In Our Transition

From Pastor SunAe Lee-Koo

Each time my family packed boxes for a new appointment, I thought of one of the most faithful men in the Bible – Abraham. It was not because I could identify with his illustrious faith in God, but because I visualized, with great envy, his journey of leaving behind everything familiar for the unknown where God led him. Thus, it’s been a habit of mine to ponder what Abraham might have been thinking when God called him to leave without a map or knowledge of where exactly to go.

This summer has been a season of transitions for the Koo family: packing and moving from the loving communities of faith in Maryland and Delaware where KyungMo and I served; moving to a new congregation, a different state, and a new Conference as co-pastors; sending away our son, Justin, to USMA in West Point, NY; learning new worship styles and hymns; unpacking and settling in to a new neighborhood in Berks County. Yet, this transition, filled with mixed emotions, has been a constant reminder of God’s guiding presence in our lives.

We have been blessed by you all throughout this transition. We didn’t know we would meet such a welcoming congregation in Reading, PA. We never expected to be blessed by the open minds and understanding “ears” of the Lincoln Park people. I had no idea KyungMo would be received as an exciting preacher. The divine blessings upon our journey have become clearer and surer since we began personal visitations. We have visited about 50 individuals with (and without) their families in the past six weeks. As we have gotten to know your faces and names, listened to your life journeys, and prayed with you when we meet, KyungMo and I feel that God has led us here to serve God and the people of God with you at Lincoln Park. Beyond our expectations, our good God’s love, shining through your welcoming faces, has touched KyungMo and me deeply.

Hence, we come to depend on God, seeking His will for every step of our journey with you at Lincoln Park. It is our prayer that whenever we come into the sanctuary to pray for the church, our vision will be fully aligned with God’s best will for Lincoln Park. It makes me think about how Abraham must have communicated with God throughout countless transitions in his journey: prayer. He must’ve been so intimate with God to be certain that he was going where God wanted him to be. The one certainty in the midst of Abraham’s journey and his courage to move forward into the unknown was God. Accordingly, it was God who was the center of Abraham’s thoughts and the anchor of his journey toward God’s promised land.

In sharing with you parts of my family’s transition, I imagine that some of our Lincoln Park members might go through a season of transition, if not already; you or someone around you might move jobs, move homes, begin a new journey, find a new vocation, lose a loved one, welcome a birth, meet God anew… As my family and I have been blessed by you in our transitions, I hope your transition may also be led by divine guidance and blessed by people like you. I hope you can be sensitive and aware of the blessed presence of the living God through prayer. I hope you and I can join in prayer, in our small daily, seasonal, and life-changing transitions, so that we can journey to where God wants each of us to be with confidence in God, with anticipation in God, and with a deepened relationship with God.

For this holy desire, I pray in the name of Jesus:

“I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:14-19, NRSV)