It’s that time of the year again!
I hope everyone took advantage of the tax free week to get ready for the new school year. I usually don’t enjoy this time of year because of so many back to schools meetings I have to attend. As a pastor I should enjoy meeting and getting to know new people but I honestly don’t enjoy it that much due to my personality as an introvert. So whenever I attend my kids’ school events or go to their friends’ b’day parties, I usually sit in the corner and stare at my phone the whole time. However, when it comes to ministry I can’t hide my face and sit in the corner anymore because I need to actively reach out to parents and students. I really enjoy ministry but meeting new people is always a big challenge for me. Pray for me! ^^
Promiseland and Timothy ministries will have our back to school meeting today after service. We are going through so many changes as a church so make sure to come to be informed of those changes and meet our new ministry partners. Although changes are not always welcomed by many, I think they bring freshness to the ministry and also push us to get out of our comfort zones. The Children’s ministry is going through a time of transition under the new leadership of P. Jae. He’s been working hard to get to know the people and to learn the NCFC culture of doing ministry for the past couple months. At the same time P. Jae is bringing new perspective into the ministry as well. One thing I love about him is his heart for the children. I can’t stop laughing whenever he preaches to the kids because this big guy with an intimidating look puts on a cheesy smile and gets down to their level. The best part is that he does that wearing a suit and a tie. Don’t get me wrong, I am not making fun of him. I am truly inspired by a man who broke my stereotype of what a children’s minister should look like. I’m so glad that God sent us such a great pastor with a clear conviction and passion to love the children. Please get involved and partner with P. Jae in Promiseland ministry as they are still in need of more volunteers!
Timothy is also starting a new chapter of history today by having our own service. It’s been such an honor and blessing to worship together with EC families for so many years but now God is taking Timothy into a different direction. Many kids have been spectators of an adult worship but now God is challenging our youth to rise up to take more ownership of their service and become worshippers instead of watching other people worship. We will definitely miss the presence of EC family and leaders who set examples for our youth to follow. However, I believe God will use this new opportunity to raise up a new generation of leaders who will not only influence fellow youths, but the whole church in the years to come. God is already moving the hearts of many parents and other adults to partner with us. We have teachers and parents who are ready and excited to embark in this new journey together. It’s going to be a great year! Yes, I believe! Please pray and partner with us!
See you at Back to School.

From Pastor Brian’s Heart
August 30, 2015

I’ve been thinking about heaven a lot lately. Maybe it’s because that was one of the Bible lessons during VBS which VA campus just finished up last week. It’s always been fun to think about what heaven would be like. We do get a glimpse of what it looks like in Revelation, but a lot is left to the imagination. Jesus said that he would be preparing a room for us in heaven. I wonder sometimes what my room would look like. What would be in it? Would all our favorite things be there? I shared this with the VBS kids, but I hope I have a bowling alley in my room. Since we’ll be perfect in heaven, I would be averaging 300. I think that would be great!
Maybe I’ve been thinking about heaven lately because of the recently discovered earth 2.0 AKA Kepler-452b. It is apparently very similar to earth. It orbits around a G-2 star like our sun. Its orbit is a little longer than ours though at 385 days. Its distance from the sun is similar to earth. It is bigger than earth and it has more land than it does water. It is also older than the earth. When I read about this, immediately I said to my wife “What if this is the ‘new’ earth that God had in mind when he told us that there would be a new heaven and a new earth?” And my wife looked at me and sarcastically said “Yeah, and we were able to discover it.” She found it hard to believe that we could discover something like that since God is God and we’re only human. But I said to her “Yes, we discovered it but its 1,400 light years away so it’s impossible for us to reach it anyways.” This is just my thought of course. There is no validity to what I said. However, how funny would it be IF it was true? God works outside of time so he could have already created this “new” earth while he created everything else, and it would still be “new” to us.
We had a pastoral staff retreat this past Monday and Tuesday and we were going through the book of Acts together. In Acts 14:22, we see Paul and Barnabas encouraging and strengthening the disciples. They say this “We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” I asked myself why do we have to go through hardships? And I was reminded that it’s because this land here is not our home. We are only immigrants while we’re living here on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. Many of us come from immigrant families and know what a challenge that is compared to friends of ours whose parents were born here in the USA. We go through hard times here because our parents are citizens of South Korea. It’s always difficult to live in a land that is not your own.
Maybe that’s really why I think of heaven. While here on earth, we will endure lots of hardships, but we all know that heaven is a perfect place. It has no disease. No tears. No pain. What an awesome place! As I read that verse in Acts, it really comforted me and reminded me that this is not my home. I should expect lots of hardship living in a foreign land. No one knows exactly what heaven will be like and we will have to wait to find out, but we do know it’s going to be a wonderful place.
Whenever you are going through hardship here on earth, just think about heaven. Think about spending all of eternity in a perfect place just worshiping God all day long. Remember that we are only immigrants here on earth while we wait for our time to go back home.

From Pastor Eugene’s Heart 
August 23, 2015