MARCH 2014

Dear friends,

Forgive me again for the delay of this newsletter. More the years are passing and more those years pass too quickly. 2 weeks ago, I had 48 years …. I’m approaching rapidly 50. Some peoples told me that the decade between 50 and 60 years was very nice . Is this truth for you ? My opinions and experiences of previous decades is that each decade could be marvelous when God is our closest friend and confidant.

In recent months, the words of the Bible that have been useful in my everyday life are those : “If a brother or a sister is without clothing and in need of the day’s food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm and full of food; but you do not give them the things of which their bodies have need, what profit is there in this? Even so faith without works is dead. But a man may say, you have faith and I have works; let me see your faith without your works, and I will make my faith clear to you by my works. The Bible in Jacob 2:15-18 )

I am very involved in the village of Dumbrava. This village is 80 % of Gypsy families. I take care of teenagers and young people between 14 and 23 years. The majority of these young people are already parents before the age of 16, with 1 or even 2 children. When I see the conditions in which they are living, I realize just tell them the good news of the gospel is not enough. Because they are living in bad material conditions, with a very poor educational level and with several bad Gipsy habit. I challenged myself to help them for the next 10 years to help those young teenagers as well their families. I would like to share the Gospel not only by telling words, not only telling some rules but by sharing God’s words from the Bible, sharing my time and sharing materials good’s that God is giving me through all of your financial support. What is the living Gospel for you?.

MY PERSONAL NEWS :

1) MY HEALTH
In January and February 2014, I had several health problems. On February 5, the day of my birthday, I was so sick that I stay all day on bed. During the winter time, my health remains fragile, especially my stomach, my liver and my throat. But today I’m feeling better. I recovered better health.

2) SPECIAL EVENTS ,
In October 2013, I went to Switzerland , Belgium and France with a Romania couple, the parents Rad. The purpose of these trips was to meet people and churches to share the work we do in the gipsy village at Dumbrava. We met several people and churches leader Unfortunately, I had several big problem with the engine of my car, which has 345,000 km. My car stay 2 weeks at the garage for to be fixed. A big thank you several peoples in Belgium and in France who helped me a lot financially to pay the cost to repairs of my car.

In November 2013, I moved into a new apartment in Arad. It belongs to a friend of my church. It is well renovated. I have to get used to live there because this apartment is much more smaller (35 m2). I don’t think I will stay long because neighbours are very noisy.

MISSIONARIES NEWS :

Since the second half of 2013, I have 3 great responsibility. I am the president of the Association Yout For Christ Romania (YFC Ro), I am the president of the association who works in the village of Gypsy at Dumbrava village and I am the leader of Mission department in my church. Those are important responsibilities, but with God’s help, I am very happy to work with different teams in different contexts.

A summary of mission activities since October 2013.

October 2013 :

– From 4 to 28 , with the Romanian parents Rad, we went to Switzerland, France and Belgium, to share the missionary work in the village of Gypsy at Dumbrava . We met people interested in the project.

November 2013 :

– From 1 to 3 , from 7 to 10 , 14 to 17 and from 21 to 24 , I helped to organize conferences ( GLS, Global Leadership Sumit ) for church leaders in 4 major cities of Romania, Oradea, Bucharest, Craiova Deva, with participation from 100 to 280 church leaders .

December 2013

– From November 29 to December 1, we organized a camp for the most involved Volunteers in our YFC Romania. We were 23 people in a chalet in the mountains of Romania. Young volunteers really enjoyed to be all together.

– From 5 to 8 , we organize the final GLS conference in Timisoara, with 190 participants.

– the 9, I helped technically Christian choral University of Timisoara to organize their Christmas concert. More than 350 students were present.

– From 16 to 25, I was in Belgium to spend Christmas with my family in Belgium. I was happy to see the whole entire family.

– From  26 to 2 january, with some French Christians, we organized a special week of activities in three villages in southern of Romania. We shareed the Gospel, we
shared material goods and did funy activities with children, youth and families living in very difficult material and social conditions. Smiles and laughter on the faces of these peoples have been a great encouragement to all of us.

January 2014

– From 1 to 15, I took a vacation. I rested a lot .

– the 18 we started our first meeting of young people in the Gypsy village Dumbrava. 48 young people came. The church hall was too small because the energy of all these young people was overwhelming. We spent together 2h30 to play, to laugh, to share, but also to learn good teaching from the Bible. The majority of those teenagers are parents … they have an average of 15-18 years. One of our goals is to help them in their adult responsibility … has parent and to help them in education of their children.

– From 19 to 25, with some leaders from YFC Romania, we went to a conference organized by YFC Europe in Czech Republic. The purpose of this conference was to teach and equip national leaders of our mission YFC.

– From 26 to 30, we organize a Team Building Camp for our 7 national leaders in YFC Romania. We put the foundation on how to work all together in YFC Romania.

February 2014

– the 1 and the 15, we had our youth meetings in the village of Gypsy. 27 and then 28 youth participated in our programs. We have 3 leaders and volunteers from two churches. We see that these meetings are really important for these teenagers and they are very involved during the program. At the end of the meeting, we have a talking in a small group. In these groups, young people share their problems, desires and concerns.

– 7 to 8, I went to the south of Romania, in the small city of Bailesti. I went there to help a friend, Cornelia, she will move in this small town next month as YFC Romania Missionary. She is working as an financial accountant and handles many administrative part of our association, she is very talented. But her heart is to work more with young people. She has talent for teaching. So she will be involved with Gipsy teenager on their education.

