Korean Emmanuel Presbyterian Church

On this Memorial Day weekend Sunday, we worshipped at Korean Emmanuel Presbyterian Church in Santa Clara. As you may have guessed from its name, this is a Korean-speaking congregation.

When we arrived around 9:30am to allow us enough time to settle in, the main parking lot had many vacancies as members from the previous service were leaving. We comfortably parked near the entrance way and found ourselves in the middle of the refreshment tables for the previous service. Since they had Korean favorite rice cake on the table, we dove right into them first as we slowly found our way around for our kids' Sunday School classrooms.

The 4th and 5th graders met in a mid-sized classroom with chairs all facing front where a slideshow of some sort was being displayed while the kids made their way int. We walked up to the front where an adult leader was standing to introduce ourselves as a guest and left our two kids in there. No registration information was taken or our names requested. About 40 students attended this class. The format of the Sunday School program is: 1) Greet & Ice Breakers; 2) Praise using CD music; 3) Message; 4) Snacks. My 2nd grader brought home a coloring book based on Bible passage.

For our 2nd grader, the classroom was next door but we had to wait until the choir practice was completed because that room was shared as a classroom following the practice. As we entered, we asked an adult who was setting up the room and she pointed us to another lady in charge of the 2nd graders. She kindly asked us to fill out a registration form and then gotten to know our kid and also showed us where to pick her up afterwards. About 40 students in this class. They first started with praising as the leader played guitar and then a sermon was given before they broke out into respective classes where they had some projects and then snacks.

We then entered the main sanctuary to join in the praise; all songs were hymns and the words were projected on the screen. Following other programs we were challenged by the Senior Pastor Sohn's message on John 11:38-44 titled, "Build Up a Life on the Foundation of Faith".

He started out with a statement, "Faith gives birth to obedience." And vice versa, lack of faith produces disobedience. This caught my attention right away even though this passage a familiar one to me. He used the sermon outline printed inside the bulletin to lead us through the message and that was quite effective and helpful for me to follow along easily looking up references. One of the question was that when we are faced with situations which is unbelievable or unacceptable, then would we not respond like Martha? Jesus said in v. 40 "Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?" Jesus wants us to walk the path of obedience based on my faith in God. These two cannot be separated. Martha says "I believe" but in her real life-impacting situation she hesitated to obey Jesus -- her mind and vision were filled/obscured with the "stinking" corpse of Lazarus. She should have talked by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

In 1983, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn who was Templeton Prize winnder said in his speech that after 50 years of research and study of Russia's history the reason for its government system's failure is because man abandoned God. Likewise, as we all know, America beginning was on top of Chrisitan faith. However, today, it has transformed into a materialistic society where science has become the idol -- that is, it has become a society living by what it sees.

It is recorded that Albert Einstein asked a group of scientists how many percent of the world we live in can be proved by science; to which the answer of 2% was given. He told them it seemed a little higher, but let's assumed it is 2%. Then should we not trust God for the rest of 98%? If we take a moment to think about the world we live in, we are actually surrounded by miracles -- it's just that we do not recognize and appreciate them. Take hearing for example. Isn't it amazing how we can perceive different sounds with our ability to hear? How does that work so accurately and consistently? This list goes on with, speaking, drinking water replenishing our body, etc.

Have you ever wondered why US dollar plays that principal role in the global money market? I heard the best explanation. It's because US dollar is has a special value associated with it -- it's the only one that contains "IN GOD WE TRUST."

When Peter walked on water (Matthew 14:29), he actually walked on his "faith". There is no way the water can sustain him, but when he did not walk base on his sight but based on his faith, he was able to experience the power of God.

As with Martha who eventually trusted Jesus to acts of obedience and witness the glory of God, let us all obey and experience the same glory in our own lives.

Following the service, we joined the refreshments tables (again) after we picked up our kids from their classrooms. Met up with some friends and then left the church filled with His Spirit.

One impressive item to note was that in a church with over 1,000 members (about 400 just for the worship service we attended) we were readily identified as a "newcomer" by some of the greeters and staff members and were warmly welcomed.

Website: www.kepc.org
Worship Times: 8:20am, 10am, 11:50am, (English-speaking meets in a separate room)