One lesson I've learned this past year is how to be patient, extremely patient. Last year, when I began this crazy adventure, I thought that this journey of helping prostitutes in Korea would only last one year. I naively thought, how hard could it be? God obviously wants to bring his word to prostitutes so all I need to do is go into the red light district and start meeting people. God would bring things together and before you know, an organization would be started and Korean Christians would be motivated to take over. I'd be free to pursue other things.

Ha.

First of all, it was a lot harder to make friends in the Pohang red light district than I thought. But once I made some, I realized I needed to learn Korean. I had been banking on the thought that God would provide me with a translator who could consistently help me, but no one presented themselves. Everyone I knew was too busy. So I needed to learn Korean. That added at least two years to my original plan so I could attend university and become a fluent Korean speaker. But then, in order to learn Korean, I needed money. That would require people who knew about the ministry and were willing to support it financially, which then required traveling around to churches sharing my vision with them. Add another year. While traveling to churches I discovered that they weren't very willing to support me unless I joined a respected organization. Welcome YWAM. Add six months.

So, along with my original idea of one year I've had to add two for language, one for support and six months for an organization. That's four and a half years absolute minimum. It's a good thing God made it very, very clear that this is the direction he wanted me to go in. I don't know if I would be able to make it otherwise.

My original thought of one year was not totally outrageous. It could work if the world went according to Ro. But the world is not according to me. What I didn't realize is that some things take time and there's nothing you can do to push it along faster.

Like this, for example:
I go to a church on Sunday asking if I can talk to their missions pastor. They point him out to me. I go up and introduce myself and very briefly share my vision with him. He gives me his phone number and tells me to call him on Monday. I call him on Monday. He's taken the day off. I call him on Tuesday. I remind him who I am ("... Ro? Oh, yes. I met you on Sunday. Your working in Japan... or was it Korea?"). I ask if there are mission prayer meetings or small groups that I could attend in order to share my vision. He's hesitant. There's a missions prayer meeting that meets twice a month, but they might be busy. There are also some small groups that are interested in missions... there are others, too, but they're not so interested in overseas stuff. He tells me not to bother with those. I get the phone numbers for both groups that look plausible.

When I call the leader of the missions prayer meeting, I learn that I can't speak unless I get a green light from the church missions committee. So I give the missions committee a call. They're not meeting until next month. So I schedule an appointment with them for next month and give the small group leader a call. The small group leader is also hesitant but warms up after a while. He tells me there's an opening for me in three weeks. I make sure to visit that small group this week and the next one if possible.

That's an idea of what goes on in my life. It is a little worst-case-scenario, but not a whole lot. The general reaction I get from people is hesitance. I'm not sure why. They do tend to warm up, but I'm not left with a great first impression. And then there's the time issue. There's just no speeding things up. If there's an opening for me in three weeks, then what in the world do I do in the mean time?

A friend recently asked me how it was possible for me to be working three different churches all at once. I explained that I have so much time on my hands between all the "scheduled" church meetings, why not go to prayer meetings for three different churches? Why not visit loads of small groups? This is what I'm here for.

But it takes patience. I can't work at the speed I want. If the world were according to me, I'd line up ten entire churches and give one presentation. They'd be delighted to see what God's doing in Korea and, without an ounce of hesitation, want to be involved.

But that would be too easy.