419. My Sabbatical Months Plan

I will be leaving for LA this Sunday (4/27) right after church to attend the HC conference. After the conference, I will be leading a retreat for “We the Redeemed Church” until Sunday (5/2-4). Then, my two-month sabbatical starts.

For the first week, I will stay at my sister’s place in Irvine. The focus will be on relaxing and spending time with my nephew. I will visit Mariners Church. In the second week, I am visiting Las Vegas for two days for shows. Then, I will be heading to the Grand Canyon for a three-night trip. Then, I will fly to Atlanta to visit North Point Community Church on Sunday.

Once I come back, I will be leaving for Korea with my family for a month. The first week we will be in Seoul, the second week in Busan, the Third week in Jeju (and Japan), and the fourth week in Seoul again. We will return to Toronto on 6/23, and I will head to Houston on 6/25 to attend the Shepherds Conference (6/26-28). Pastors usually go a day early to prepare funny skits for the shepherds. I will be sharing the final message for the conference. After the conference, I will fly to Charlotte to visit Elevation Church’s main campus on Sunday, which is very close to Houston. Then my sabbatical ends.

At the beginning of the year, reordering ministries for sabbatical felt daunting, as taking 2 months off from the ministry schedule wasn’t easy. But by the grace of God, things just came together. Our retreat usually happens in May, and our mission trip happens in August. So I had to plan my sabbatical for June and July. But I did not want our Korea trip to happen in July because of the hot weather. However, our mission trip schedule changed from July to August, as the missionary told us there is a one-week school break in Ecuador in August, which will be a much better date, as there will be more kids to minister to. Also, our guest speaker happened to be only available in July, so our retreat got moved to July, which made it possible for me to take May and June off for my sabbatical. (How caring our Heavenly Father is!)

Please pray for my speaking engagements, personal rejuvenation, and safe family trips to Korea. Also, during my absence, there will be no “Thought of the Week.” However, I have scheduled pastor’s blog posts, quoted from Pastor Chai’s blog, as he also posts with an English version.