Korean Ministry Launched

December 13, 2005

by Gary L. Cox

Background

About 25 years ago, a WCFS Board member said, 'we need to package WCFS and promote it all over America'.   I remember that board meeting well and I looked at him and said, 'I don't think we're ready to export anything yet. We're a new school and we're just learning; maybe it would be better for us to get some experience under our belt before we try such a venture.'  I also said that  there are 2 kinds of trees that I've noticed when I cut lumber. One is the Poplar tree, the other is the Oak. Poplar trees are pretty big and can grow to a sizable girth quickly. But it's a soft type of a wood and it doesn't endure over time.  Then there is the oak tree, it grows very slowly, yet in time it has not only great size and strength, but it endures long ages of time.  I remember I said to the Board, 'If we are going to grow, let's try to grow like an oak tree. Let's get the foundation right, and grow slowly so that perhaps we may endure in useful service. 

As of Monday, October 31, 2005, WCFS has opened our first branch Home school Academy with Church of Joy, in South Korea.  We have organized the Walkersville philosophy, software, and record keeping system under a new license agreement and handbook that we have developed for ministering to other churches here and abroad.  We have spent two weeks training staff from the Church of Joy, and they are translating and finishing details to open their doors beginning February 1, 2006.  For me the marvel is that it's all completed and it is 100 % thanks  to the Lord. God alone has done this and it is 'marvelous in our eyes'. (Details later)

What is Success in Ministry?

Acts chapter 9 tells the story of the conversion of Paul and the first instructions concerning his life's ministry, "And the Lord told Ananias to go into a street called straight and enquire in the house of Judas for a man called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prays, he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias putting his hands on him that he might receive his sight. …Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem".  One might think that if you had the Lord Jesus speaking to you in a vision you would feel honored and amazed, we wouldn't allow the difficulty of our personal circumstances to color our perception and only think about our survival. But here is Ananias saying to the Lord, 'I have heard many things about this man, this man is a trouble maker.' Why should this man be happy that Paul was praying and had seen a vision?  He better remind the Lord of all the evil Saul had done to the saints.

And you know what is precious? Like Ananias, we can go to Jesus as we are and share all of our fears and concerns with him. It's our perception of our troubles that Jesus wants to hear about.  Jesus is going to minister to us as we really are.  However, Jesus doesn't change His plans, he changes our focus,  "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:  For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake" (Acts 9:15-16).

The theme of Christian success is always the cross, God always gives his Word through  suffering servants.  Of course, this is a contradiction to us.  When we suffer, we want it to stop; that is the natural instinct.  However, when God allows suffering he has something in mind, he uses it to do a good work in us so that he might do good works through us. While we want temporal suffering to stop, God says, 'I have an eternal purpose that I want to to be accomplished by taking you through it'.

And so suffering is a tug of war that all of God's servants deal with.  Over the years by the grace of God, I have found His tender hand of discipline laid upon me as it is written in Hebrews 12. When you are disciplined by the Lord, mentally remember one thing:  the Lord loves you. Whom the Lord loves he chastens every son he receives. God is helping us he says, 'you never really deal completely with your sins on your own, so I'm going to help you'.   God  brings the heavy hand of his loving purpose to us through suffering.  This trains us and helps us to go beyond what we would ever pursue in terms of personal holiness as His children.

One of the main things that I learned early in the ministry was disappointment of my expectations.  Every time I failed I found myself at the place where I needed encouragement to go on but there is no encouragement except from the Lord.  God is in charge of my life and he put me here for a purpose. I must relax and enjoy the ride, God knows how to trim back the wild growth in of his 'branches' and bring forth the new, pruned growth of success and vitality that only He can.

