APRIL

CBS Radio

I've mentioned BCC's monthly translation of "Power for Today" is very popular. The English devotionals are on one side and the Korean translations are on the other page. Don and Vicky Kinder have been recording a ten minute program from their home in Memphis every day and then sending it over the internet to Seoul for broadcast every morning at 6:20.

Last month CBS (the Christian Broadcasting System) asked me to do a live program on Thursdays at the studio. I'm on for half an hour, from 6:30 to 7:00 AM taking phone calls, telling "Stories from the New Testament" and reading the news. It has been an incredible blessing! The program is very popular. They estimate our audience is over 500,000 people all over the country. Remember, they asked us to do this! We are preaching "Let's Just Be Christians" and it is free!

Monday night, March 29, CBS sponsored a big rally for the "Bible English" program. They invited me to keynote it and I spoke on "I Just Want to be a Christian." After reading John 17:20-24 ("that all of them may be one") I started by telling a story.

"The other day I was riding the subway," I said pulling up a chair and acting out the story. The audience howled as I pretended to ride the train.

A man came up to me and loudly asked, "Are you a Christian?"

"Yes," I replied quietly.

"Hallelujah!" he shouted.

I looked at him and said, "Amen." Then he looked at me and asked, "Are you a Baptist?"

"No."

"Presbyterian?"

"No."

"Luthern?"

"No."

"MORMON?"

"No."

"What are you?"

"Just a Christian," I said. That gave me a great opportunity to tell this audience about the Restoration Plea. "Let's just be Christians!" The response was overwhelming. I received an invitation from another University to come and tell their students about "Just Christians." This country is so ready for the Restoration Movement, if we will just talk to them! CBS has already asked me to speak again at their rally next month.

Podowan

The Ministry of Defense has also contacted me. They would like me to help them in two ways. First, they publish a monthly devotional for the soldiers in Korean and English, much like Power for Today, called Podowan. I've agreed to help polish their English in each issue. Already they are reprinting many of our BCC lessons! Again, this isn't costing us anything. People are hungry for the gospel in ways I never could have imagined in the states.

Second, they have asked me to travel to different Korean military camps and preach in English to the troops. What an opportunity! We will begin by visiting troops on the DMZ. It will be very interesting! We are waiting for my security clearance to come back from the American Embassy so the new work should begin sometime in May.

BCC

Thanks to a generous gift from the Tempe Church of Christ, BCC will have a new server for their website this month. We are now having over 4,000 visitors to our website every day! At the current rate of growth, that number should double by summer. It is truly amazing. I read a letter from a student in Pakistan this morning who wanted more information about "Back to the Bible." Stop by and read Power for Today online (in English or Korean) or listen to Don Kinder read the program using "Real Audio."

(For you "techies" we are currently using two servers: one for mail and the other for the website. Unfortunately only one has a UPS --- uninterruptible power supply. A UPS means if the power goes out, a common occurance here, the computers will continue to work properly. If you know someone with $500 to help us back up the other server with another UPS, it would be money well spent!)

KCU Classes

I am amazed at the quality of students at KCU. All of the freshmen, including two Russian girls, are required to take my class, "The Life of Jesus in Basic English" (see http://bible.or.kr/Jesus). Their English skills vary but we are having a great time. Pray they do well on their mid-term exams! They are working very hard.

Preaching

My hospital stay put a crimp in my preaching schedule this month (see "Personal Notes" below) but my Adult Bible Class on "The Marks of a Great Church" continues at the East-West congregation. It is so refreshing to see every seat in the building occupied! They are working very hard. Although I will never complain about getting out of the parking lot in the States again. The whole congregation takes their shoes off at the door of the church. Can you imagine finding your shoes (both of them) in a sea of shoes?

Personal Notes

My famous washing machine is working great! (See last month's report.) So far I have ruined every sweater I own -- both of them. The arms could fit an alien and the bodies are only twelve inches long with necks as big as the waists. I guess I still have a lot to learn about laundry. Fortunately three piece suits cover up my attempts at ironing a shirt....

My "insider's tour" of Korea continued the last half of March. Early Sunday morning, March 21, I woke up with a horrible cramp in my side. The pain intensified and that "old familiar feeling" told me I was having another kidney stone attack (some of you remember my October episode). This time I knew what to expect so I was able to crawl to the phone and get help. Brother Kim from KCU and Sang from BCC rushed to my apartment at 4:00 in the morning and carried me to the car. Kim broke all of the speeding and traffic laws getting me to the university hospital emergency room across town. President Kim met us there and made sure I got the very best care. How many university presidents would rush to the hospital at 5:00 in the morning? I was very impressed, but I was also in a great deal of pain.

The x-rays couldn't see the stone, but the other tests were positive. Unfortunately there was no room in the hospital, not even a gurney. They started an IV and I curled up in a folding chair trying to be appreciative. Eventually they moved me to a bed in the emergency ward.

The room contained over 100 beds on rollers. The really sick people were on one wall where there were shelves to hold the various monitors and such. Pediatrics were on one end of the ward and I was on the opposite end bedded between two grand-mothers. (Is my beard that gray?) When the pain killers kicked in, I dozed off to sleep and woke up at 10:00 feeling much better. They sent me home with instructions to drink lots of beer and pass the stone. I laughed and asked if mineral water would be good enough. They gave me some more pain killers and soon I was curled back up in my apartment.

On Monday afternoon I talked to my doctor from last October. He told me 10% of American men and 3% of American women get kidney stones. Of those, about 10% have uric acid stones which are invisible to x-rays. I was one of the "lucky" ones but he advised me to come in for an IVP test any way. For an IVP they inject a dye into your veins and trace it's progress through your urinary system with a series of more x-rays. (They may not be able to see my stones, but they would be able to see if there were any blockages.) The tests were scheduled for Wednesday.

Tuesday I managed to get to school and prepared to teach my 9:00 class. I was feeling very weak. The pain pills were helping but there was still a dull ache. Running up and down those stairs in the Administration Building didn't help! It was 9:10 and still I had no students. Something was wrong. I walked to the President's office and learned it was a school holiday. (I really need to learn to read Korean!) That was fine with me. By that point I was in serious pain again and Sang took me back to the International Clinic at Yonsei University.

My doctors decided to move the IVP test up and so I spent the rest of the afternoon having pictures taken of my amazing invisible stones. The tests finished on Wednesday when I met with the Urologist. Yes, it was definitely a uric acid stone. No, they wouldn't operate (yet). First they wanted to try and use medications to dissolve the stone. Of course it might begin to move again (ouch!) but it might just pass. "If the pain becomes too great come to the emergency clinic," he said, "otherwise I'll see you in two weeks."

The best part of course was socialized medicine. Yes, I had to share the emergency room ward with over 100 other people, but the staff was very caring and the facilities were good and the whole thing: doctor's visits, emergency room care, x-rays and tests, medicine and sympathy only cost me $500! I'm going to come to Korea for all my kidney stones!

Please keep me in your prayers. God has certainly been watching over me this past month. I am still a little concerned about passing this stone. Thanks!