My wife, Lynette, and I got married on Monday, March 23, 1992. My first son, Enoch, was born on July 26, 1993 in Watertown, MA. We drove a Budget moving truck with our 1989 white Honda Accord towed behind it for 1,870 miles and moved down from Boston to Houston arriving on Saturday, December 3, 1994 to serve at Seoul Baptist Church as an English speaking pastor. My wife was about five months pregnant and I was 30 years old then. Caleb, my second son, was born on April 19, 1995. In just 22 months later, my third son, Josiah, was born on February 11, 1997. We began New Life Fellowship on Sunday, August 10, 1997.
Next year, 2017, is, therefore, a special year not just for me but for New Life as well. My wife and I will celebrate 25th wedding anniversary. And New Life will celebrate 20th anniversary. I am already thinking about and planning for a special anniversary Sunday to remember God’s goodness over New Life and to thank and honor Him for that. If you have a great idea to make this event even better, please let me know.
As fulfilling and joyful as it has been, personally and as a family, it’s been non-stop church ministry for the past 22 years as Lynette and I also raised our children without any help from our earthly family members who live thousands of miles away from us. I think it is time for me and my wife to take a little break with somewhat flexible church schedule next year especially in the fall. For example, I will not teach Living Life Bible Study in the fall. And Receiving Jesus Meeting, Baptism and Membership Class will be conducted according to my adjusted schedule from June. However, I will let you know way in advance about these date changes so that you will have a plenty of time to make your plans and schedules accordingly.
If God willing, these are some of the things that we are planning to do next year. In June, we will take a two-week vacation. One week will be spent to do some sightseeing in Vancouver. Another week will be used to go on a cruise which is the gift that New Life shepherds and members gave us about five years ago on Father’s Day but we couldn’t use due to ministry and our children’s schedule.
In October, we will take about three-week vacation in Korea. I do not allow New Life members to eat Kimchi and some smelly Korean food in our fellowship hall for a very specific ministry reason and purpose. But both of us, especially my wife, love Korean food because we grew up eating it. Lynette has been by my side for the past 25 years, not just being a supportive wife to me and good mother to my sons, but warm, loving, caring and fun to be around pastor’s wife to New Life members. As I said to you before, I haven’t heard anyone having issues with my wife or being stumbled by her. She is a great senior pastor’s wife and not every church is blessed to have someone like her as their pastor’s wife. And for our 25th wedding anniversary, I would like to honor her by taking her to her homeland so she can rest and enjoy everything Korea has to offer.
One more thing that I will get to do by having this flexible schedule next year is that I will be able to make myself available to go to different churches and conferences to speak. Some churches and pastors have been asking me for quite some time to come and speak at their places. But due to my tight schedule, I had to decline these invitations. We have been praying that New Life will become a resource church and perhaps this is one way that we can serve other churches and pastors as a resource church.
In the past 22 years of serving here at Seoul Baptist Church/New Life Fellowship, we haven’t been able to take more than 7-8 days straight for a vacation as a couple or as a family to rest and recuperate. But we will get to do that a couple of times in 2017. I will also get to go to different churches to speak about the great things God has been doing here at New Life especially through house church ministry. I praise God and thank New Life for making this possible.
Your pastor,
Eric
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