I felt in love with the game of basketball ever since I came to the States. It helped me get through the troublesome teenage years as a way of relieving stress. However, it wasn't just for that reason that i played basketball, I really enjoyed playing basketball. During the high school years, my cousins and I always played basketball whenever we got together. Since we all went to the same church, we often played after Friday night services. We sometimes went to a neighborhood park and played basketball with our car headlights on for hours before we were told by police to go home. There were times when we went out to a church basketball tournaments where we experienced both victories and terrible defeats.

Even when I went to college, my passion for basketball did not cool down. I went to the gym at least a couple days a week, not to lift weights, but to shoot around or to play pick up games. Since my new friends at college did not play basketball much, I had to play by myself for most of the time but I didnt mind at all because I loved every minute of it.

When I first came to NCFC as a 23 year old young adult, I was able to use my passion and love for basketball as a vital tool for the Timothy ministry. I connected right away with teachers and students who shared the same passion for basketball. People opened up their life through playing basketball together.  However, God convicted me many times that basketball has become more than a hobby for me. I loved it so much that I could not live without it. When NBA season came around, I was glued to my TV watching basketball every night. If I missed any games on TV,  I would look up highlights of the games on ESPN and on NBA homepage to make sure I catch up. Yes, you can say basketball was an idol that I loved more than God.

These past few weeks, I noticed many of our EC men (including Timothy) talk about the NFL draft. What amazed me was that people knew so much about each prospects and their potentials. Everyone sounded like the commentators on ESPN news. It was clear to me that football was more than a hobby for many guys at our church just like basketball was and still is more than a hobby for me. What about you? Do you have any activities or hobbies that you can identify as an idol in your life? Perhaps we can use this month of fasting and prayer to deal with the idols of our lives.

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
May 5, 2013

Don't you have moments in your life when you just break out in laughter as a result of an enlightenment or a revelation from God? I had one this week as I wrote this column. As soon as I wrote down the title, God struck me with a thought that made me chuckle with a big smile on my face. He impressed this thought in my heart: "You thought you didn't have to commit to the 40 days of prayer and fasting since we didn't have an early morning prayer campaign for the lent season this year...well I had a different plan in mind."
Though we are going through a difficult time as a church, I am seeing a lot of positive results springing up from everywhere. People are coming out to morning prayer and other prayer meetings more than before.
God told Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".
In response to God's call, we declared 40 days of Prayer and Fasting chain for the whole church and asked people to sign up to fast and pray at least one meal a day. The prayer and fasting chain already kicked off on 4/22 (Mon) and many are already participating in it together. However, I know many of you needed more time to think and plan before signing up so we will give you another opportunity to sign up today. Please fill in your name on the calendar posted in the hallway right outside the worship center.
On top of individual fasting and prayer, the church leadership wanted to provide opportunities for the people to come together and pray corporately because we believe there's a special unity and power that arise from corporate prayer meetings. Since we already have many weekday/weekend services and prayer meetings for different campuses and ministries, each congregation (MD, VA) will have a different schedule. Our intention is to have a corporate prayer time EVERYDAY for ONE HOUR for the whole month of May at both campuses. A new prayer meeting will be added for days that we don’t have church services and prayer meetings. Some meeting will be KC & EC joint with English translation. It would be nice to have all prayer meetings be KC & EC joint, but it requires too much coordination for such short meetings and the prayer time wouldn’t be as smooth. So most of the meetings will be held in one language. See below for a detail schedule of the prayer meetings. However, you are welcome to come and join any of the prayer meetings because God can understand all languages!

Schedule of the Additional prayer meetings (Monday, April 29th – Thursday, May 30)
MD Campus KC & EC (7:30 - 8:30 pm)
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays  (Worship Center)
*will be in Korean – short message in Korean, and corporate prayer for most of the time

VA Campus KC & EC (7:30 pm -8:30 pm)
KC: Mondays, Tuesday    EC:: Wednesday   (Worship Center)   Joint: Friday (Connection Cafe)

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
April 28, 2013