A Father’s Changed Heart

Hillsong Live – Mountains

One of our full time volunteers, Jee Lee, has been serving with us since the summer of 2008. She came to Korea as a summer intern for a two month commitment, but during her internship God gave her a strong calling to quit her job in the States and remain in Korea serving the children. She returned to America that fall, resigned from her teaching job, and prepared to move to Korea a few months later. At the time, she was 28 years old.

Her father, a very loving and protecting man, was concerned for her future. He wasn’t close with God at the time, so he viewed her decisions in more of a practical light. To him, returning to the country they had left from and giving up her job to serve the children as a missionary made him very uncomfortable. She tried to reach out to him when she would call home, but they grew more distant as she was here.

During her visits back to the States in the following years he remained strongly against her calling to the orphans of Korea. Their relationship continued to strain with her father becoming more and more upset. It all culminated in a family gathering where Jee’s brother urged her dad to pray to God about her situation and ask God how He feels. Her dad, out of his love for Jee, recommitted to church and sought God in prayer. To his surprise, God revealed to him what a sweet work Jee is doing and led him to change his heart and bless her. When Jee received the phone call from her dad with him blessing her we were all overjoyed and moved to tears by God’s grace. But this was only the beginning!

Her dad was finally able to visit her here in Korea the past few weeks. While God had changed his heart and enabled him to bless her, Jee could tell he still had his concerns for her. We continued to pray for God to touch his heart and give him peace. And God has been faithful! Please be blessed reading Jee’s most recent prayer e-mail sent a couple days ago…

<< My dad is still in town and he came to church with me for the second time today.  I also have one of my girls, Hyun Joo, from the children’s home come out to my church almost every Sunday (Jee has been mentoring Hyun Joo who is in high school and has been teaching her Bible study for some time).  I was sitting between them during the Easter service today.  I felt very strange to have my dad on my left side and Hyun Joo on the right.  What a precious moment for me!!  But it gets better!!!

Since I’m leaving to visit the States tomorrow and my dad will be leaving two days after me, we had some shopping to do.  All three of us left the church together and headed to a big mart.  As we were shopping together, I believe that my dad was very impressed with Hyun Joo’s bright personality and well-mannered nature and he soon became very fond of her.

After shopping, while we were eating dinner together, my dad was giving some advice on life to Hyun Joo like a dad would give to his daughter.  After he was done giving her advice he added, “You can be like my youngest daughter!”  It was such a beautiful sight.  As we were walking out of the restaurant, the worker there asked us if Hyun Joo and I were my dad’s daughters and we smiled and said “yes” and walked out together.

Later on, another girl from my children’s home joined us for dessert and my dad got to experience how I take care of the girls and witness how I’m like a mentor and a mother figure to them.  As I was giving them some instructions, he was able to jump in here and there to give them his two cents.  This was just a little glimpse of what to come in NK for my dad!  God is so good!!!>>

Wow! God is indeed so good! The different staff of Jerusalem Ministry all have similar testimonies of how God has been working in our families. We believe God’s plans for us to eventually enter into North Korea to serve the orphans there isn’t just for us personally, but also for many of our family members as well. Only God could set something like this up, and we are already seeing His hand at work.

We live by faith, not by sight. Only God can truly change hearts, so we have to rely on Him and not on our own methods. He has been faithful and He will continue to be faithful. Amen!