This whole Swine Flu has taken over all of Asia. It is incredible how “fear” can drive people to do anything. After we landed and taxied to the gate, we had to wait in the plane until the quarantine team came and checked everyone to see if anyone had the flu. We literally sat in the plane for one hour.

We thought we were going to miss our connecting flight… but our flight to Singapore was delayed, so it was a relief.

Now we are patiently waiting to board.
 
 
 

 

 
I am getting ready to leave for my trip with Christina to Singapore and Jakarta. We are leaving today. Christina is already packed and I have still yet to pack (what else is new). I don’t know why but for some reason I have never understood the philosophy of packing ahead of time, but Christina reminds me of the importance when I forget to pack something in my rush to catch the flight :-)

This trip has a threefold purpose. First, we are going to finalize all the logistics for our move to Indonesia – finding a place to live and taking care of various administrative things. Secondly, we will be meeting up with some people who are interested in starting the church with us in Jakarta. At this gathering, I will be casting the vision for the need of an international church plant. Lastly, we will be meeting up with alumni in Singapore and Indonesia and spending time with them to encourage them and just simply to reconnect.

The alumni have been such a blessing to us. They even contributed their own resources to purchase Christina’s flight. The principle? When something is important to you, it is demonstrated by the investment and sacrifice that is made.

My parents are here to watch the kids and we have a lot of people in our church who are going to help out with the kids’ rides and other things. It is in times like these that remind me that we are not planting this church in Jakarta alone. We are doing this together.

I will be updating via blog and Twitter (twitter.com/sethskim)
Please keep us in your prayers.

It has just been about 24 hours since I landed in O’Hare airport yesterday, but already it has been an awesome time catching up with people and also ministering God’s Word. Yesterday, I met up with the leaders at HMCC-Chicago and re-casted the vision, as well as gave the leaders an update of the church plant in Jakarta.

Since time is always short in Chicago, I have to be strategic in trying to meet up with all the staff members, as well as some of the leaders in the church. I still have a few more people to meet up with within the next 20 hours, but I am enjoying every minute of it. This has been one of the joys of the apostolic ministry. In Acts 18:23 we notice what Paul did – “After spending some time in Antioch, Paul set out from there and traveled from place to place throughout the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples.”

The Sunday Celebration on the campus of Northwestern University went well. Even though many of them were in the midst of finals (quarter academic system), they received the message well as we closed out the “Image” series with Part 3: Success.

Now I am at a student lounge on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus and getting ready to preach at the Downtown site.

It has been a great weekend here in Austin. HMCC of Austin had their first ever congregational retreat. They decided to contextualize it for the many pre-Christians who came out (over half of the people were not believers) and called it the Winter Getaway. It was truly an awesome getaway – we were able to build relationships with one another and experience God together.

As we started off the retreat, we decided to go around and count the number of different nations that were represented in the room. By the time we went around the whole room we counted a total of 11 nations. It was just a breath of fresh air. Even in the beginning stages of this church, God is allowing us to plant the seeds of transculturalism.

The theme for this getaway was “Meet Us Here” and God was truly faithful and allowed us to encounter Him in a powerful way.

One of the highlights was the ropes course and team building activities that we did on Saturday afternoon. Through it we were able to strengthen our relationships with one another and build a greater unity within the group.

Then today, I spoke at HMCC of Austin’s Sunday Celebration. I shared about the importance of building God’s spiritual house. Seeing some of the recent believers who came to know the Lord through our church helped illustrate the important point of reaching out to people to build up this spiritual house.

We finished off the day with an incredible Texas style BBQ. I don’t think anything can beat it. Texans really know how to do their BBQ’s. It was good to just be around the table with good food, friends and fellowship.
 
 
 

 
Fueling up before the retreat with Torchy’s Tacos
 
 
 

 
We had to get our whole team on the platform
 
 
 

 
Chillin’ with one another
 
 
 

 
Dave trying to keep the fire going
 
 
 

 
The guys getting ready to pig out with the ribs
 
 
 

 
What more can I say
 
 
 

 
Great bunch of guys… it makes church planting so much fun

I just came back from a retreat. I brought one of the guys on the worship team with me to help out with leading worship. It was a great experience for the both of us.

We ended up ministering to a small group of leaders who are serving in the inner city of Cincinnati. It was an awesome time of worship and fellowship. Once they found out that we have been fasting for 21 Days and we were going to break fast today, they ended up joining us in fasting from Friday through Saturday. It is so refreshing to find people who are willing to put everything on the line to seek after God.

The humbling part of our trip was just observing the lives of these leaders and listening to the stories of sacrifice and love. Their love for the inner-city people was inspiring.

