Please Pray for Us Using Our Itinerary!

This coming Tuesday my family and I will be leaving Houston to go to Southeast Asia for about two months for our sabbatical missions. I am both excited and nervous at the same time. I have never been out of the country this long and the thought of traveling with my family and living from suitcase to suitcase makes me feel somewhat uneasy though it sounds adventuresome. I think I can relate in a miniscule degree to what Abraham must have felt when God appeared to him and told him to leave his country, his people and his father??s household and go to the unknown land that He will show him. He must have been frightened and scared to death. But he obeyed! No wonder why he is called the father of faith!

My patience, love for people and faith in God will be tested during this time of travel because, as you can see below, it is going to be a packed schedule. It is one thing to be poised when things are calm and going well, another thing to be that way when things are more chaotic and disorderly. I am certain that God will melt, mold and shape me through the trip so I will be more like His Son Jesus!

As I mentioned to you before, there are two main reasons as to why I am taking this trip with my family. One is to hear from God where and how He wants New Life to focus and invest strategically in doing missions. For the past several years, we have been testing out various places to see where He would have us commit ourselves deeply for missions. I sense that God has been narrowing down the place and the task more and more each and every year. Please pray that I will be able to see God??s plan for New Life more clearly through the trip.

The second reason is to see how our house church ministry can be transferred and implemented in the mission field. This is a special request from Pastor Young. As you know, our Korean Speaking Congregation??s house church ministry has been greatly used by God in educating and helping other Korean speaking churches to be more biblical in their approach to church structure and ministry. They are sending me to Southeast Asia to see if the model is transferable in the mission field.

6/6 ?V 6/8 Houston to Bangkok
6/8 ?V 6/9 Bangkok
6/9 ?V 6/14 Phnom Penh, Cambodia (meet up with our Cambodia Team)
6/14 ?V 6/24 Chiang Mai, Laos and Myanmar
6/24 ?V 6/26 Penang, Malaysia
6/26 ?V 6/29 Bandung, Indonesia
6/29 ?V 7/4 Singapore
7/4 ?V 7/8 Hanoi, Vietnam
7/8 ?V 7/12 Bangkok
7/12 ?V 7/13 Chiang Mai
7/13 ?V 7/20 Kunming, China
7/20 ?V 7/24 Chiang Mai
7/24 ?V 7/25 Bangkok
7/25 ?V 8/7 Korea
8/7 ?V 8/8 Back to Houston

As you can see, on the way back to Houston, we will be stopping over in Korea for about 12 days. The purpose for this is to simply eat some good food and relax with my family! ??

I would truly appreciate it if you could follow the itinerary and remember to pray for us. When you pray, please do not forget to pray for my family’s physical health and protection, as some parts of our travel could be rigorous and grueling.

God willing, we will see each other on 8/8. Until then, please be faithful in your walk with God remembering these two verses that are very special to me.

??For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.?? (2 Corinthians 8: 9)

??Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.?? (1 Corinthians 15: 58)

Your pastor,

Eric