A Life of Service
Hello! My name is Jonathan Hur and I have been a youth leader at Pleasanton Korean Seventh Day Adventist Church for seven years. Originally, I did not devote my life to God - but in the 7th grade I got involved in community service. My first glimpse of God came when I went to feed the homeless in Berkeley with another Korean SDA church. I was still in middle school at the time, and my youth pastor and I were talking about my spiritual life and I decided to get baptized although in the moment, it was not for being baptized into the church but so I can do more service.
That day in Berkeley was unlike any other. It was my first official community service activity with the church. We got to see all these people line up for food, farther than I could see. I got an opportunity to serve my own table. I got to talk to individuals and learn about their life with God. Their stories made me tear up and I decided that I want to make an impact in people’s lives. It was one of the first times I saw God in the commonplace things of life, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.
I grew up going to public schools and I still attend a public college where most of the people are not Adventists or even Christian. I consider it an opportunity to experience other points of view. In high school, I went through some dark times when several close friends passed away. But at that age, I also got an opportunity to listen to a great non-Adventist pastor talk about what we can do for society and that motivated me to make a difference.
Baptism was a harder thing for me to grasp because there were many doubts from my own family about my readiness, but ultimately I realized that it’s a decision between me and God. I did baptismal studies, although I believe that my own personal experience wrestling with God was actually more relevant - and was baptized on my thirteenth birthday. (The pastor had been sick for two Sabbaths in a row, so it was postponed to my exact birthday!) Truly the greatest birthday present I ever received.
Now that I am in college, I see this as a new domain for God’s word to be spread. But I like to think that I’m doing it indirectly, incognito, like an undercover agent. Instead of trying to convert them, I try to let them know God is with them by example. One method to changing people’s lives is playing Christian music and showing them how moved I am when I listen to God’s message. I remember my instructor telling me to become a peer mentor and that is precisely what I did. I am now a peer mentor who received a pastoral license at the age of twenty. I am now paid to help people and my goal is to make sure they become the best people they can possibly be, showing them Christ in everything I do. Being there for others is ultimately the way to help them draw closer to God and become better people.
Jonathan Hur is a youth leader at the Pleasanton Korean SDA Church.