For several months, I form the missionary team in my local church. In February, I formed this team with 4 young Romania couples. Our church leaders accepted our team and what we want to do. We will beginning to send mission groups in March. The first mission team weekend will go to the village Dumbrava during the last weekend of March.

Thank you for your prayers for all those different activities. Pray for my health because it is a bit fragile at this time. I’m working with different teams and therefore different characters. Pray that I could be a good leader who leads and helps with words and attitude full of God’s wisdom.

Thank you to all of you who continue to support me financially and in prayer. I praise God that through your help and your support, we can help to numerous people to live the Gospel, to help them to has grow up in better material condition and also to has grow up with the wish to have better social education. There are still many wonderful things we can do together. Persevere because God gives us many opportunities to show and share his love. God’s blessings we get day after day are not exhausted as we can read in the Bible.

Your friend and brother, Myung Soo

SEPTEMBER 2014

Hello my friends,

It is with joy that I continue my life as a missionary, as part of Youth For Christ, Romania. Forgive me if I’ve not sent more information in recent months. A big thank you for your prayers, which are like the wind pushing me from behind and that God used to encourage me to move forward and persevere in the wonderful ministry He has given us to proclaim and live his Gospel. A big thank you also to all the people and churches who support me financially. I am aware that it is a great privilege to serve God full time, still a big thank you.

Youth For Christ has a program to help young people to live and share the gospel message. This program is called “the three stories,” the story of Jesus, the story of your friends and your story. Summarizes the purpose of our life is to welcome the story of Jesus into our lives and that his story becomes part of our history. But also to share the history of Jesus to people who are around us, and the story of Jesus comes into contact with their stories. And gradually these people allow themselves to be transformed by the story of Jesus. And the story of my friend and my story became part of the story of Jesus. And this is achieved by learning and sharing, with words, truths from the Bible, and by living these truths by living day after Day with people who live around us.
But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works” (Bible, James 2:18)

Personal News
Since March, my health is good. In early July, I had a stomach problem that lasted a week. Physically, morally and spiritually, I’m fine. What concerns me most is the health of my parents and more accurately than my father. It is becoming weaker physically and memory deteriorates. My mother is very brave she takes very good care of him. In early July, my father was hospitalized, I went to Belgium, to spent a few days with him and helped my mother.
In March, I have 3 teeth fillings that fell and 4 small cavities in other fillings. I spent several weeks at the dentist and it is not finished yet. Nearly all my teeth are sealed and they have more than 30 years and therefore problems to be solved.
One of my other concerns was that my Apple laptop that no longer works since mid-March this year. So for almost 6 months I’m using a Ipad 2 as a useful computer. But the American Church of Illinois, RVCF church who support me with perseverance for many years has agreed to help me. He will send me a new Apple laptop in exchange for monthly financial support for several months. It is a great blessing and I thank them with all my heart.
In the last 3 months, the financial support has been reduced. Thank you pray for it.

News Missionary work
On my website missionary www.myungsoo.ro you will find in my diary in 2014 the list of activities in detail by month. I just described to you a summary of the draft.

A) – Youth for Christ. Youth For Christ Mission Romania is developing well. Gradually, our team of 6 full-time and the number of volunteers increases. JP, who is the new director of JPC Romania, did a great job to building team together. We have meetings every two months during a weekend. Since I am the president of the association, I try to find people to form a new committee. With the help of God, I have four new people who are really interested.
We have been organizing this summer four weeks of day camp and a week of camp in five different regions. This camp was an opportunity for many young people to hear and see the Gospel. A progress of day camp is that local teams are becoming more and more responsibility in the organization of these camps. We had between 70 and 150 participants per day in each region. I personally participated in these five camps. Daily, depending on the region, we were with the youth from  5 to 8 hours activities a day. I realize how important it is that young people can not only hear the gospel but they can see how to live the Gospel. Being an example is really important to them.

B) – Dumbrava village Romm (Gypsy). The work does not progress very quickly because the financial resources are really limited. The Rad family run this center has not yet found a regular support. I’m going there several times a month for meetings with youth. In July, we held a day camp for a week. In the morning we had a special program for 30 teenagers who are in school during the year. The afternoon program for all teenagers and young people, we had an average of 70 to 90 people. The center needs renovation and therefore with a friend, Luca Pais, we went several days to renovate one of the buildings. There is still work. If you want to help us, we happily accept.

C) – Harvest Metanoia, for several months I coordinate the missionary department of our church. Not easy to manage multiple responsibilities but with God’s help, I do what I can. A small team was formed and every month we went to the village of Dumbrava for a weekend. One of those weekend, 12 teens from our church have driven activities in this village. This weekend, September 12-14, with 16 teenagers we do a camping camp befor school returned. Teens are really impatient.

D) – Disabled wheelchair basketball team. This year I went only once for basketball competition for 5 days. One member of the team had major problems and also financially. He and his family was very close to being fired from their home. I helped as best I could so that they can stay at home and also have something to eat. In October, we will start work in schools to educate students that people in wheelchairs are people like them, with difficulties, but they are happy to live. One goal is to show that we are all “disabled” in the eyes of God because of our sin and that we are limited in our way of life because of it.

Thank you to all for your patience to read my news letter. Thank you to pray for me to live every day with faithfulness to God.

I wish you all a pleasant day in the Peace of God.

Myung Soo