Weekly Schedule August 10, 2011 Upcoming Events
V-2-3
The Vine
August 10, 2011
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruits, because apart from me you can do nothing.” -John 15:5
Weekly Schedule August 10 August 12
August 14
Faith Journey #6 – Miki Dinh 6:30 PM Game Night at church 7:00 PM Petra Home Group bible study at Mike and Jin’s 9:40 AM – Prayer Time in the Pastor’s Office 10:00 AM – Sunday Worship 11:30 AM – Picnic for Petra and College
Pray for victim’s family and the people of Norway in the wake of last Friday’s tragedy. Praying for our community who are going through lost of loved one, health concerns, and transitions in life. Pray for the search for a new Children Pastor for the Children’s Ministry. Pray for the formation of our 2011 Nominating Committee
Upcoming Events
cv
August 14
Picnic for Petra and College Group
August 17
Faith Journey #7:
August 17
NHC Triathlon Team
August 28
Outdoor Worship
September
Home Groups resume
V-2-3
My Testimony Growing up, we were taught to measure distance in terms of kilometers and minutes. By those standards, I am approximately 14,079 kilometers (8,748 miles) and 26,297,438 minutes (50 years) away from Saigon Vietnam. By another calculus, I have journeyed across 3 cultures, beginning with Vietnamese-Buddhist, then American-Secular and now Korean-Christian. Reflecting back at my faith journey thus far, I realize how I measure progress in life and in faith have changed as I have been transformed by God over the years. Part 1 – The Secular Rulers “For Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also” - Matthew 6:21. During and after college, my measures for success were new experiences, toys and career. A few years after beginning my first job, I did well and was promoted quickly and in the process had accumulated many things and saved for a mortgage –had no debts. I was able to travel many places in the US, Western Europe and Asia. I have enjoyed mountain biking and scuba diving on/in a few famous places. All in all, by my values and by what was promised by the TV commercials, I should have been happy, but I was not. These things and experiences only brought me temporary distraction from the real issue. Looking back, I realized that the toys and success were my rulers both as measure and master. I found that the things I had purchased did not make me happy and the experiences I had were fleeting and ultimately empty. As my treasures were with soulless things, they did not warm my heart or ease my loneliness. I was just as empty riding on my motorcycle as I was sailing on my small boat. My master and measures had failed me. Though I can speak to it now with ease, at the time, this realization devastated me. As I had spent my life honing myself and my life skill sets in the pursuit of the goal of accumulation. And in the end, it failed to bring me the promised fulfillment. I recall driving white knuckled at 120 mph (I knew this as the engine controller shuts off fuel at 120) in the dark just to feel alive. That experience was in many ways the end of the life as I knew it. I realized that the map I had used for my life had leaded me to a dead end. And
Miki Dinh
worst yet, I had no other maps or values to guide me. I was lost. Part 2 – The Years in the Wilderness “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” - Philippians 3:7 Returning from a visit to Vietnam in 1993, I was sharing the experience to a trusted friend of seeing kids hanging out at the food stalls eyeing me as I ate food. I commented to my friend and mentor that I felt bad that they had so little. Instead of agreeing with me, he instead asked me “but were they happy?” I said “yes” but told him that that had nothing to do with my comments. Then he asked with loving kindness “are you Miki … happy? And then “Who do you think is the unfortunate one?” Only at the bottom, did I finally begin the search for a new way. As if awoken from a trance, I began looking at the friends that I had around me. Curiously, I found that the majority of the people that I was drawn to and counted as friends, were deeply spiritual and mostly of Christians and Jewish faith. I began to observe a deep sense of peace and deep calm that they had but was missing in my life. From that, I began to study more the history and tenets of Christian faith. Part 3 – KPCMD and the new Journey “We love because He first loved us” - 1 John 4:19 I came to KPCMD because of Jessica and her family. With a senior pastor for an uncle, parents and friends who were all elders and knew Rev. Choi, I thought that I would be able to receive God wholesale and not have to get the diluted version like all the other Sunday worshipers. Soon after, I was baptized at this church (KPCMD), as that was one of many conditions from Jessica’s parents for me to marry their first born. One of my first experiences at this church was when Jessica and I attended our first bible study at Kyu & EJ Sohn’s home. Not knowing Kyu & EJ from Adam & Eve, I was told that it was the tradition at this church that the new guy leads the next bible study. Continue…
