Wycliffe Canada Korean Diaspora Church Connections

“Pastor, are you going out again? Quite enough! Why don’t
you come back?”
When I left for the field this time with my wife, many people
said that sort of thing to me. When I heard those thoughts
expressed, it actually made me thankful, because I was
reminded of the mission the Father has given me. A small
voice in my heart would say, “There still is work to be done.”
The Lord impressed on me long ago the importance and
necessity of Bible Translation, and that burden has kept me
from moving in other directions.
Sometime after I met the Lord and got to know His love,
I began to pray how I might best serve Him. I realized that
the best place for me to help in delivering the gospel to all
people was in Bible translation. Also, when I studied in Israel,
I was influenced by native Bible translators in Africa and
by the professors who taught me Biblical Hebrew. Those
people somehow passed on to me what they themselves had
received from the Lord – His passion and His heart for those
without His word in their language.
My wife and I married only a few months ago, and now
walk together on this path as a new family. She and I believe
our union has been accomplished by nothing less than the
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Frontline Stories
You came to do
what we could not do
L / C : Bible translation, undisclosed area
perfect will of
our faithful
God. At each
step of our
courtship, even
in unexpected
situations, we
experienced the abundant grace of the Almighty.
My wife served C people in Singapore over the past 10 years
with love for God and a compassionate heart for the lost. In
obedience, she has just moved to a new country. It will take
some time for her to adjust to the new environment and to
learn a new language. Many things are new and different
from where she was, but we both sense that the newness
and change was prepared for her by the Lord, who has been
leading her. She has to sacrifice some things in order to live in
a new country, but she has been able to put those things in
the Father’s hands.
We are serving the Z language group*, which counts as an
unreached people. Most of these people do not know how
to read or write in their language, and many are not even
aware that there are writing systems for their language. I am
researching and learning the language so people eventually
will be able to hear the glad tidings in their own tongue. My
team is using a writing system based on the Roman script, but
it would take a long time to teach the native people how to
use this system. For that reason, we are considering delivering
scripture to them in audio form.
My team recently has been checking the accuracy of a
draft of Jonah; in the meantime, I am learning Z with a native
speaker. Once that is done, I am thinking about moving on
to the book of beginnings. I will have a lot of preparation to
do in order to be ready for that, and I am hoping for much
guidance from the Father in that process.
As I look at my life on the field so far, the hardest thing
for me has been to love people here, I would say. When I
first arrived here, many things were different and difficult
to understand in terms of the culture, life style, etc. Several
years ago, I went to another city for some Z-focused ministry
meetings with other foreign workers. During those days, I
had a chance to meet a Z person who was a church leader.
He was studying Theology in a seminary and planned to go
back to his hometown to serve people there. As he and I were
having a conversation, he also became aware of my work as a
translator. He said to me, “You are here to do what we could
not do. Thank you. We are indebted to you. We cannot pay
you back for what you are doing in our country. But I can
promise you that I will serve my people with my whole life
because I love them.” I trembled at his words: “I love them.”
In spite of the differences in culture and lifestyle, it is my
responsibility to love people as the Lord does. He showed His
love through death on the cross
in order to resolve the problem of
death. A Bible translation without
love would be only a noisy gong,
and duty without love is mere work
of Pharisees.
You know the words: “Three
things will last forever – faith, hope,
and love – and the greatest of these
is love.” This area has green fields
everywhere, interspersed by greencovered
hills, but it is spiritually
barren. My hope is there will be a
river of Good News running through
people's hearts, and their mouths will
be filled with true and proper praise.
So as you pray for the translation, I
hope you also will remember my heart.
I have faith that our Lord will complete
both works.information that would
identify them.
Three things will last forever
faith, hope, and love
and the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13)
*L and his wife C serve in a sensitive area, and for that reason
this language name is fictitious. For the same reason, we are not
including their full names or any other information that would
identify them.
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