They literally gave up things of this world in order to live amongst the people and minister to the people with God’s love. It was truly a demonstration of incarnational ministry.

Today in the afternoon we got a tour of the neighborhood. As we were driving around, I couldn’t help to notice the hopelessness and despair in the eyes of the people. We even encountered real live drug peddlers on the street corners. I was just a fresh reminder that we need God’s light to shine in the inner city.

It wasn’t too comforting knowing that there was a shooting near their place last week. We were just thankful for their bulletproof windows in their home. But even with the safety issues, the families were willing to risk their lives to preach the Gospel.

We ended the retreat by praying for each person and asking for God’s anointing on their lives. Then we ended up breaking our 21 days of fasting at a well-known local pizza place. It was great having some “grain” in my system.

As we were driving in to Ann Arbor, my heart was filled with praise for all that God accomplished in the last few days.

Yesterday, the family and I headed out to the west suburbs to hang out with some other pastors and their families. It is a special thing when you have friendships that have been built for over 25 years. Not only are we friends but partners in the ministry.

We did a post-Christmas gift exchange by playing our version of White Elephant. The kids played first as the parents watched and cheered them on. Then after opening all the presents, the parents played. I thing the parents were a bit more wilder than the kids :-)

But it was a joy seeing our kids playing together. There is always a special bond between PKs (pastor’s kids) and MKs (missionary’s kids)

It’s been a great 2.5 days in Chicago so far. We are staying at my parents’ place; and my parents are just ecstatic that they can see their grandchildren.

Whenever we come to Chicago, we fill our time by reconnecting with our families and friends, visiting special spots around Chicago that are fun, and eating at key restaurants and food joints that we do not have in Ann Arbor.

So far, it has been good hanging out with the family. Today, Christina and I spend some time alone for a chunk of the afternoon – oh, the blessings of having grandparents :-)

Tomorrow for Christmas we will stop by Christina’s younger brother’s place to have lunch with some of her family members. Then in the evening, we are going over to my cousin’s place to hang out with my side of the family for dinner. It is going to be busy!

I am at the airport now getting ready to board the plane for my trip back to Ann Arbor. As I sit here at the terminal, I am just thankful for the privilege of reconnecting with the Austin team. It has been a fruitful trip.

I was able to spend some time with the whole team last night. We had dinner and spent some time sharing and praying together. It is hard to believe that the church plant has been in existence for only a little over 3 months. It was encouraging to hear the testimony of the lives that the team was investing in throughout the last 3 months. But most of all, the testimonies of what they were learning personally was a reminder that God is at work and that He loves them tremendously.

I also had an opportunity to meet up with some of the team members individually. It was good to hear about the lessons that God was teaching them.

One observation that I made as I was talking with Pastor Ben and the team is that it was hard to find a transcultural church in town. They have churches that fall in rank and file with ethnicity or para-church groups that stick with the Homogeneous Unit Principle.

But as I try to observe what God is doing in HMCC of Austin, I realized that our contribution to the Body of Christ in Austin is to be a transcultural church that reaches out to the nations. Right now, they have people from various backgrounds that represent nations such as China, Japan, Nigeria, Malaysia, Korea, and etc.

As HMCC of Austin begins to grow and develop, I am excited to see what God will do through them to reach the nations.

I am making a short trip down to Austin to spend some time with the team. I am in Dallas on a quick layover.

It has been about 3 months since the church officially started; and it is encouraging to hear that they are building relationships with pre-Christians and seekers. This is usually the hard work of any church plant.

I am realizing that as we plant more churches, I need to play more of the apostolic role of visiting various churches and encouraging them in their journey. This takes time and commitment, but I know that this is the calling that God has placed on my life, for which I am forever grateful.

I am looking forward to just chilling with the team, as well as praying together for the harvest.

The forecast is at 73 degrees… wow, can you believe it?! This is the kind of winter weather I can handle :-)

I just arrived to Chicago late night. Wow… it was probably the fastest plane ride to Chicago in all my years of flying. The pilot got us to Chicago in 40 minutes!! It is usually a 53 minute ride. I knew something was different because when we approached Chicago, the pilot had to slow down the plane really fast. But after everyone on the flight realized how fast we got to Chicago, no one complained.

Then I met up with Pastor Jimmy to reconnect and catch up on life. It was great hearing all the great things that God is doing in his life, as well as in HMCC of Chicago.

I’m looking forward to ministering God’s Word to both the NU and UIC sites.

Yesterday was a full day. We went through some back-to-back sessions. But it was great to sit down some of the guys in ministry and talk about topics that applied to where we were at the present moment in ministry.

