A Spark for Atlanta

                                                                                                              Photo by Minwook Ha     

At the end of July Korean Campus Crusade for Christ held it’s annual Summer Conference. I have to say that after dealing with some hardships at the start of the year, I was not too excited for the 2014 KConference. But appropriately, the theme of this year's Summer Conference was "RESET in Christ".

But on the 3^rd day of the conference, my spiritual disciple, Reina, and I decided to visit several booths that were promoting international missions and inviting young people to step out of their comfort zone and serve Christ in places that truly needed them.  And that was when I saw it, a humble yet bright booth with bold (Korean) letters saying USA ATLANTA. 

The booth looked exactly the same as the booth next to it, and the one next to that. But what made it stand out was the “energetic” group of young people singing and shouting what seemed to be gibberish made up of random Korean and English words (and I speak both!!). 

I had visited their booth last year and had a met a number of the students and even kept in touch with some of them. Of course there were more faces that I didn’t recognize than the ones I did, but seeing the word ATLANTA sparked a kind of long lost dream, because a year ago, I had wanted so badly to apply for missions training in Atlanta. 

I was still a couple of booths away from the Atlanta booth when Reina suddenly laughed and said, “Can you believe that guy is holding a FREE HUG poster?” as she pointed to a young man in front of the Atlanta booth. He seemed to be going up to random Koreans and showing them his sign, offering free hugs. I was silent for a few seconds, then quietly said “uhm… I know that guy.” “What?”

I explained that I had met him at the last Summer Conference, but I didn’t want to say hello because I didn’t think he remembered me. In the end, we did end up going up to the ATL booth and talking with a number of students that were standing at the booth. After taking with several students, I was glad to find that FREE HUG did remember me, and upon seeing me, he indeed gave me a friendly… free hug. 

We talked quiet a bit that day, and he told me about the ministry that they were doing in Atlanta. I thought that all they were doing was great and all, but what really struck me was when he said “The harvest is plenty, but the harvesters are few.” Somehow those words made so much sense to me. 

I had been looking for a place where I could work for God and glorify His Kingdom, as well as a fresh start to rebuild my relationship with Jesus. This was it.

A million things raced through my mind as I lay down to sleep that night. But 2 things shouted the loudest: God and Atlanta. And a clear thought consumed me, “neither need me, both want me.” That night I decided without a sliver of a doubt, that if they would have me, I would give all I have to glorify God’s name in Atlanta. 

The last few days of the conference was like a beautiful waterfall of blessings, it was like something had been switched on inside me, or maybe all the hurt had been switched off. I suddenly had a purpose, I suddenly understood that the only thing that means anything to me is working for God. It was like someone came and pushed the RESET button.