God Chooses Suffering as the Banner Declaring His Name

Paul was a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name.  How did that look?  Paul would  pour out the name of Christ through the many great things he had to suffer.  That's a different kind of greatness, great things to suffer!  In God's kingdom, he makes us great by making us nothing.  What a wonderful thing!  Men compete for prestige, but here is something more precious then that:  God wants us to speak of his name and instantly recognize his love, power, might, hope, promise, and expectations as soon as trouble begins. God loves me, God has a wonderful plan of suffering for my life, so that His name might be broadcast before mankind. What an amazing vessel a suffering servant is!

To be successful and significant is to be the vessel of God, to have him choose you and by that choosing, to give you a purpose, a hope, and a plan.  When the outward man is distraught, look heavenward and realize, 'God loves you and this is part and parcel of that love; praise God, that will give you hope and encourage you to 'keep on keeping on'.

When you suffer as a Christian you are not at a place where you are attractive. You are not at a place where people want to be like you. Hebrew 13:3, "Remember them that are in bonds, be bound with them, and them that suffer adversity as yourselves in the body". There is an aspect that suffering is a tremendous crushing force on the human spirit and it needs encouragement along the way so that that purpose that God has in it might be manifest, and that God might be exalted. When we exalt Christ hope will then be transferred to others. And what hope is there then like king David when his followers were talking about stoning him to death scripture says that David encouraged himself in his God. This is the object of suffering, it drives us to God.  God is the only place that we have hope.  But God calls upon his children to consider and empathize with those who suffer adversity in the flesh.  Our outreach beyond our own circle seems to have the fragrance upon it that takes consideration for the needs of others.  That inspires me to step up to this next stage of ministry.

The Korean Project

Let me just share a little bit of how the Korea project came to pass.  The WCFS school board began the exploratory process for developing an 'Scalable, Exportable Model' of WCFS.  There was adequate reason to sense that God may be moving in a new direction, but tight resources of staff time and finances made it seem 'just out of reach' as to how these things might come to pass.  This lack of resource has proven to be a means of confirmation and development of timing. 

Each step of the way, open doors have directed the process, and resources perfectly timed provided for what seemed unlikely shortly before.  A couple of illustrations are compelling me to praise the Lord. 

After speaking in S. Korea last January, it was easy to imagine doors opening; however, back home my own circumstances simply used up all my time, and lack of resources seemed to minister questions instead of direction.  In late May, I got a late call on a Sunday night requesting that I meet a pastor flying into Dulles Airport and take him to a home visit in the D.C. area on Tuesday, and meet with the pastor afterward.  That was a pretty tall order, but when I checked my calendar, I saw that I had a single home visit scheduled for that Tuesday in the D.C. suburbs and my afternoon schedule had been canceled.  The precision impressed me that God was in it.  I held the home visit and spent the afternoon visiting with Pastor Kim.  That visit became the catalyst for him to open a branch of WCFS in his own Church of Joy.

By July, Church of Joy had begun the process to open their school, I had to postpone work on the project to prepare for conference and get the school year started.  When I sat down to draw up an agreement, I emailed Daniel (my son in law school) for tips.  He said, "You won't believe this Dad, but this week we are working on international agreements and your questions will help give me a practical project to work on".  I see perfect timing again, 'before you call, I will answer'. 

Without so much as a word of notice, the Church of Joy sent me a message saying that their staff trainee would need to be picked up at the airport on Sunday, October 30, and would stay for 16 days for training.  When looking at the calendar, I realized that those 16 days were the perfect days to train their staff, but I would have missed out on it altogether if it had been up to me to do the scheduling.  God's deadlines also served me perfectly to guide the process of producing the manual and other documents drawn up during that time period.  Perhaps you can imagine the incredible sense of God doing the work through me yet not because of me, but more like out of the very lack that I had myself to do it.  My only response possible is Praise and Thanksgiving to God! 

I look forward to our Mid-year Teachers Meeting to bring everyone up to date on some of the educational opportunities that may spring up from our new outreach.  Till then, may God keep all of our expectations that he has given us in Christ.  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ.  (Php 1:6)