Retreat 2010.

Greetings everyone! Just last week, Gloria Chapel held a retreat for 2 days and 1 night. February 19th-20th. "How can you guys have a retreat for 2 days and 1 night!?" you might ask. Well we did and it was an awesome time! I wish it was longer and I'm pretty sure a lot of people agree with me on that. It was very different from other retreats. We didn't have time to get adjusted to the retreat center. We didn't have time to wait until the last night to get really "emotional" or "spiritually high". We had 1 night and 2 days to get a lot done! Personally the results were great. Hearing from everyone's stories and experiences during those 2 days, it seems everyone had a great time. But, then again, "Are retreats for a great time?"

I'm going to jump straight into it and give you guys some of the stuff that went down during those 2 days.

Our guest speaker (which is not a guest to many of us) was great. He is a friend of Pastor Joe's and he has been to our previous retreat as well. Pastor Ken. You will see in the pictures further below. He's a great guy (he's the skinny one with glasses). Very awesome man of God and he spoke on behalf of many things. Here we go (according to my "great" notes). I will give you guys a simple outline. You had to be there to hear the good news my people! Haha.

Friday Evening Worship (February 19th, 2010).

Text: Jeremiah 6:13-19.

-Is peace the absence of stress?

-False peace vs. True peace.

-Christ is the "Prince of Peace".

-Follow the "ancient paths".

-Listen to Him, Look to Him, Ask, Come to Him.

-What is your false peace?

Saturday Morning Worship (February 19th, 2010).

Text: Matthew 4:23-5:16.

-Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

-These blessed people are the epileptics, the paralytics, the blind, etc.

-We must shine as the "Light of the World".

-We must be the "salt of the earth".

-The Gospel must be a living part of us.

-Bringing Christ to those that are lost is a commission to us from God Himself.

-Bless those that are not blessed as we get blessed.

Saturday Evening Worship (February 19th, 2010).

Text: 2Corinthians 1:3-10.

-Know God's peace within the storms of your life.

-"You are not a burden, you have burdens."

-God is not God who will get rid of the storm, but He will walk through it with you.

-If you want to share in the eternal life with Christ, then you must share His sufferings as well.

-The mystery of God's love is: Christ suffers because He has made ours as His. He unites Himself to us. He shares with us.

-If you love Jesus, then you love one another. (Matthew 25:31-40).

We also had an intimate time within our small groups which were led by Namyi (women) and Phil (men). Phil is the guy that also wears glasses, but he is not as skinny as Pastor Ken (no offense to Phil at all). We shared and opened up our hearts as we tried to hear each other's life. Building a community is not easy. We must let our brothers and sisters know of our troubles and this was one of our small groups. Our issues, our storms, our problems, and our sin. How does the Gospel change us and how did the messages affect us. What do we do from here?

And of course we had fun games and activities.

Here are just some of the pictures that were caught on camera. All the pictures can be found on our Gloria Chapel Facebook group (<-- click there). But then again, you had to be there to experience the full fun of growing and getting closer to each other. Enjoy anyways!

With peace and love,

Charles Chung

Haiti.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti (CNN) -- Rescue workers struggled to clear rubble and bodies Wednesday from the streets of Haiti's "flattened" capital, where government officials said the death toll from Tuesday's 7.0-magnitude earthquake may exceed 100,000.
-CNN

It seems that everyday there's a new catastrophe.
And we skim through these issues in the news like it's another daily crossword puzzle.
Our immediate difficulties and livelihood seem to suppress the realities of the world at hand.
As I went about my day, sleeping comfortably, awaking comfortably, eating comfortably, even breathing comfortably, countless Haitians were being displaced, seeking medical help that is in short supply, attending to fellow Haitians that were injured, all due to the recent earthquake that has left one third of the country affected by the aftermath.

It's hard to see God in times of injustice and unreasonable evil and death that plague the world today. But God is a God of justice. And He is active in the world we live in.
In the book, Good News about Injustice, Gary Haugen writes,
"The great miracle and mystery of God is that he calls me and you to be a part of what he is doing in history He could, of course, with no help from us proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ with lifeless stones, feed the entire world with five loaves and two fish, heal the sick with the hem of his garment, and release all the oppressed with his angels. Instead God has chosen us... to be his hands in doing those things in the world that are important to him.
When Christ ascended into heaven, he left behind only two things for the fulfillment of all his aspirations for the world: his Spirit and his followers. With the Holy Spirit we have been commissioned to demonstrate Christ's love for all the world: to disciple the nations, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the broken and even to rescue the oppressed. When we sing that all children are 'precious in his sight,' we must not forget that he, of whom we sing, has declared himself to be the God of justice. Scripture describes the one who follows God:
He will deliver the needy who cry out,
the afflicted who have no one to help.
He will take pity on the weak and the needy
and save the needy from death
He will rescue them from oppression and violence,
for precious is their blood in his sight. (Psalm 72:12-14)"

Let's lift our prayers up to those affected by the earthquake.
The country has already been dealing with extreme destitution, famine, hunger, and violence for decades, and for such a country to be hit with an earthquake with such devastating effects is all the more disastrous for our fellow Haitian brothers and sisters in Christ.

