Some of the details are still up in the air, but it looks like I will be moving to Gyeonggi-do, in an area about an hour ride from the heart of Seoul.
I wanted to create a space that allows easy and free communication with all of my friends in the states. While the process can move rapidly, I do not think anyone planned for it to move as quickly as it has. It has been a little over 2 weeks since I let my church community know I had finished my TEFL class and would be pursuing a position starting this fall. I already have a job offer on the table and am waiting to hear back from another in a few days. From there I will finalize my decision and truly begin the labor intensive process of saying goodbye to the only home I have ever known.
This move has been a very long time coming. Looking at it now, over the course of how God has moved in my life, it feels like the culmination of over 15 years of prayer and learning. I am sure looking back in another 15 yrs, I will be able to see how this is actually just another moment that God used to bring me closer to him. Missions has always been close to my heart. During University God began to open my definition of what it could mean and look like to reach all nations, sharing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. I had had a narrow view of what Missions was. I viewed it as moving to a region that had no access to scripture. Included in that was the faulty stereotype often found in western churches of poor or uneducated nations and regions of this world. God began to challenge my view and definition of what an "Un-reached People Group" meant. Can someone feel called to missions, but feel called not to an "un-reached" people group by the classic definition?
During the past 10 years God has kept me in the local church, specifically urban church plants, and during that time I have seen that we in the US live our daily lives among un-reached peoples. Sure, many of our neighbors have heard the story of Jesus' birth at Christmas or of his death at Easter... but for many of them, that is all they know of Christ, and they view those stories as work of fiction and tradition. Christianity is viewed en mass as following a set of restrictive rules and making others do the same. How many of our neighbors have heard that God loves them, but our sin separates us from him, so he sent Jesus, his son, to live a perfect life and to die as a replacement for the death that is the natural consequence of our sin and Christ took the burden of our sin upon himself? Do your neighbors who know you are a Christian know that is who you are and what you mean when you call yourself a Christian? Do they know you share the Gospel with them because you love them? I think we have, possibly in order to feel better about ourselves, ignored the reality that most of the "developed" world can be included among those who have not heard the Gospel.
Several years ago, when God called me to join August Gate as it was being planted in Soulard, I would have assumed that was where he was calling me long term. I had every intention of finding a career and moving to the city. Eight years later, that had never once been God's plan for my life.
In fact the only time he allowed me to have a comfortable full-time position, was when I committed to traveling to South Korea with my family. God, specifically used that trip to ease some fears and to plant a seed of compassion for students and young children in Korea. I do not know if I would be moving there now if not for that trip.
If you are reading this, can I ask that you pray for me, for this move, and for the people I will meet. I view this as a lifelong mission trip. While my contract is only a year long, I do not intend to move back to the states (unless God would suddenly call me to). There is a need for people who love God and love people to be in Korea and in their schools. The number one cause of death among young adults is suicide. It is difficult to communicate and express the amount of stress and pressure placed on these students and young workers. It seems that both believers and non-alike seem to struggle to find their worth in their grades, resumes, and jobs... I can not imagine facing the weight of the expectation with out having a right view of who I am in Christ. I have so much hope for what Christ is doing in that corner of the world. S. Korea is surrounded by nations that have not supported or allowed for Christianity freely in their nation. Pray for the believers in Korea; for brothers and sisters in Christ, both future and current.
I hope to write often, even if it is a short blurb about what is happening in my life and what God is doing.
Love you all,
Brei
* Look for pictures too! It is actually the method I feel most comfortable sharing through.
Sungnyemun Gate at Namdaemun
Ceiling mural of Sungnyemun
Elders sharing a drink near Hamdeok beach.
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