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L'Abri Newsletter, February 2025

February 12, 2025

Dear praying family,

I pray that this will be a year in which you can fully enjoy our God (portion, inheritance). The bitter cold wind from the north has frozen the whole world, but I would like to share with you that God is still working here, and I would like to ask you to pray for us.

2025 began with the passing of my mother-in-law (the mother of InKyung). She was 91 years old and slowly lost her strength. Eventually her breathing grew weak, and she quietly left this world and went to heaven, where she had longed to go. After losing her husband ten years ago, her most important activity became prayer.

She would carefully read our L’Abri prayer letters and pray for the people mentioned. She would ask how the person she was praying for was doing and specifically what she should pray for. After a while, she would remember the person exactly and ask the next question. We are often taken aback that we have so many people praying, including you, reading our letters carefully. Thank you very much.

She has gone to heaven, leaving behind a beautiful image in our memories. We lost not only a mother but also a friend who worked with us and consistently prayed for us. Whenever I think of her, I recall her resting in our L’Abri arboretum. As I grieve, I remember God’s promises that she will rise again with His power on the day of resurrection and that we will be able to meet each other cheek by jowl again.

Do you believe in the resurrection? Or is it merely a 'hopeful thought' for you? The traces of resurrection can be seen all around us in nature every spring. Trees and grass that seemed dead through the winter come back to life when spring arrives. Jesus said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12:24, ESV) C. S. Lewis also wrote in Miracles, “The total pattern [of Death and Rebirth] is there in Nature because it was first there in God.”

Jesus, although God, was born as a human, died, and was resurrected according to His laws. Therefore, we who believe in Him will also be resurrected. Doesn’t it make sense? I have sent off both of my and InKyung’s parents and have come to long for the resurrection even more. I look forward to meeting them in the new heaven and the new earth, where we will serve God completely and love each other. I hope to see you, our dear praying family, there as well.

It wasn't easy for me to start the L’Abri term soon after the funeral. It happened that I forgot my meal turn. How would I have been able to get through the month of January without Kwang-sik & Nam-jeong, Tae-yoon & Hyun-ji, as well as one-year-old Aru, Da-yeon, Akiho, and Jin-kyung? I thank God for the wonderful helpers God sent during this time.

Unlike summertime, the cold winter is the best season to study and explore one's own questions. This is because the weather is cold and outdoor activities are limited. A young woman who graduated from a christian alternative school and started grappling with the faith in college recently came. She read books about Christianity, but she still had a hard time believing. This time, she decided to read the Bible itself. She thought she had already known it, but she read it as if she were reading it for the first time. She read the Gospel of John, and was struck by chapter 1, verse 14: “The Word became flesh.” “Why did he have to become flesh? If it were me, I would not have made that choice. Instead of welcoming Jesus, humans killed him? Why did he still choose to come down?”

As this young woman continued to read the Gospel of John, she was amazed by Jesus' conversations and was surprised by the parables. However, she did not want to understand why Jesus had to bring suffering upon himself. Sadly, this is where she left off by the end of January. Please pray for her. Please pray that she will be able to accept and believe in her heart and mind Jesus as her Savior and the Lord.

There was also a young woman who came to L’Abri after being in a cult for several months. She met with her tutor every day to learn the Evangelical and Orthodox Christian doctrine and to disgorge what the cult taught her. She also had tea time seminars to present what she learned from the tutor and answer questions from other young people. Her situation was difficult, because her family was involved. The tutor in charge had to tell her mother about the cult. Please pray for this woman who went home for about two weeks and returned to L’Abri saying, “This is where I belong.” Please pray that she would meet the true God, who is her real refuge.

There was also a young man who parsed through difficult content while reading Reformed Dogmatics by Herman Bavinck, a Dutch reformed theologian. As I watched him accurately understand and explain the content, I gave thanks and glory to God for raising him as a good leader. In addition, various guests came to Yangyang, braving the bitter wind, including young people looking for their path, feeling worried about going to college, and seeking to grow closer to God. I pray that God is still with them.

Someone recently said, “L’Abri isn’t a place you come to just because you want to.” He said he tried to come many times, but he came when he really needed to. That’s right. L’Abri is not a place where anyone can come at any time unless the Holy Spirit leads them. Please pray that we, workers can serve well those whom the Holy Spirit sends us. Please pray that we will depend on and be obedient to the same Holy Spirit.

Please continue to pray that God would send us more good workers. My husband is turning 70 years old this year, which means he is near retirement age. Please pray that we would obey God until our last days. We believe that obedience is more important than the timing of retirement. Recently, while reading the Book of Joshua, we were surprised to see Joshua’s obedience to God’s commands. Even though Moses had already passed away, but Joshua obeyed as if he were still stand before Moses. We should develop the habit of obeying the living God one step at a time.

Hae-jin, who became a worker last fall, has been working and studying hard. She has been learning Japanese since middle school, and by the grace of God, He brought a Japanese person to Korea L’Abri as soon as Hae-jin started working. She is continuing to enjoy her online classes at Covenant Theological Seminary. We are surprised and thankful that many people have sent Hae-jin scholarships. God is greatly restoring Hae-jin’s health. Please continue to pray for Hae-jin, who still has a lot of digestion problems and suffers from a herniated disc.

Please also pray for our finances. These are difficult times for everyone, but please pray with us that God will supply our needs to eat, work, and repair L’Abri houses. An oven in my kitchen is waiting for replacement, and the cement in front of Baekamdang, where many of the workers and helpers used to live, is sinking and in urgent need of repair.

On Sunday, February 16, we will hold a service to thank establishing the L’Abri Chapel as a church at Jeongdaun Center and high-tea will be held after the service at L’Abri. Jeongdaun Center is a rehabilitation center for severely disabled people. Since Jeongdaun Center opened in 1992, Dong-il and Lydia Kim of ‘The 38th Parallel Church’ have gathered a small number of disabled people to worship. After the 38th Parallel church was closed, L’Abri workers and many pastors across Yangyang have helped preach once a month for about 20 years. The worship was not allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic for three years. After pandemic restrictions were lifted in the summer of 2023, the Christians of Jeongdaun asked us to worship with the L’Abri family.

Since then, we have been holding service together at Jeongdaun. The new church belongs to the International Presbyterian Church (IPC) founded by Francis A. Schaeffer, who started L’Abri, and the senior pastor is Pastor Sang-ki Lee. Guryongnyeong, where L’Abri and Jeongdaun Village are located, means “passing through the Baekdudaegan Mountains that wind like nine dragons passing through valleys.” There are seven villages in Guryongnyeong. Buddhism is common, and there are many superstitions and no church. Please pray for a church to grow in this location.

This summer, we plan to restart the Christian Worldview School that had been on hiatus. In these times when our country is chaotic and people involved in political movements are establishing various schools, isn't it more important to raise young people who can discern the world through God's Word? Please join us in prayer for this work.

Even though it is a new year, I cannot visit and greet many of you in person, and there are some of you I have never met. Thank you for always praying for us and sending us donations. We do not know your situations, but our Lord knows, and we pray to Him. When we enter the kingdom of God, we will see each other. I will laugh with joy and say that I have been fully benefited by the cross of Jesus. I couldn’t repay the debt of love. I would ask our Lord “Could you repay for me the debt of love I owed our praying family?”

I bow my head in thanks.

Yours,

KyungOk

Translated by Ye-Jin Ann

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