Newsletter 2018

Shalom! Team Boaz Co-Workers ~! I greet you in the good name of our Lord Jesus Christ, rich in love and grace. This report inevitably contains 3rd and 4th quarters of 2018. Should you be worried about no news for a while? As usual, I have day after day passed through various Tests that God allows, and I realize anew that God confirms whether I have solid faith indeed and I practice it in my life. This (Test) is clearly different from the Trial. While the Trial means that a student is able to cope with the temptation to play outside or to go to sleep fast and then, to study hard and steadily until late at night during the semester, the Test will be the process to get the results of his accumulated capability in endurance through a midterm exam, final exams, entrance examination and so on.
There are many good examples in the Bible. He made a bet with Satan to let Job suffer great disaster and deny God and give up his faith. To Daniel's three friends, He let them to choose either to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s gold statue or to be thrown into the fire. He watched Abraham obey his command to sacrifice his only son Isaac. It took a long and difficult Trial process for them to pass this Test by faith. Just as a student should be studying uninterruptedly, it is lifetime task for Saints to mature their faith through life. Such a strong faith can never be achieved overnight. This means that the Trial of God will not cease to the Saints, and that at some stage of faith maturity, the Test will be presented from time to time. In the end, the life of the Saints is a process to overcome well the Trial given by God, and with discernment, to pass the Test and to avoid the Temptation.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1: 2-4) I’ve been mistaken indeed. When I came to Indonesia for business mission by obeying my calling at the end of the theology, I knew that God's ultimate plan for me would be fulfilled. In other words, I thought it would be enough to take the charge of my business mission and I should only bear fruit. But it was not that. Now I realize. I know that the life I am currently living in, is still a Trial process that God allows. I am still much short of ability and weak in the work and therefore, continue to be trained and grow. Because I still have not passed many Tests.
Though I was called to a place where there is no one I can rely on, I have rather relied on humans than God, still living in a way that depends on humanity and solves the problems in human ways and accordingly, no God’s will does accomplish, leaving me to languish. During the year 2018, He continued to challenge me with the words, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.' Now, it seems that I reach the faith to confess at least in the will of this Word. If I truly acknowledge God as my shepherd who made me to His plan and claims my life and death, my life will lack nothing. I wish that next year there will be progress in greater faith.
MISSION
Team Boaz had the sixth medical missionary work in the Afghanistan camp in the Bogor region on August 24. This event was sponsored by Sungbok Church in Jamsil where Pastor Kim Joong-ho, a Talbot Seminary alumnus and a director of Team Boaz Foundation is ministering.
We did not have medical ministry in the fourth quarter. This is because missionary Choi Young-mi (tentmaker missionary), a key member of Team Boaz's medical mission, has been forced to work for a living, making it impossible for her to work on weekdays. The refugee residence area where we have been practicing medical care is the mountain area where the safari (zoo) is located. On weekends, however, the road to the refugee residence area becomes one way. In the morning it is only allowed to go up and late in the afternoon to go down. So, on weekends it is impossible to work in this area.
It is too bad, but under such a condition the medical ministry has been paused for a while from the fourth quarter and we are praying for another ministry that God allows. Even if our refugee medical ministry is tentatively suspended, please pray for other helping hand so that they will continue to be treated without alienation. Even in the third and fourth quarters, the afterschool (Saptu Ceria) and the preschool (Sumber Kasih) are progressing well in God’s Grace. Although our support is not big enough at this moment, I would like to silently take the ministry with the hope that the Indonesian children whom Teamboaz supports will someday become a political leader who breaks down corruption in Indonesia and grow into an economic leader to overcome the disparity between the rich and the poor.