Recently, quite a few non-Korean Christians have started to attend our church. Perhaps God is sending them in light of our vision to establish a multicultural church one day?? One of the Korean newcomers who recently joined our church was actually led to GVC thanks to one of our non-Korean members, who had decided to introduce their Korean friend to our church.
A few weeks ago, our Finance Team passed on a letter to me, saying that they found this in our offering box. I kept it in my bible, hoping to share with our congregation one day – and this Open Mind seemed like the perfect place to do so. This person wrote their name and our church name in Korean, and the rest was in English.
“Hi, my name is XXX.
I come from China. I come here for the first time last Christmas with friend and for New year. I also got a New Year card with Bible sentences that I keep in my wallet until now. After my friend went back to Korea. I feel too shy to go here by myself.
I have been back since April and have been here until now. I received a lot of encouragement and healing in God’s Vision Church. I will go to Switzerland to start my PhD study in two weeks. Wish I could meet amazing Korean church in Switzerland as well.
Thanks a lot for my encounter with God’s Vision Church! I’m stilling applying for a scholarship, that’s the little support I can do. Looking forward to meeting again. Thank you. From XXX”
They must have received our bible verse card at our Christmas retreat and New Year’s Service, when they came to our church with a Korean friend. After that Korean friend went back to Korea, and it seems this person didn’t come to church because they were shy, but they started attending again last April and continued to do so until they had to move to Switzerland to pursue their PhD. On their last service, this person had left us this letter and an offering.
I was really grateful while reading this letter. Thanks to their Korean friend, this Chinese friend had come to know Jesus, and was able to keep close to the church. I was also grateful to our Translation Team, who try really hard to ensure that no one feels excluded during our service – by interpreting the service, but also by translating our leaflets and the lyrics for all the songs of worship we sing during the service as well. Quite a few non-Korean Christians participate in person, but we also have a few joining online too. After the service ends, our English service videos become unlisted, but yet we still have 15 to 30 views each week. While this may not be an accurate number, it’s clear that we have a few that join.
Our church will continue to have opportunities to evangelise and engage in ministry. While we do have interpretation services, I hope we can still pray for the opportunity for us to establish a multicultural church, where we can praise and preach all in English. It would also be great if we could introduce our non-Korean friends to this church as well. “Lord, please lead and guide our non-Korean friends.”
