Learn what freedom is. Learn where joy is found. Learn where our humanity finds its richest, fullest expression: our only true expression in our living in obedience to the one who created us following in His pathway. (From Bruce Ware's - Jesus and the Father sermon)

"And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your own good?" - Deut. 10:12-13

"And I have found the answer is to love You and be loved by You alone." - Shane & Shane - The Answer