Dad went to
Chile before we did. In fact, the last Christmas we had in Korea, he
wasn't there with the fam. I guess it wasn't such a big deal since we
didn't celebrate Christmas anyway. I don't remember why he had to leave
early, but I think he went to sort of scout the land. There was a small
number of Korean Christian families in Santiago, Chile, and about the
time my dad got into all this trouble, they have been contacting the
head pastor of the Baptist church for someone to come and take care of
the work in Santiago. So, seeing there wasn't much of an option, and
believing that this was the Lord's way, my dad left for Chile before us.
I think the original plan was to stay for a few weeks in Santiago, and
then if well attested, move with the family for some extent of time
(can't recall the exact number.. but it wasn't supposed to be a
permanent thing). Well, they liked my dad so much, that they didn't just
want him to have him back, they wanted to keep him.
Thus begins
our family's move to Chile - a country of a language unknown and far
alike from Korean, of foreign food and culture, and far away from the
comfort of familiarity.
In the
experience of Isaac series I'll explain the details of what our family
went through and stuff, but in this series, I'll just kind of zero in on
dad.
So, he began
to minister in Chile - establishing the Baptist Church in Santiago that
consisted of a few Korean families. The congregation owned a piece of
land and some property that barely resembled a building. Most of the
families in the congregation were pretty wealthy. They had all
established some kind of retail business (clothing, glasses, carpet,
etc...) and were enjoying the no-competition market and faring well in
this foreign country. So, financial support was no biggie for our
family. We had an apartment, a car, a stipend and many other benefits
supported by the members of the congregation.
I'll
describe very briefly four families (that I remember) that play an
integral role in the story that is about to be developed:
I forget the
surname of the couple, but I think it was they that really pushed for my
dad to come and to stay in Chile. They were the main financial
contributors to our families.
Then, there
is this other older couple that I still remembered very well. Whenever
the husband would pray, he would pray, very, ver-y, ve-r-y slowly. He
prayed as if every word he spoke was being prayed into being. They owned
a shirt-pressing-printing business. I don't know if that's what it's
called, but they basically pressed logos or brands into plain shirts and
sold them. They once printed a picture of a pokemon on a t-shirt and
gave it to me. It was one of my favorite shirts, since none of my friends were able to find anything like it.
Then,
there was Miri's family. I think their surname was Jung. They had three
children, one was older than me, and the other two younger. I think the
dad owned some glasses business.
There was
Esteban's family. The dad was a mediocre Christian who obviously cared
about his business more than his faith. Nevertheless of who he was, I
was good friends with Esteban. We would love hanging out together and
playing GameBoy together. They would always lead in having some
recreational activity. One summer, I remember we went to a summer house
together. It was a very nice house with a fireplace and a pool (where we
found a mice that fell one morning). Funniest thing. One day we were
getting bored and tired of all the physical activities, Esteban's dad
went out and buy a TV so we can play Nintendo games. I always thought it
was so strange of him to just go sporadically buy a TV in the middle of
nowhere. But anyway, it kept us well occupied.
--
So
my dad continued to pastor and minister the Korean families in Santiago,
Chile. My sister and I were still attending that first school I
described earlier in the Isaac series. I can still recall the
transformation of the building we used to hold the sunday services. We
would meet in the basement. Since there were so many under-developed
rooms in that property, it was a ton of fun for us. There was always
adventure everywhere. The only bad thing was that there was no one to
play with. The youngest boy of the Jung family was the only boy, and he
was far too young for us to get along or play sports. Everybody else,
being a girl excluded me from their gossiping and girl plays (not that I
was interested).
Anyhow,
even in Chile, my dad still labored in the Word and in the truth. And
one day, my dad recounts, he went to visit the older couple who owned
the shirt-printing-pressing business. They lived upstairs of the store
they owned, and we would walk through the entrance of the store, go in
back where they stored all the things, and climb a set of stairs to
reach upstairs. Now this brother was quite a seeker himself and he had
somehow gotten his hands on some wonderful Bible
expositions/commentaries. And, he had somehow gotten in contact with a
Korean Christian publisher by the name of the Korean Gospel Book Room
and on a wonderful set of exposition called the Life-Study of the Bible
by Witness Lee. I personally have read some of these books and these are
eye-opening, life-altering books that have helped me grow in my
Christian life.
Anyhow,
at that time (and I still believe at the present) the book of
Revelation was not opened to those in the Baptist denominations (and I
also believe to many other Christian groups). But this Brother by the
name of Witness Lee had it down. You have to read his testimony (http://www.witnesslee.org/
Let
me give you a brief glimpse - the only way to interpret the Bible is by
the Bible and because the entire Bible is God's speaking, and there is
66 books, no book can stand on its own, and thus you have to look at the
Bible as a whole. The first two chapters of the Bible (Gen. 1, 2) and
the last two chapters of the Bible (Rev. 21, 22) are the only chapters
in the Bible were Satan is not present -- either not entered the scene,
or have been cast out to the lake of fire. In these two books, we can
find God's original purpose. In both of these two beginning and end
sections, we find similarities. There is the tree of life, and a river
of life in both of these sections. There are building materials in
Genesis, and there is a built building in Revelation. There is Eve in
Genesis, and there is the Bride in Revelation. And so much more. Well,
through these items you can see that God's original intention is that
man would partake of life! -- the tree of life is for eating, the river of
life for drinking -- and this would issue in the individual materials
that are meant to be built together as the New Jerusalem, which is His
Bride. This is a very, very brief glimpse of the help I have received through the ministry of Witness Lee.
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