by Rev. Andy (Myungjoong) Yong
Covenant BP Mission, Tacoma, WA
the Missions Banner, October 2021

My family moved to Tacoma from north of Seattle, in the summer of 2014.  I led the first worship service in Tacoma in the first week of September of that year. Seven years have now passed—our eldest son, Isaac, was 10 months old then and he is now 8 years old.  In the meantime, God has given our family two more children, John and Sarah.  God has allowed small growth in the church as well.  Looking back, it is God’s amazing grace that our family has been living in the State of Washington and that the ministry of our church is still going on.

To commemorate the 7th year, a small tree was planted at the entrance to our place of worship.  The type of tree is a Burning Bush.  Moses met God in a bush burning with fire, but not consumed.  The tree we planted was called a Burning Bush because it has abundant green leaves from spring to summer and the leaves turn intense red in autumn, so that it is reminiscent of the burning bush of the Bible.

The ground on which the tree was planted was originally piled with stones and had the roots left from a tree that had been cut down.  It was useless land in the backyard of the church, but our church started gathering in the dining room, and it became meaningful land to us as the entrance to our church.  First, we removed the stones to build a stone wall, and then we removed the roots to make good ground.  I suggested to Dale Lee, a church member who is a gardener, that we should plant a meaningful tree, having told him that the burning bush is a common symbol of the Reformed church.  It turns out that the first plant he learned in horticultural school was Euonymus alatus, commonly called a Burning Bush.  God is amazingly meticulous.

The monthly men’s Bible study, which took a break during the summer, has resumed again.  We study the Word of God together on the subject of “Our God, who is our Father.”  The world’s culture seems to diminish the father’s role in the family.  But fathers have an irreplaceable key role in the family.  Now, the culture of the world has entered the church and is trying to reduce the role of male members in the church.  However, male believers are the ones who have to take on the role of church leaders.

I hope that our male believers will gradually throw away the character of a worldly father who is stained with the world’s culture and sinful nature, and become a godly father.  This is possible only when their relationship with the perfect Heavenly Father is restored, and that restoration is possible only when they receive the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died for sinners. Just as the useless land with piled stones turned into good ground and the meaningful tree was planted, I hope that the members of our church will accept the Word of God as truth, so that they bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit abundantly.

“But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.” (Mark 4:20)  Please pray, as this tree grows, Covenant Bible Presbyterian Mission will grow into a good church.