100 Things I Love About Korea: #77 - 2004 Annual Report (or Lack Thereof)

About a month after we arrived in Korea, it was time for the annual meeting.  I knew all about the nominations for the church board (or in our case Advisory Council), and I had that covered.

After we did the voting and reports from each outgoing board member, I was just about to close the meeting with prayer.  Then, Cathy Williams (bless her heart) said, "Um, Josh, aren't you going to give a pastoral report."
I said, "Oh, am I supposed to do that?"
"Well, traditionally speaking ..."
"Um ... well ... I just got here, so I don't know much of what happened over the past year, but I'll try to do better next year."

First and Last (Revelation 1:17-18)

[This is a children's sermon for Galilee Methodist Church Promise Land next Sunday.  They are going to be partnering with us on Cheonan Migrant Shelter, so I said yes when they asked me to preach for their kids' program. They assigned this text.]

Revelation 1:17-18 ... Jesus “said, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am the First and the Last.  I am the living one.  I died, but look - I am alive forever and ever!’”

    Do I look fat?  Maybe not now, but when I was a kid, I was fat.  Some of the mean kids in my school sang a song about me when they passed me in the hall.  Have you ever heard the Batman song?  They changed it for me: “Fatman, na-na-na-na-na, Fat-man!” 
For some strange reason, I decided to be on the track team.  One week I heard that our team didn’t have enough guys to run the 800 meter race.  (That’s 2 times all the way around the big track at Cheonan Stadium.)  I volunteered.  My coach looked at me ... looked at my stomach ... and said, “800 meters?  Have you even run that far before?” 
I said, “Sure, sometimes I go jogging with my dad.”  I didn’t know that jogging with my 50 year old father is completely different from racing around a track with a bunch of fast, skinny kids. ...

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