2
V-2-3
New to the church and not wishing to offend these odd people, I did it. With that and from these consistent Friday night meals and bible studies, and Sunday lunches all over Detroit and Canada, genuine caring relationships grew. Slowly, I realized that my yard stick also changed. From this bible study group, I began to collect my first sets of new treasures with names of Kyu, EJ, Alex, Serena, Alex, Sandra, Peter, Patty, John, Bo, John, Sandy, Sam, Minhee, Pastor Monch and Helen. For Jessica and I, many of these relationships are now lifelong ones. We grew closer doing wacky things and by risking intimacy. For example, on one fine cold Friday afternoon in March, with snow on the ground, I got a call at work from Kyu and Alex asking me to go camping. I had assumed that it would be in a few months when the weather was more temperate. No they said… they were already on their way and would I like to join them. I told them they were crazy and that of course I will join. Asking them “where?”, I was told Canada, where it’s colder. With only a vague campground name, I headed to Canada after work. We ended up eating Ramen noodles and drinking German Riesling near midnight and the three of us slept in a two-man tent. For Jessica, EJ and Serena, the thing that drew them together was their common disbelief of how much commonsense their respective husbands lacked. They now often refer to us as the “three amigos” (as in the movie) or more often as dumb, dumber and dumbest. Sometimes, making the decision to take that crazy leap is all God needs to bring you home. The moment that I truly surrendered to God, began uneventfully that way. Alex Kim, one of the three amigos, called and asked me to join him for a new early Saturday morning prayer time to be led by Jung Min JDSN. Assured that “everyone will be there”, I reluctantly agreed. Arriving at church that morning, I was met by Alex and Jung Min JDSN.. and nobody else. Just the three of us at 7 AM at church. But what followed had helped define me and my purpose at this church. We were asked to go to a separate corner of the sanctuary and pray for 45 minutes and ask God one question. After 5 minutes of “I can’t believe I am doing this”, I began to pray. The question that I came up with was “Why do you reveal to me visions of this EM that is impossible to accomplish? And specifically, what am I doing at this Korean Church?” Thinking that I was done, I was ready to hand in my question and go home. But no… we were asked to keep our questions to ourselves and go back to our corner to pray for another 45 minutes to hear God’s answer. Once again, I prayed for 40 minutes and the answer that given to me was “Trust in me. You are not alone and I will place helpers along the way”. With that answer, I was at peace and thought “OK God, I trust you. Send me in coach!” Whether by design or by grace of God, in that small bible study group, I flourished. In reflection, I believe that only in the context of intimate and trusting friendships, was I able to see God’s reflected love and from that began to model and grow my own relationship with God. As in the parable of the sower, I was transformed from the stony ground that I was, to become like the good earth that was more able to accept God’s seed of guidance and changing power. I feel fortunate to have had such experiences and wished that others at this church would able get to know one another in this way. “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20 A few years ago, I was asked to consider leading bible study for the Young Adult Group known as ROCC. As this was not something I had considered doing, I was quite reluctant at first. As an introvert and believing that I had nothing in common with young twenty and thirty something singles, I had felt completely inadequate and ill equip for the task. That said, I looked upon this challenge as a new adventure and trusted that God would provide. My first Friday night bible study with ROCC was, in a word, underwhelming. There was me, Mike White and LeAnn. Drawing upon my own experience with the young couples group earlier, I sought to recreate the environment that can foster relationship and intimacy. With help from all of the then EM ladies (most of whom were from my old couples group), we started to feed the ROCC. With God’s blessing and the good food, attendance grew and friendships were developed during diner, which in turn help encourage discussion during bible study. Over the years, people within the group grew in faith and friendship. I believe and pray that they will become for each other what I already had with my first bible study group.
