September 2022 KCGM Newsletter

My Dear Wonderful Friends,?????

Our Korean version of Thanksgiving just passed. We call it Chuseok. Our orphanage was looking forward to really go all out celebrating it for the first time in a long time. Before Covid, we used to host a great feast and invite all of our orphanage alumni to come and eat with us. It was always a joyful reunion. There is nothing like seeing old faces. We laugh together and sometimes cry together, not to mention how encouraging it is for our current children to mingle with those who have been in their shoes and yet managed to make a good life for themselves after leaving our home. The prospect of being able to do that again was exciting. Per tradition, our children helped with the cooking. They made egg-battered meat pies, breaded fried fish, crab and ham skewers, and what we call “songpyeon,” which are essentially sticky rice cakes with honey sesame filling.

The kids especially had fun with the rice cakes. Even though they are traditionally moon-shaped (the rice cakes, not the kids), they made sure to eschew societal norms as kids tend to do and came up with all sorts of shapes and sizes. We got rice cakes looking like cats and dogs. Some were shaped like pumpkins with a piece of jelly on top as the stem. Others looked like macaroons and dumplings. We had oversized rice cakes that looked like baseballs, and mini raisin-sized rice cakes. They really had a lot of fun with it! Of course, none of them really tasted any good (don’t tell the kids I said that!) as it is difficult to steam all the different shapes evenly, but I always believe you have to appreciate and applaud creativity. I believe it is what makes kids special, and precisely one of the reasons why the Kingdom of God belongs to them.

So, here we were getting everything prepared...and then just a few days out, we had a Covid outbreak! The majority of our kids got sick and we had to cancel our plans! Just when we thought we were out, *Covid* pulled us back in. What can you do though, right? We still gathered together the few kids that weren’t quarantined and we had a smaller cozier Chuseok lunch than originally planned. It was actually turned out very nice and intimate. It was meaningful as well, because my parents attended, and I just don’t know how many more of these they will be able to take part in considering their health woes. My father has been having a lot of trouble with his vision recently. He is blind in one eye and nearly blind in the other. He shed a lot of tears that day, and I wonder if it is because he thought it may be the last time he will physically be able to see the orphanage children.?

Even though we had canceled our plans and requested the alumni not come, one of them who grew up with us in the 80’s missed the update and unexpectedly showed up. I didn’t mind at all as his presence brightened our mood. We reminisced together about what things were like in decades past and marveled at how much things have changed and how long this ministry has lasted through the various ups and downs. We laughed together and proposed a toast for another 50 years of God’s blessing upon this mission.

A couple days later, we received another unexpected guest! He was our missionary in Brazil, who had come to Korea briefly to tend to a medical issue. It was his first time home in 7 years! All our missionaries that we send out are dear to us, but I knew this man held a special place in my father’s heart, because he was an orphan too. Our work has always been about taking in orphans and sending out missionaries, but nothing is more fulfilling than the rare instance in which the two combine... and an orphan becomes a missionary! Anyway, it was another delightful yet emotional reunion for us as he did not know how sick my father had been. I made sure to take a picture of them together and I assured him that for as long as he is out on the mission field, I will always have his back as much as my father did.

If I may, I have some personal updates I wanted to share as well. First, my dog died last month. I know many of you reading this letter knew him. Truthfully, I am pretty sad about not having my best friend of 17 years around anymore. He was a good dog. He was my wingman when I dated my wife, my loyal roommate when I was moving from one cramped apartment to another as a poor seminary student, and my ministry partner from the very beginning when I started off as a children’s pastor. He was always so kind and playful with kids. He was the perfect church dog. He was with us for our wedding and for the birth of both our children. He even made the big move to Korea with us when we began this grand mission adventure, and we will miss him dearly. Still, I thank God for teaching my family about love and loss through this occasion.

Secondly, my family moved to a new home this month. Housing costs in Seoul have skyrocketed over the last few years and we wanted to make rent more manageable for us. Strangely enough, we believe our new apartment is actually an upgrade from the old one! The rooms are better proportioned, so that we can finally give our boys their own room to share (They are begging for a bunkbed, but I don’t think their safety track record warrants one.). We are pretty excited about the change. We knowingly took a big financial cutback when we decided to move to Korea, but once again, we have found that God provides all that we need, and a lot of what we want beyond our needs!

So, to conclude...my biggest takeaway and reminder from the things that occurred this month is that...even when plans change, God is still good. He doesn’t change. As the bible verse goes, “the heart of man may plan his way, but the Lord establishes his steps” (Prov. 16:9). I hope you never lose grasp of this truth despite the unexpected changes that you may be going through in your life right now, or in this last month, or even in the last year or few years! Guard your heart fiercely to never lose hope and to always remain grateful! For all of us who are called according to His purpose, know that all things will work together for good (Rom. 8:28). Rest assured.?

Yours because of Calvary,

John Woosik Chae (www.kcgm.org)