Don't You Give Up On Me

Hello everyone~ Happy belated Thanksgiving and happy early Christmas!! This month was jam packed with events ranging from a worship week called The Presence Gathering which was filled with YWAM bases from all across the West Coast and Canada, to a fundraising banquet, and a trip to the redwoods this past weekend. This month's song is called Don't You Give Up On Me. I chose this song for 2 reasons. Coming to the end of my training, I started to lose gas and get complacent and lazy seeing the finish line so close. This song encouraged me to finish strong. The second reason is because this song speaks about times when you cannot hear or see God's presence to not give up because He is there with you in the storm. The lyrics resonated deeply within me because I wanted this song to become a prayer for the people suffering in Ukraine. In this post I will be sharing three testimonies and end with some of the ministry my team will be doing in Ukraine as well as some prayer requests.

Here is a funny TikTok one of the staff made showing a lot of the staff and classmates here on base!

Hot Thoughts and Hot Dogs

During one of our first local outreaches I had a chance to speak to an older gentleman working a hot dog stand. After speaking to him for the majority of the time we had I found out that he has had painful experiences with Christians and churches. As I left after that first encounter, I had a sense of yearning to share my story and how real God's love is regardless of how He may be misrepresented at times. To my surprise, God gave me two more opportunities to speak to him. The amazing thing was, every time I came to visit there would not be as many people coming by to buy hotdogs, but as we started talking, customer after customer came until by the end of our conversation he was out of hot dogs! This was a great opportunity for me to speak with the customers as he was preparing their hot dogs. There were so many blessings and love shared in each encounter that I had. The biggest blessing for me though was when he listened to my story to how I often struggled with finding community in church and being hurt by other Christians, but still never doubted in God's love and faithfulness to me. He empathised with my pain and wanted to keep in contact so that I could continue to update him on my missions trip. Even though I was the one trying to share God's love, I felt God's love for me as I heard his story and his vulnerability. God introduced me to a wonderful friend whose kindness and gentleness encouraged me to seek God on a deeper level.

My face when I was witnessing crowds of people interrupt our conversations

Father Heart of God

Though this testimony is from my past, I had an encounter this month that reminded me of God's grace and healing in my family. Puberty is a tough time for most teenagers, and it was especially the case for me. I was a difficult son and a brother and wreaked havoc amongst my family all throughout middle and high school. After meeting God, I started a long journey of rooting out sin out of my heart and life to the point where I love my family and the closeness of our relationship. A couple weeks ago, I had a phone call with my dad that reminded me of how much we both had grown. At the end of our call, he was apologizing for the mistakes he made as a father during my teenage years. After I told him I had already forgiven him, I also started to apologize for the way I acted in the past. But before I could even finish my sentence, my dad interrupted me telling me that I was never a bad son. Hearing those words moved me to tears as I was flooded with gratitude for not only my earthly father's grace but my heavenly father's. I heard God speaking through my dad in that moment, letting me know that I was never flawed or broken because He made me perfect. I am so grateful for the work God has done in my family and is continuing to do. I have still so much to grow in and I am blessed to have been given a second chance to heal relationships. I wanted to also take this time to humble brag about my family. As you might have already been able to tell, for my father to apologize to me is a huge sign of humility. My father is so hard working, passionate, and loving, but my favorite characteristic is his humility. To know when he's wrong and to own up to it has been a great influence in my life. My mother is probably the closest to a perfect person that I know. Not really much to say about her other than the fact that she is the glue that holds my family together, without her steadfast faith in God and in us, we would fall. My sister inherited my dad's passion and fire and I am personally always encouraged and inspired to have the same drive that she has. She always gives everything she has and she suffers sometimes because of that. She also is the best looking in our family which sucks for me because she took all the good looking genes. My brother is the kindest and the most humble one in family. He may not believe this about himself, but he is someone who gives generously and will never voice his concerns to others. He shoulders a lot of burden himself which can be tough sometimes. I hope that as you all read this section, that you would reflect on your family, biological or spiritual, and appreciate the people God has surrounded you with!

My brother doesn't know how to pose yet sorry

Matthew 6:28-33

The last testimony is involving the families of the base! At the same time as my training, there was a family discipleship training school happening with 12 families. Many of these families had 2-4 children and had given up their jobs, homes, and friends to come pursue God's calling. Due to the sizes of their family, there was a huge financial need in order for them to head into missions. They needed over $76,000 (all the families combined) to be able to go on missions and this number did not change until November 19th. But once again God pulled through. In the span of 2 weeks, the families only have about $8,000 left to fundraise!! God is so good and faithful. I have such a huge heart for the families here that have given up their old life to take on a new calling from God. I only chose to come to my discipleship program because my life circumstances allowed me to, and I know if I had a family of my own the decision would have been much harder.

The video below is of some of the children of the families playing with filters

I hope you all enjoyed some of the ways God has been moving in my life this past month. I've really enjoyed creating this blogs and everyone's words of encouragement and joy from reading has spurred me to continue doing this. In terms of my missions trip, there are 14 of us going to Romania and Ukraine. We will most likely be spending a majority of our time in Ukraine in order to help the YWAM base there. We will be leaving this Monday! We will be helping refugee camps by providing food, warm clothes, and sharing the gospel. I will also help by possibly speaking at some of the local churches and leading worship in both children and adult ministries. If you would like to support me in any way please refer to my partnership tab. I will have a section for myself and also for the people in Ukraine. In terms of communication, I am unsure when I get to Ukraine whether or not I will have access to wifi because some parts of Ukraine do not have electricity, heating, or running water. So if this is my last post before I come back, I just wanted to express how grateful I am to all of you who have followed my journey! I pray that all of you are blessed and have a wonderful Christmas and New Years~

Love,

Heymin

https://heyminjeong.wixsite.com/in-all-things/partnership - Link to my Prayer Requests