"In truth each body... was actually a unique bearer of the very image of God, a unique creation of the divine Maker, individually knit within a mother's womb by the Lord of the universe. For as difficult as it was to imagine, each crumpled mortal frame had indeed come from a mother, one single mother who somewhere in time had wept tears of joy and aspiration over her precious child--a child endowed with the mysterious spark of Adam and an immortal soul. We would never number all the mother's children in these mass graves, but their Father in heaven had numbered even the very hairs of their heads."
-Gary Haugen

Let's remember Haiti. Not as another nation in this world, but as a nation with fellow children of God, fellow brothers and sisters of ours.

Much love and peace,
Hannah

Christmas Fellowship

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched - this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.

1 John 1:1-4

Yesterday, Gloria chapel came together as one unified body to share our joy of knowing Christ. It was such a great blessing to see everyone come out and really be a part of this greater fellowship of being children of God.

Many thanks to our brothers and sisters in the fellowship committee who did a wonderful job planning, decorating, cooking, etc. for this special night and to Pastor Joe for providing us with God's message.

Recap
'Scenes from a hat' was very well thought out. Very creative to modify it to 'scenes from a Styrofoam cup.' And Richie was absolutely hilarious. "Throw cat on fire into flooded bathroom. Problem solved."
The food was splendid. (Whoever made that zucchini, please feel free to share the recipe.)
Also many thanks to everyone who brought gifts. There were a few hidden jems within that pile.
And if you didn't bring a gift, GOD WILL PUNISH YOU!
We kid we kid. There's always next year!

So...
We really hope that all of you guys enjoyed the night.
It was such a blessing just to see everyone.

It's hard at times.
Many difficulties and temptations come our way,
but know that we are still brothers and sisters in Christ.
We are imperfect and inadequate, but we can still come together as one knowing that despite our flaws, despite our sins, we are beautiful and unblemished in the eyes of God because of what Christ has done for us.

Let's remember that Christmas was the day that Jesus was born. It was the start of Christ's arduous journey amongst the depraved, amongst the corrupt, amongst us humans. But because of Him, we can be whole and pure.
So let's celebrate the day Christ was born!

Shalom,
Hannah

Hey guys, Charles here. Here are some of the pictures from the beautiful and memorable night we had. Credits and much thanks to our brother Jungmin Choi. Please thank him and make him feel sexy haha. Enjoy em'.

Happy birthday!

Hello everyone! Today, the internet gave birth to this very blog, FKCB's GLORIA CHAPEL BLOG! He/She is one day old and this is the first time he/she will be speaking. So we welcome everyone in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ(as usual)! You know we could never get away from Steve Cho's favorite line. But, we do welcome everyone, members, guests, visitors, or hopefully soon to be members!

I am going to take some time out to let you readers and viewers out there know, "WHY GLORIA CHAPEL NEEDS A WEBSITE/BLOG."

We need a website(in the making)/blog because we must establish ourselves on the internet. We all have facebook and we all have emails, but sometimes it just gets to hectic. So this is the first step, Gloria Chapel's Blogger. We will use this blog as a random rendezvous for all those people that want to know more about Gloria Chapel or just want to check up on the latest news. So, this is going to be the place where events, announcements, etc will be posted so that throughout the week you guys can know whats going on with Gloria Chapel. Please, check this blog throughout the week whether every other day or once a week. I will be posting posts along with other people in the Internet Committee.

Please leave comments and such on the board so that we can help you guys out with any questions or advice. This blog is here to assist you guys and to further Gloria Chapel's ministry.

What is Gloria Chapel?

Gloria Chapel is an English speaking Ministry that is a part of the First Korean Church of Brooklyn. We are a ministry that is purposed to do the will of God. We desire to do the work of God in Brooklyn, NY. Our ministry's goal is The Great Commission as Jesus says in Matthew 28. We are currently reaching out to those that need Christ in a few ways. We are are a re-born ministry under the leadership of Jesus Christ and Rev. Joseph Chang as our pastor. We are growing spiritually, physically, emotionally, individually, and communally for the sake of God's kingdom. Gloria Chapel consists of many different people and we desire to make Gloria Chapel even more diverse. Our age groups are so broad and we have different ethnicities and backgrounds, but we have one purpose.

Gloria Chapel's blog is designed so that people may know more about us. What we do. Who we are. This blog is not designed however only for the members of Gloria Chapel. This blog is for everyone!

Most of our information is on the blog homepage, so if you want to know more, please contact us.

Shalom(Hb. = peace, hi, and bye.),

Charles Chung