After spending a week in El Salvador, I realized once again that there is no place better than home. Thank God that I can enjoy AC, a hot shower, clean water, great food and my own car to drive around. It was a good reminder that I have so much to be grateful for. Although I enjoy going on missions to different countries, I have a hard time getting used to different food, culture, language barrier and especially unsanitary conditions of certain countries. It was no different this time in El Salvador. I tried my best to eat the local food without any grumbling and get used to the unsanitary surroundings but it was very difficult. I’ve never used sanitizer so often in my life until the past week in the mission field. If you ask my wife, I am certainly not the most sanitary and clean person, but somehow I get paranoid when I go overseas. However, as much as I tried to avoid getting infected, I wasn’t able to escape the power of a stomach virus. I have no idea where I picked it up but one thing I know is that I was literally rolling on the ground in pain on the last day of the trip. It wasn’t a good ending to an amazing week but the care from other members helped me to keep going.
As many of you heard, I wasn’t the only one sick during missions. Most of the team members were also sick throughout the trip. The nurses and doctors on our team were busy not only for their medical ministry but looking after our own team members. By the grace of God we were able to successfully finish our missions. God’s divine strength and His perfect will led us to overcome our physical limitations.
If you ask anybody from the El Salvador team what the highlight of the trip was, he or she will definitely talk about rescuing a lady from attempting suicide. When we were hiking up the mountain called “The gate of the devil,” we just wanted to enjoy our day off from doing ministry and enjoy the beautiful scene. However, God had a different plan for us. He brought us to the right place at the right time to minister to this woman. We held our hands together on the top of the mountain crying out to God to save her life as two of our members were ministering to her. God heard our prayers and there was no doubt in anyone’s heart that God used us to save a soul. God has moved her from the gate of the devil to the gate of heaven through us. It’s a testimony that all members will remember and cherish for the rest of our lives.
I was personally challenged by the way El Salvadorian Christians worship God. Their love for God that was expressed through their worship, the way they listen and respond to the spoken Word just blew my mind. Although I did not understand 99% of what was said and done, I knew clearly that these people had the joy of the Lord in them. I pray and dream about our church congregation worshipping the Lord with the same passion and joy like the El Salvadorian Christians.
Today, we set aside a special time to hear great testimonies of how God worked through our church people in the different missions fields. God has done great and amazing things through us.  Gloria Dios!

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
July 14, 2013

Recently I heard very interesting and at the same time shocking news.  I had not heard about it until then, but apparently a non-profit Dutch company named Mars One announced their plans to build a colony on Mars back in April, and over 10,000 people from more than 100 countries have responded to become volunteer astronauts.  Anyone 18 or older may apply via video with a $38 application fee. The mission’s budget is said to be approximately $6 billion.  Departure for the Red Planet is scheduled for 2022, landing seven months later in 2023.   If all goes successfully, Mars One intends for a crew of four (two men and two women) to join every two years or so.   Once selected, a group of 40 astronauts will undergo seven years of training to increase their chances of survival on the tough, dangerous planet, where the atmosphere is very thin, the average temperature is about -50 degrees Celsius, and what water remains is either frozen or hidden in deep underground springs.  They will have to take care of sickness and injuries themselves and live on dried and canned food for extended periods.
Even though this kind of daring adventure does not appeal to me personally, I can see how some space exploration enthusiasts would be willing to take a risk to be the first ones to put their feet on the planet where no human being has ever walked on before.  What really shocked me, however, about this project is that what Mars One is offering is a one-way ticket to Mars!  That is the volunteer astronauts will never return to earth.  They will finish out their lives on Mars.  What is the reason?  It is because the one-way trip makes the mission possible by greatly reducing the cost, and the technology for a return flight does not exist.   I don’t care how miserable your life here on earth may be, but the finality of being isolated on a strange, harsh planet without the option to ever change your mind scares me just to think about it.  Even when I am on a family vacation, I often find myself wanting to go back home after some period of time. So I cannot comprehend why anybody would even entertain such an option.
Then this past Tuesday I attended the funeral service for Elder Young Shin (Courtney, Alice, Michelle, and Bobby’s dad), who had passed away in his sleep from a heart attack.  He’s had numerous health issues all his life, but no one was quite prepared to lose him so suddenly and unexpectedly.  It was a beautiful, God-honoring service with many people in attendance.  The highlight of the evening for me was the heartfelt eulogies shared by each of his four children. They were crying and laughing as they were reminiscing fondly about the special times they each spent with their dad.  In the midst of their sorrow, however, they could rejoice, knowing their dad is with Jesus Christ, the One whom he loved with such passion all his life.  One day all his loved ones will join him in heaven and have a fabulous family reunion.  This time they will be together forever.  Then it dawned on me.  Yes, there IS a place worth going to with a one-way ticket.  It’s a place we all MUST go to with a one-way ticket.  We don’t apply or qualify for the ticket; Jesus has already purchased the one-way tickets for us with His precious blood.  8”For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” (Eph. 2:8)

From Pastor Sara’s Heart
July 14, 2013