Blessings Inside the Ark
When I thought about the subject of how the pandemic has affected womens’ lives, I expected to hear how much harder it was as a woman. After all, the media is chock full of stories about how the pandemic has reduced womanhood into the dark ages with women doing extra housework while they juggle the added burden of managing children’s education at home. But I was surprised at how the pandemic has affected the lives of four extraordinary women that I interviewed for this month’s English Compass. But what I should add is that although the women that I interviewed were great, what made their stories greater, was that they serve an extraordinary God.
The interviewees are Jane Lee from Pikesville SDA Church, Esther Kim from Chicago Unity Church, Eunjung Nam of Wildwood, Georgia, and Sophia Kang from Living Word Fellowship in Michigan.
The first question I asked the women was how the pandemic changed their lives, routines and schedules. For Sophia Kang, her life seemed to revert to earlier years as her children who had been off at different schools all came back home. She reported that it felt like “vacation” to have her children back home even though it meant a lot of cooking and cleaning for her. Sophia said it was busy but it was a happy busy.
The daily routines have changed drastically for Esther Kim. Before the pandemic, she would drop off her boys at school and work part time at her family’s business. But with all her four boys home doing on-line classes, Esther had to put her busy lifestyle on hold. The new school year brought the biggest change for Esther when she decided to do full time homeschooling for her kids instead of sending them back to public school.
Eunjung has been living at Wildwood Lifestyle Center for a few years while her husband, Young Kim managed the country store. While she was at Wildwood, she had been yearning to do some kind of ministry work and was really happy to be finally enrolled in an official program to be a medical missionary at Wildwood. She only had one week left to graduate from her program when Young came down with Covid-19. Eunjung was perplexed at how her husband was able to contract Covid-19 in rural Wildwood, Georgia. And she was frustrated at the unfortunate timing of when Young got Covid. But as Romans 8:28 says, “All things work together for good to those who love God”. Although Eunjung did not get to graduate with her fellow medical missionary students, she got real practical experience using her natural remedies on her first real patient, her husband. Furthermore, getting Covid-19 made Young cling more to God and renewed his faith in God, something that Eunjung was seriously praying about. Young was able to make a full recovery, thanks to Eunjung’s natural and loving care.
When asked about how the Covid-19 lockdown has been a boon to their lives, Jane Lee mentioned that having her husband, Fred staying home for two months was a taste of heaven. Even though it was a bit nerve-wracking not to have income from Fred’s dentist practice, her three boys loved having their dad at home. They worked on projects long held off —building a chicken coop and the family worked on their gardening together. Furthermore, seeing the pandemic unfold was a living testament to how the end time events would happen, and Jane and Fred were able to have many teachable moments about the Bible and prophecy with their boys.
Esther Kim’s silver lining came in the form of the realization that her family did not need a lot of activities to be happy and thriving. She was anxious that being homebound would make her and her family stir-crazy with cabin fever, especially during the cold Chicago winter months. But she was pleasantly surprised to find herself at peace with herself and with God, reveling in His goodness and provisions during this tough time. Homeschooling has been challenging but a joy as well. Esther, jokingly said that her boys discovered so many things that she doesn’t know but they are finding grace for each other and the joy of learning together as a family.
Before the pandemic, Sophia’s Sabbaths used to be filled with activity—potlucks, church plans and busyness throughout the day. But since the pandemic and the subsequent shut down of in-person services, Sophia was able to truly rest on the Sabbath and enjoy online services not just from her church, but from other churches that she always wanted to view, but never had the time.
When asked whether any of them learned any new hobbies, skills or even new ministries, everyone had something to share. Eunjung started not just one, but several study groups doing the 40 Days of Prayer by Dennis Smith. She also wanted to study scripture but found it difficult. But she started a Kakaotalk bible memorizing group with several friends where they record a selected verse and post it to their chat group. Memorizing verses this way was a means to keep each other accountable and to encourage each other. She praises God for being able to “harvest” almost 70 verses in her heart, to date.
