-Isaiah 42:9 NIV
Last weekend my church had an event that we call “Harvest Festival”. Every year we celebrate the anniversary of our church’s beginnings. This year’s Harvest Festival was quite special, because it marks the 40th year since the foundation of our church. Now, when I say the 40th year, I am not referring to the building in which we have service. In fact, the building that we use now wasn’t built until the 1990’s. Our church started off very humble, with only a few Korean missionaries who came to the United States many years ago. Today I just want to share a couple of my thoughts regarding the Harvest Festival, and my church’s past. (I am not claiming any of the following thoughts to be 100% accurate, because I was not there in times past).
To give you some perspective, I am 20 years old. This means that my church has been around twice as long as I have. 40 years ago, three missionaries came to the US in order to serve God’s mission here in Maryland. About a year later, their husbands came and joined them. They served people on the University of Maryland campus, but had many struggles due to language barriers. By God’s grace, they eventually began to have Bible study with some students on campus, one of whom happens to be my father. They did not have a church building, so they met in an apartment near campus.
As they grew with more members, neighboring people in the apartment complained about the noise that was made during Sunday services. Worship service was moved to the armory building on campus, which is where our church’s young adult group meets every Friday. More missionaries came to the US and joined our church as the years went on. The building in which we reside now was bought in the 1990s, and our youth group and young adult group formed. Some students, who were quite mature in their faith at this point, decided to move to Virginia and Baltimore in order to start their own ministry there. Many of these people came to our Harvest Festival in order to celebrate what God has done in our church thus far.
As for my part in all of this, I was basically born into my church. The building was already built when I was born, so I attended there since I was born. I joined the children’s group, then the youth group, and now am part of the young adult group. I really grew a lot during my time in the youth group, thanks to fantastic leaders and God’s provision. I began learning to play drums and guitar (in addition to piano, which I have been learning for a long time), and I joined the youth group praise team. I mostly played drums at the start, but later there was a need for a new leader, so I played piano and guitar while leading praise.
If you don’t know, I absolutely hated singing in front of other people. However, others encouraged me to lead praise, so I gained confidence in my abilities. I still don’t think I am a great singer by any stretch of the imagination, but I still lead praise on occasion. I am thankful to all of the people who really encouraged me to serve God through music. Later I joined the young adult group, and became a leader for the group. I am still serving the group today, and I am always blessed when I have fellowship with the people in this group.
I’ve recounted some of my history in my church because I want to emphasize that without the people in my church, I would be a very different person. Three missionary couples came to the US, giving up a comfortable life in Korea, in order to obey God’s call to mission. They suffered greatly, but endured through tough times. God saw their obedience, and He blessed the church immensely through their sacrifice. God is gracious to those who obey Him, even if they make mistakes in their lives.
One of the most amazing things to me comes from the theme that was chosen for the Harvest Festival. Isaiah 42:9 (written at the beginning of this post) was the key verse of our Harvest Festival. The theme was “New Things I Declare”. To be blunt, the founding missionaries of our church are old. However, they never stopped serving God here in Maryland. They still go out and look for Bible students, continuing to obey God’s call. I think that if I were at that age, I would stop and look back to enjoy all that I have accomplished. Our church has many members now, and we are even expanding the church building to house more people. However, the missionaries don’t look at all these things as their accomplishments. They know 100% that all this was God’s work, not theirs. They continue to look forward, anticipating what God will do in the next 40 years. These people are an absolute blessing to me, and an inspiration for me to serve God wholeheartedly.
One song that I have rediscovered recently is the song “God of this City”. I believe that the lyrics are the perfect way for me to end this post. “Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city. Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here.”
-Smart
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