Evangelism

I'm so happy because UGA is such a Christian school.  Being extremely Southern has its benefits.  Okay, yes, it is a pretty messed up school in terms of the amount of partying and all.  I'm not saying it doesn't.  But for the rep it gets as one of the biggest party schools, it's.. gah, it's just such a big school, I can't really describe it in any one way.  UGA is this, UGA is that, and UGA is everything in between.  -sigh- I fail at making a point here.  You just cannot stereotype a school of this size and diversity.

It's just really overwhelming how many believers I meet and how many of the people I meet are believers.  Or maybe in college we just become more overt about our beliefs.  Or maybe because I have a stronger faith than before I just notice more of it in others.  Maybe God just leads me to all these great Christians.  Maybe it's all of these reasons.  Whatever the case it makes me happy.  Not only am I in this big educational bubble, but also in this unrealistically Christian bubble.  And I plan to take full advantage of it.

My dad has been nagging me to watch this dude's testimony for weeks.  His name's David Lee (typical Korean name...) or Lee Hee-Don.  He's the Vice Chairman of the World Trade Centers Association... well, that's one of the things he is.  He's also on some committee for the Fulbright Scholarships and Nobel Prize something and... I don't even know.  But what's remarkable is that he is a first-generation immigrant.  After graduating college he went all the way to England on his own, then came to United States on the cargo of a freight plane.  He obviously did not have money (he sold all his belongings for that plane ticket, and in L. A., he sold socks on the streets) and he did not have any family members in England nor the United States.

Not once in his testimony did he say anything like, "So every night I studied and studied English so that I could get that teaching job" or "I worked so hard to _______."  He gives credit to himself for nothing.  He did say he prayed a lot.  And everything else was done by God's miracles.  I don't believe my dad asked me to watch his testimony to inspire me to become the next big thing in the business world or science world or even the evangelist world.  That would be a side effect.  My dad was given hope and encouragement for everyday life by the testimonial, and I believe that's the reason he wants me to watch them, too.  The guy gave a testimonial for eight hours at a conference over some days.  I've only watched the first day's over the span of several weeks.  And it's already made such an impression on me.

Religious testimonials are everywhere... by people who've been healed, by some ex-prisoner who saw Heaven/Hell and became a new person, random people whose lives changed... but to hear someone like Lee Hee-Don give this testimonial... it's almost unbelievable.  How does somebody like him (in terms of his job title and the worldly things he "does") make time to get up at 4:00 AM for a two-hour prayer session every morning?  (And I complain I don't have time to pray!!)  How do you still focus on God and not get swayed with so many worldly things and people around you???  It's amazing.  You really have to start from the bottom up.  You have to go through soooooo much crap in your life.  You have to walk the streets not knowing where to sleep that night (or something equivalent) or be imprisoned repeatedly for fighting for what you believe in (in Kim Dae-Jung's case (I talked about him on Xanga a long time ago)) in order to do great things.  (No one does it comfortably sitting in some dorm room...................................... -sigh-)  And all the while knowing that God is with you.  Because as both Lee Hee-Don and the pastor at Athens Church said, "God never promised us we won't suffer.  But He did promise to never abandon us."

(HOLY CRAP!!!!!! KIM DAE-JUNG DIED IN AUGUST.  ..... How come my dad never informed me about this?!?!?!?!??!!?!? .............................. sigh.............................  Ahh..........)

All right, before I become even less coherent let me wrap this up.  Lee Hee-Don's testimony carried more weight because of his position in this world.  It sounds sad, but that's just how it is.  God came to us in human form so that we would understand Him, because if we wanted to talk to ants, the best way would be to turn into an ant.  Just like that, people are worldly and we admire and pay attention to the worldly "big" people.  Just... throwing that out there.  =)

Never did Lee Hee-Don hide his faith to seem "neutral" anywhere in life.  He said something like, "I work with the World Trade Centers and I do many different things, but before all of that, no matter what else I do, I am an evangelist."

Someone else's take on and a sort of a summary of the testimonial, if anybody's interested.

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Speaking of which, I did this mini-evangelism thing today.  It was such a small effort.  I went around Jittery Joe's and Tate Center doing "surveys" about child sex trafficking and conversing about God.  I talked to two people.  They were both believers already so it made my job so much easier.  Plus, the first guy was uh.... attractive.  (Dang! I even got his number but gave that to PF. haha jk) Anyway, it was embarrassing because I don't go around talking to random strangers, let alone talking about my beliefs.  But if anything, like PF said, if I just spent an hour going around talking to random strangers about God, why can't I do that with my friends?  My roommate?  Theoretically, yes..  Easy to say.  But...