34. The fruit of language given by God!

[말레이]

34. The fruit of language given by God!

The characteristic of the ‘Barnabas Foundation’ is that it does not directly send missionaries, but rather has existing missionaries work with existing denominations or missionary organizations with dual membership, so the victory of the ‘Barnabas Ministry’ is the victory of the denomination or missionary society to which the missionary belongs, and since most of its core members are working together as directors of the ‘Barnabas Foundation’, it has been passed down as a foundation that helps missionaries without any particular problems.

As a result of carrying out the ministry in this way, in 2040, 10 years after the start of the ministry of the Barnabas Foundation, 4,100 out of 55,000 churches in Korea, or 8%, will have a branch of the Happy Sharing Store, and about 2,000 missionaries out of 40,000 Korean missionaries around the world, or 5%, will have dual membership in the Barnabas Foundation and have a branch of the Happy Sharing Store. They will be carrying out ministry in 6,100 branches in major places around the world, just like the dots on a Go board are connected to the strings of a net, exerting influence on each region, and they are bearing fruit as they continue their ministry in a very solid organization and complement each other.

During that time, the first chairman stepped down after two years due to health reasons, and as the size of the Barnabas Foundation grew and the number of directors increased accordingly, the chairman of the board was elected every year and the president was elected once every three years, so that everyone could devote themselves together and do missionary work together while considering the aspects of focusing on the ministry and dividing the roles among the directors. However, as the foundation grew rapidly, it became necessary to have a fixed system for the president as well as the secretary general, so as we celebrated the 10th anniversary, we decided to select an influential person as the chairman and the board of directors searched for a person. I have been the secretary general all this time, and the board of directors asked me to take on the position of chairman or director several times, but I am a former missionary and wanted to play a role similar to a practical missionary who actually does mission work in the field, so I have been in charge of the core policies and operations of the foundation until now by accepting the secretary general. However, I thought it was time to hand over the role to a young and capable practitioner, and since the 10th anniversary missionary conference was held this October, I thought it would be good to resign along with the outgoing chairman, so I submitted my resignation application, and since it was passed by the board of directors, I decided to do so temporarily. And I decided to deliver my final greeting and message at the 10th anniversary missionary conference.

I am stepping down from my ministry after 58 years of ministry that began in 1982 while studying theology and 45 years of missionary work that I was sent as a missionary in 1995. However, I am still 78 years old, and I think I can still do the ministry slowly on my own, so when I step down as the general secretary, I plan to go to ‘Molisha’ and ask my son for a position in the ministry. No, I hope to receive God’s calling while looking after the places that I cannot reach, such as cleaning the school every day for the school environment.

In the meantime, a small problem occurred in the ministry field, which was late! The rush had already begun. It was nothing more than the ‘Barnabas Foundation’ and its missionaries receiving a chokehold from some individual missionaries. It was natural that the work would be effective if they worked together with a spiderweb-like network, and accordingly, some missionaries who were not able to do so were jealous and complaining about their inability to do so.

So, the headquarters gathered representatives from each country and inspected each regional branch, and among the capabilities from that country, it was instructed to each field that it would be good to link missionaries who had served in that region for more than three years and whose work content was unclear to missionaries who would carry out missionary work projects, so that they could receive help for their lack of hands in their own work and also provide them with opportunities to move in the field of work. In this way, the work would be carried out in a connected manner, so that the work would circulate more among each other and bring about greater effects.

In places where there are people and work, or where there are groups in a tangible way and ministry is being carried out, and where people are actually alive and moving and working, unexpected problems can arise at any time. In order to solve these problems, I think it is always necessary to pray and make efforts to solve them in a way that is good-hearted, challenging each other, and allowing each other to grow and complement each other. This is because all of these people are doing God's work.