Sophia Kang has started a new ministry starting beginning of 2021 where she reads and records a passage of the Bible in Korean and English, uploaded to her Youtube channel (Sophia Kang, her profile picture on the channel says So Gang). She had a desire to share a skill that she had that would bless others, while she wanted help being accountable with her Bible readings. Although not adept at using Youtube, Sophia learned from her daughter how to record and post videos. She is being blessed by doing her recordings and many people have told her what a blessing this new ministry has been to them.
Gardening was a new skill that Esther Kim picked up during Covid lockdown. Her husband, Joe, built a raised garden bed, and their whole family had a lot of fun planting, raising and harvesting fruits and vegetables. They learned a lot from their mistakes too, especially learning what plants should grow together and which shouldn’t. It was a multigenerational effort as Esther’s grandmother was able to give advice from many years of gardening. For Esther, gardening had the additional benefit of providing many object and spiritual lessons, to her children.
Jane Lee has started several new ministry initiatives that were borne out of the lockdown. First, she was able to bring food to several families in town that found themselves without a safety net when Covid-19 caused the bread earners to lose their jobs. She was surprised to see during these modern times, families that had literally nothing in their refrigerators or their pantries.
Jane’s family’s next project was literature evangelism as they realized that this was a prime time to share Bible prophecies with their neighbors in Pikesville. When they saw “America in Bible prophecy” published by It is Written Ministries, they knew that it would peak interest in their community. Jane’s boys got actively involved with this ministry, making calls about how to set things up, and even used their own money to fund this evangelism effort. The day after the magazines were mailed out, someone showed up at their church’s thrift store to find out more about the mailings. This person who received the magazine said the scales fell off her eyes and that she couldn’t put it down. Jane’s heart stopped beating as she realized the results of her family’s mailing happening so quickly.
Another of Jane’s new ministries was doing a series of Zoom video lessons on the book of Daniel for children (Daniel and Revelation for Kids on Youtube). Although Jane didn’t feel like she was qualified to teach Daniel, Jane found that God is good to equip those He calls. She likened the lessons as “planting seeds” and getting children excited about reading the Bible for themselves. She will be starting lessons for kids on Revelation in late spring.
Sophia and Eunjung used their sewing skills to make masks during the beginning of the pandemic. Sophia, with two other ladies, sewed and made over 200 masks for members of her community. Eunjung also spent countless hours making masks for people in Wildwood.
The last question I asked was what they learned about God, themselves or whether they learned something about the last days from the experience of going through the pandemic. Eunjung realized that even though she is quiet and doesn’t like to offend anyone, that there is a time to stand up for what she believes in. That she has to reveal what is in her thoughts and make a stand for Jesus as an individual. She realized that the Holy Spirit will strengthen us to say the right things when the time comes for it.
Jane was surprised at how vocal and passionate people got about certain issues that were “non-salvational” in her view. Whether to wear masks or get vaccines somehow became the standard for how they think about country and religion. Friends and neighbors were very passionate about sharing their ideas about protocols for Fred’s dentist practice. Jane and Fred came to the realization that sometimes it was ok to offend others and that they had to trust in God’s word.
For Esther, it was the quiet realization of being thankful that she didn’t have to trust her own devices during these Covid times, that she could put her trust in God. It would have been so hard to have peace, especially as Joe works at a hospital and possibility of exposure to the Coronavirus. But she praises God that she can be at peace knowing that God is in control.
For Esther, Eunjung, Jane and Sophia, 2020 has been a lot of ups and downs but with God in control, the silver linings far outweigh the bad. They have found the blessing of being inside the ark while the storm rages on. Furthermore, they have found ways to strengthen themselves, their families and their neighbors during these crazy times. Praise God for their testimonies and praise God for His faithfulness.
To see the full interview, go to our Media channel.