I realized that getting into smaller group and just picking each other’s brains is helping in sharpening each other. We also had some presentations that talked about organizational change and constructs. Dave Gibbons gave some principles and “grids” for us to consider, while Ken Fong challenged us with the importance of “capturing the imagination” of our people.

Then we had a great dinner by the beach. The best interactions happen over a meal.

I am leaving with a lot of things to process and think through in the context of our church. I will have the plane ride to process things.
 
 
 

 
I loved hanging out with Bob Roberts… he is the real deal

I am out to San Diego for a Leadership Network conference. I am part of a learning community, which is made up of a small group of Asian-American pastors who are leading multi-ethnic churches around the U.S.

I met up with Dave Lee at the airport and we headed out to our conference location. We ended up grabbing a quick bite to eat and it was a no-brainer for us – FISH TACOS!

It was great reconnecting with everyone. We had an opportunity to share what was going on in each of our lives for the last 6 months. It was encouraging to hear about God’s faithfulness in all of our lives.

The big and singular theme for this conference is: Perspective.

We divided into smaller groups and talked about topics that were related to the pastor’s personal lives such as balance, pitfalls, and seasons of ministry (in our 20’s, 30’s and 40’s). In our learning community we rotated between Ken Fong, Dave Gibbons and Bob Roberts. It was great being challenged by their lives and their stories.

Afterwards we had some fellowship time, but it was no ordinary fellowship. We headed out to an indoor go kart race track. It was a blast as we competed against one another. We are off to a great start.
 
 
 

 
Ken Fong and Dave Lee enjoying the view
 
 
 

 
This was the biggest go-kart track I have seen
 
 
 

 
The go-karts were all lined up and ready to go
 
 
 

 
We had to wear helmets! But we were pumped
 
 
 

 
The scenery out here helps you to experience God

I am at Singapore’s Changi Airport right now (waiting for the ticket counter to open). Today, I had the opportunity to meet with Dan and Yonas for lunch in Karawaci. It was great talking about business and transforming society through various spheres. For some reason, whenever I am around business minded people they expand my mind and perspective on the things.

Then I meet up with Louisa and Engel and had some Indonesian Sundanese food. It is known for its spicy-ness. It blows up in your mouth… it is not for the weak of heart (or weak of palette). Then, they dropped me off at the airport.

I am looking forward to processing all the informational things that I have gathered from this trip and sharing with HMCC members this coming Jakarta Church Plant Informational Meeting. The plane rides are the best for this.

Now, I am just waiting for my family to come home so that we can see each other through webcam – oh the marvels of technology… even though we are far away we are not too far!
 
 
 

 
My own created space at Changi Airport

Today Lord woke me up early (5AM) therefore I had this strange feeling that He wanted me to intercede. I spent some time praying for Indonesia and the church plant in 2009. I headed out to Karawaci again this morning and went through the long one-hour commute. A person can possibly spend a quarter of their life in traffic.

I had a meeting with Aileen Riady, the wife of the Lippo Group executive. She is actively involved in Sekolah Pelita Harapan, the Christian international school. It was great talking with her. It is hard to find people who have such a passion and vision to transform nations.

As we were talking, I had the opportunity to share about the vision that God placed in our hearts. The vision of planting college campus churches on or near global cities, then clustering the international students together to send them back to their country to impact a nation was discussed. I also shared about the significance of the Transformasphere Movement and how that is going to play a part in raising up future Kingdom workers who will transform various sphere of society with the Gospel.

I also had the privilege of sharing about how planting this church in Jakarta is going to play a part in the bigger vision of transformation. There was definitely a kindred spirit as she shared some of her passion in helping students grades K-12 to develop a strong spiritual foundation, as well as a vision for using their education experience to transform the world.

Then, afterwards, I did more house rental “shopping.” Man, this is definitely not something that I can get up early in the morning for… I am just a servant boy doing the bidding of a lady who wants to make sure that we have a place to stay when we get here :-) In the last 1.5 days, I think I saw a totally of 10 houses… Lord have mercy!

In the evening, I met up with two elders from Jakarta International Christian Fellowship. It was great to hear each of their stories as well as how JICF got started back in the mid-1990’s. One of the elders (an Indonesian) studied at Seattle University and Purdue University. As he was sharing his testimony, I couldn’t help but to notice that a lot of what he went through is what I have been noticing in our alumni.

We are on to something.
 
 
 

 
I was tempted to get out of the taxi and hop on a motorcycle
 
 
 

 
I couldn’t help but to notice the Starbucks at this hospital… classical globalization!