3
V-2-3
In reflection, I noticed a few curious things changing within me. Firstly, my cost calculus for the ROCC changed over time. Time and energy devoted to ROCC changed from work to enjoyment. In my mind, the “ROCC” group became instead friends named Hubert, Katherine, Leona, LeAnn, Melodee, Mike, Jin, Lailah, Ashile, Chong, Jeffrey, Ray, Son Mi, Josh, Josh, Jeff, Dale, Dale, Gloria, Tom, Niaomi, David, Jenni, Davin, Hua, Eric, Kelli, Nathan, Kimmie, David, Mike, Seoyoung, Hye Young and Eric. And instead of measuring the miles travelled, the time spent and the cost incurred, I instead measured the new relationships that were created within the group. Part 4 – The New Hope I wonder what would have happened to me, if Jessica and I did not attend that first bible study. What would have happened if I decided to sleep in that Saturday morning, instead of going to Morning Prayer? How much more different I would be now, if I had said no to leading bible study with ROCC? At the time, and while going through the journey, I face hard times where I had to grow and stretch. And there were time when I questioned the wisdom of my decisions. But in hindsight, I would do it all over again. As I have told Jessica and others, I will only serve the church (or more accurately put, my friends who are gathered in this space) while it is fun and a joy. I will stop, the day that it becomes work and drudgery. For if that time comes, I surely must be doing something wrong. The journey and adventure continues for me with this community of brothers and sisters of New Hope. I look forward to discover what God has to teach me as an elder of the church. I anticipate with nervous tension, the sprint triathlon scheduled for next Wednesday at Island Lake with Pastor David, Ray, John, Chong Soo, and Larry. I hope to know them better through this shared adventure. For me now, instead of counting miles and minutes, I find myself measuring the progress towards God in terms of relationships and transformational experiences. In that light and with God’s guidance, I would like to add you to the count.
2011 Nominating Committee Last Sunday, the congregation elected our nominating committee. They are Sung Jae Hong, Sung Ho Moon, Leaona So, Davin Hashiba, and JaeJoon Lee. Let’s pray for them as they discern for our new elders and deacons.
Bible Verse of the Week Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
-Matthew 15:28
New Hope Church of Michigan 27075 West Nine Mile Road, Southfield MI, 48033 248-356-4488 [email protected] www.thenewhopechurch.com
4
The Vine
August 10, 2011
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruits, because apart from me you can do nothing.” -John 15:5
Weekly Schedule August 10 August 12
August 14
Faith Journey #6 – Miki Dinh 6:30 PM Game Night at church 7:00 PM Petra Home Group bible study at Mike and Jin’s 9:40 AM – Prayer Time in the Pastor’s Office 10:00 AM – Sunday Worship 11:30 AM – Picnic for Petra and College
Pray for victim’s family and the people of Norway in the wake of last Friday’s tragedy. Praying for our community who are going through lost of loved one, health concerns, and transitions in life. Pray for the search for a new Children Pastor for the Children’s Ministry. Pray for the formation of our 2011 Nominating Committee
Upcoming Events
cv
August 14
Picnic for Petra and College Group
August 17
Faith Journey #7:
August 17
NHC Triathlon Team
August 28
Outdoor Worship
September
Home Groups resume
V-2-3
My Testimony Growing up, we were taught to measure distance in terms of kilometers and minutes. By those standards, I am approximately 14,079 kilometers (8,748 miles) and 26,297,438 minutes (50 years) away from Saigon Vietnam. By another calculus, I have journeyed across 3 cultures, beginning with Vietnamese-Buddhist, then American-Secular and now Korean-Christian. Reflecting back at my faith journey thus far, I realize how I measure progress in life and in faith have changed as I have been transformed by God over the years. Part 1 – The Secular Rulers “For Where Your Treasure Is, There Will Your Heart Be Also” - Matthew 6:21. During and after college, my measures for success were new experiences, toys and career. A few years after beginning my first job, I did well and was promoted quickly and in the process had accumulated many things and saved for a mortgage –had no debts. I was able to travel many places in the US, Western Europe and Asia. I have enjoyed mountain biking and scuba diving on/in a few famous places. All in all, by my values and by what was promised by the TV commercials, I should have been happy, but I was not. These things and experiences only brought me temporary distraction from the real issue. Looking back, I realized that the toys and success were my rulers both as measure and master. I found that the things I had purchased did not make me happy and the experiences I had were fleeting and ultimately empty. As my treasures were with soulless things, they did not warm my heart or ease my loneliness. I was just as empty riding on my motorcycle as I was sailing on my small boat. My master and measures had failed me. Though I can speak to it now with ease, at the time, this realization devastated me. As I had spent my life honing myself and my life skill sets in the pursuit of the goal of accumulation. And in the end, it failed to bring me the promised fulfillment. I recall driving white knuckled at 120 mph (I knew this as the engine controller shuts off fuel at 120) in the dark just to feel alive. That experience was in many ways the end of the life as I knew it. I realized that the map I had used for my life had leaded me to a dead end. And
