A while ago Missionary H.Y. Kim gave a testimony during our Wednesday prayer meeting that deeply moved me.
She is physically handicapped. When she was a small baby, her father handled her roughly after getting drunk and damaged her spine, crippling her. She ran away from home when she reached her teens because she could no longer take the physical and mental abuse both her parents gave her. She ended up at a vocational school where she learned to knit. A kind Christian instructor helped her open her heart and accept Jesus when she was 15. Since then, she won 3 gold medals in International Apprentice competitions and received a medal from the South Korean government. Afterward, she went to Botswana as a lay missionary and started a vocational school that teaches local girls to knit and earn a living.
Some time later, she was offered an opportunity to study social work in the U.S. She took it, and earned both BA and MA degrees from Columbia University. With advanced degrees from a prestigious American university, many assumed that she would not return to the mission field. But she had been secretly praying with three requests: she asked God to send her to a place (1) where mission work is so hard that other missionaries don’t want to go there, (2) where her skills could be fully used and (3) where the people are even poorer than in Botswana.
God granted her wishes and is sending her to Bhutan, a Buddhist country where professional missionaries are not allowed. Its per-capita income is only 1/4 that of Botswana. She will run a government-supported vocational school and help students learn knitting.
In her testimony, she related a story that occurred a few years after she started doing mission work in Botswana. A crisis took place in the country that made mission work impossible. Many missionaries decided to leave. She didn’t know what to do. Should she leave with the other missionaries or stay? If she decided to leave, where should she go? She went to an African desert to pray, but was filled with so much anguish that she couldn’t speak any words; she could only inwardly groan. Then she heard God’s voice: “I want you to stay with me in Botswana. I need company.”
She realized that God couldn’t abandon the people in Botswana. So she decided to stay with God and enjoy His company. She did that for 14 years. The fruit of her ministry was the result of her enjoying God’s company.
We tend to think that ministry means doing something for God. But true ministry means enjoying God’s company. As we do that, and when He shows us something that needs to be done, as God’s servants we just do it. That’s the true meaning of ministry.
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