Newsletter 2021

Greetings in the name of Heavenly Father, who is full of grace and love. Whenever I write ministry sharing, what I always feel is that the years go by so quickly. The year 2021, which started with worries and anticipation for me, is already at the beginning of May. How is your 2021 so far? The last 4 months were a miraculous time for me to realize my quite smallness and to be immersed in His greatness.
When I first started a ministry, I wrote a letter to share the ministry every month. However, writing a letter every month seemed to take up too much of the time of the busy sponsors. So, it was delivered quarterly. However, there is a drawback. It is the inability to immediately inform of the vivid workings of God. It is not easy to choose what to share out of the many experiences. It is also true that a testimony that cannot be shared is precious.
Last February, an employee who had worked with me for 6 years was admitted to the Master's program at Handong Global University. She was an employee who joined our company just upon graduating from college and went through all the troubles and ups and downs with me. Sometimes, when business was difficult, I even doubted the calling for a business mission, but she was so much valuable employee to me that I could endure the difficulty, recollecting the care of God who sent me such a good employee. As she had a dream of studying in Korea, I often said this. 'After the company gets bigger and, if affordable, I'll send you to Korea to study, so let's work hard. And when you come back from studying, you take charge of our company and run it.' Six years have passed, but the company's growth has been slow and it's been still urgent to survive. She also tried to attain the selection of a Korean government scholarship student, but failed and fell in disappointment.
One day, came to my mind the thought to send her as a scholarship student to the Graduate School of International Development Cooperation at Handong Global University. So, I decided to enter the master's program at Handong Global University, and I expressed the sincerity and potential of this employee to the max through a recommendation letter. At the end of November last year, thanks to the help of the President of Handong University and professors who taught me, she received a full scholarship and entered the Master's Program at Handong University. sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything. (2 Corinthians 6:10) Through this incident, God has reminded me of my folly once again. Up until now, I have been fixed on the idea that I would accomplish something and do God's work. ‘If I grow the company well, and when the company makes a profit, I should do missions with it.’ That’s the right way from the secular perspective. But even though I've known that God's method is different, I have never looked for it.
MISSION
Due to Corona Virus, among the ministries that TeamBoaz has been carrying out, only the 'Sumberkashi (Source of Love)' kindergarten ministry is underway. As mentioned in the previous sharing, high-quality online education is impossible because of the poor living conditions of children. In such a way that teacher Betty gives assignments to the children, and the children take pictures of the results and send them back to the teacher, the class proceeds, overcoming this situation. There is one thing more I want to share with you. One of the ministries I've been dreaming of since the founding of Teamboaz is to provide 'clean water'. This is a dream I had while living in the United States, supporting the ‘One Bowl of Water Mission’ run by Missionary Jong-Seung Kwon. However, as we shared before, I have been trying to build something by myself but it has been beyond my power so far.
By the way, as soon as I practiced my life seeking God's way, not the world's, I could see God's work. By chance, I came across the news that a junior in school, I had been close with, went to KAIST in Gwangju with the vision of sharing the gospel with 'clean water' and developed a water purifier using a gravity membrane that hardly requires filter replacement. In the end, God connected me and the junior so that my long-time dream could come true, and I am now preparing in prayer to start a business mission by supplying “clean water” throughout Indonesia in earnest.
Let me tell you about the water situation in Indonesia for a moment. Indonesia is a country with very serious problems in water supply and drainage. Available drinking water resources are scarce due to severe river water pollution and the lack of water treatment facilities and the backwardness of the facilities. As of 2016, only 10.66% of the population uses tap water as a source of drinking water in Indonesia, and most of the population uses groundwater (including wells) or mineral water for drinking. Even among Koreans, many persons use bottled water when brushing their teeth despite an individual water purifier installed in the sink. That's because they can't feel safe even if they use a water purifier. Naturally, the working class and the poor are not economically in a position to install a water purifier, so they are exposed to water-borne diseases.
After-school classes and kindergartens run by Teamboaz are all held in slum villages. The condition of those villages is as pictured. They live in a place full of garbage, building a house with boards. There are about 500 households in 6 slums, and we shall provide a water purifier to each home and let the classroom teacher after school seminaries regularly visit each home to check the water purifier and use it as a point of contact for missions. Furthermore, we plan to develop a business model so that seminarians can use this water purifier as a missionary tool when they graduate and enter their ministry. In Indonesia, in general, after seminary students graduate, they go to the mission field designated by the denomination and do ministry for about 5 years. It is not easy to spread the gospel in a country where about 80% of the population is Muslim. If a seminary student becomes a water purifier salesman and sells this water purifier at a low price, and visits each home regularly in the name of maintenance, it can be a very effective tool for mission.