Miki Dinh
worst yet, I had no other maps or values to guide me. I was lost. Part 2 – The Years in the Wilderness “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” - Philippians 3:7 Returning from a visit to Vietnam in 1993, I was sharing the experience to a trusted friend of seeing kids hanging out at the food stalls eyeing me as I ate food. I commented to my friend and mentor that I felt bad that they had so little. Instead of agreeing with me, he instead asked me “but were they happy?” I said “yes” but told him that that had nothing to do with my comments. Then he asked with loving kindness “are you Miki … happy? And then “Who do you think is the unfortunate one?” Only at the bottom, did I finally begin the search for a new way. As if awoken from a trance, I began looking at the friends that I had around me. Curiously, I found that the majority of the people that I was drawn to and counted as friends, were deeply spiritual and mostly of Christians and Jewish faith. I began to observe a deep sense of peace and deep calm that they had but was missing in my life. From that, I began to study more the history and tenets of Christian faith. Part 3 – KPCMD and the new Journey “We love because He first loved us” - 1 John 4:19 I came to KPCMD because of Jessica and her family. With a senior pastor for an uncle, parents and friends who were all elders and knew Rev. Choi, I thought that I would be able to receive God wholesale and not have to get the diluted version like all the other Sunday worshipers. Soon after, I was baptized at this church (KPCMD), as that was one of many conditions from Jessica’s parents for me to marry their first born. One of my first experiences at this church was when Jessica and I attended our first bible study at Kyu & EJ Sohn’s home. Not knowing Kyu & EJ from Adam & Eve, I was told that it was the tradition at this church that the new guy leads the next bible study. Continue…
2
V-2-3
New to the church and not wishing to offend these odd people, I did it. With that and from these consistent Friday night meals and bible studies, and Sunday lunches all over Detroit and Canada, genuine caring relationships grew. Slowly, I realized that my yard stick also changed. From this bible study group, I began to collect my first sets of new treasures with names of Kyu, EJ, Alex, Serena, Alex, Sandra, Peter, Patty, John, Bo, John, Sandy, Sam, Minhee, Pastor Monch and Helen. For Jessica and I, many of these relationships are now lifelong ones. We grew closer doing wacky things and by risking intimacy. For example, on one fine cold Friday afternoon in March, with snow on the ground, I got a call at work from Kyu and Alex asking me to go camping. I had assumed that it would be in a few months when the weather was more temperate. No they said… they were already on their way and would I like to join them. I told them they were crazy and that of course I will join. Asking them “where?”, I was told Canada, where it’s colder. With only a vague campground name, I headed to Canada after work. We ended up eating Ramen noodles and drinking German Riesling near midnight and the three of us slept in a two-man tent. For Jessica, EJ and Serena, the thing that drew them together was their common disbelief of how much commonsense their respective husbands lacked. They now often refer to us as the “three amigos” (as in the movie) or more often as dumb, dumber and dumbest. Sometimes, making the decision to take that crazy leap is all God needs to bring you home. The moment that I truly surrendered to God, began uneventfully that way. Alex Kim, one of the three amigos, called and asked me to join him for a new early Saturday morning prayer time to be led by Jung Min JDSN. Assured that “everyone will be there”, I reluctantly agreed. Arriving at church that morning, I was met by Alex and Jung Min JDSN.. and nobody else. Just the three of us at 7 AM at church. But what followed had helped define me and my purpose at this church. We were asked to go to a separate corner of the sanctuary and pray for 45 minutes and ask God one question. After 5 minutes of “I can’t believe I am doing this”, I began to pray. The question that I came up with was “Why do you reveal to me visions of this EM that is impossible to accomplish? And specifically, what am I doing at this Korean Church?” Thinking that I was done, I was ready to hand in my question and go home. But no… we were asked to keep our questions to ourselves and go back to our corner to pray for another 45 minutes to hear God’s answer. Once again, I prayed for 40 minutes and the answer that given to me was “Trust in me. You are not alone and I will place helpers along the way”. With that answer, I was at peace and thought “OK God, I trust you. Send me in coach!” Whether by design or by grace of God, in that small bible study group, I flourished. In reflection, I believe that only in the context of intimate and trusting friendships, was I able to see God’s reflected love and from that began to model and grow my own relationship with God. As in the parable of the sower, I was transformed from the stony ground that I was, to become like the good earth that was more able to accept God’s seed of guidance and changing power. I feel fortunate to have had such experiences and wished that others at this church would able get to know one another in this way. “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20 A few years ago, I was asked to consider leading bible study for the Young Adult Group known as ROCC. As this was not something I had considered doing, I was quite reluctant at first. As an introvert and believing that I had nothing in common with young twenty and thirty something singles, I had felt completely inadequate and ill equip for the task. That said, I looked upon this challenge as a new adventure and trusted that God would provide. My first Friday night bible study with ROCC was, in a word, underwhelming. There was me, Mike White and LeAnn. Drawing upon my own experience with the young couples group earlier, I sought to recreate the environment that can foster relationship and intimacy. With help from all of the then EM ladies (most of whom were from my old couples group), we started to feed the ROCC. With God’s blessing and the good food, attendance grew and friendships were developed during diner, which in turn help encourage discussion during bible study. Over the years, people within the group grew in faith and friendship. I believe and pray that they will become for each other what I already had with my first bible study group.
3
V-2-3
In reflection, I noticed a few curious things changing within me. Firstly, my cost calculus for the ROCC changed over time. Time and energy devoted to ROCC changed from work to enjoyment. In my mind, the “ROCC” group became instead friends named Hubert, Katherine, Leona, LeAnn, Melodee, Mike, Jin, Lailah, Ashile, Chong, Jeffrey, Ray, Son Mi, Josh, Josh, Jeff, Dale, Dale, Gloria, Tom, Niaomi, David, Jenni, Davin, Hua, Eric, Kelli, Nathan, Kimmie, David, Mike, Seoyoung, Hye Young and Eric. And instead of measuring the miles travelled, the time spent and the cost incurred, I instead measured the new relationships that were created within the group. Part 4 – The New Hope I wonder what would have happened to me, if Jessica and I did not attend that first bible study. What would have happened if I decided to sleep in that Saturday morning, instead of going to Morning Prayer? How much more different I would be now, if I had said no to leading bible study with ROCC? At the time, and while going through the journey, I face hard times where I had to grow and stretch. And there were time when I questioned the wisdom of my decisions. But in hindsight, I would do it all over again. As I have told Jessica and others, I will only serve the church (or more accurately put, my friends who are gathered in this space) while it is fun and a joy. I will stop, the day that it becomes work and drudgery. For if that time comes, I surely must be doing something wrong. The journey and adventure continues for me with this community of brothers and sisters of New Hope. I look forward to discover what God has to teach me as an elder of the church. I anticipate with nervous tension, the sprint triathlon scheduled for next Wednesday at Island Lake with Pastor David, Ray, John, Chong Soo, and Larry. I hope to know them better through this shared adventure. For me now, instead of counting miles and minutes, I find myself measuring the progress towards God in terms of relationships and transformational experiences. In that light and with God’s guidance, I would like to add you to the count.
2011 Nominating Committee Last Sunday, the congregation elected our nominating committee. They are Sung Jae Hong, Sung Ho Moon, Leaona So, Davin Hashiba, and JaeJoon Lee. Let’s pray for them as they discern for our new elders and deacons.
Bible Verse of the Week Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
-Matthew 15:28
New Hope Church of Michigan 27075 West Nine Mile Road, Southfield MI, 48033 248-356-4488 [email protected] www.thenewhopechurch.com
4
