[Lee So-mang]

Q. Please introduce yourself and tell us where you went on outreach.

Hello, I’m Lee So-mang, a graduate of the CYP DTS at University of the Nations Jeju. I knew God was leading me toward DTS, but I spent a long time wondering where I should receive the training and kept putting off the decision. Eventually I felt I couldn’t postpone it any longer, and since my parents serve as staff here and I myself grew up on this campus, I chose to train at UofN Jeju — a place that feels like family.

Through the lectures and outreach, I came to deeply understand and feel the assurance of salvation, the joy of praising God, and His love for me — it was a season I’m truly grateful for. I went on outreach to Japan and Laos with the GPS team. In Fukuoka, Kagoshima, and Pakse, Laos, we met many people and blessed missionary families there and we had a meaningful time worshiping and praising God over those places.

Q. What did God do during your outreach?

On Si Phan Don Island in Laos, we prepared several things for a mobile ministry after hearing from the Lord. But some of the things we believed God had spoken to us did not unfold as we had expected, and instead of feeling a sense of accomplishment, we found ourselves facing disappointment and difficulty.

Yet God comforted us in our discouragement by fulfilling, one by one, the very things He had spoken to us. He arranged for us to meet a Korean woman in Laos, and through her, we were able to graciously complete the mobile ministry we had prepared. It was a gift-like season of comfort that God had prepared for our team.

Q. Was there a testimony or episode that stood out to you?

Through the lecture phase and outreach, there were times I felt my identity as a child of God — but there were also times I felt unworthy, trapped in the lie that “God must love others more than me,” and I even withdrew from relationships with others.

“I love you,” “You are special, precious, and doing well.”

But every time my self-worth crumbled, God kept telling me, “I love you,” “You are special, precious, and doing well.” It was a time of deeply experiencing a God who knew even my inner loneliness and comforted me in it. Even the night before graduation, at the “Night of Commitment,” I could clearly sense that God was focused on me — one person. He showed me that only when His love fully fills me can that love flow more deeply into community, and until the very last moment of graduation, I was overflowing with happiness, full of God’s love and a heart for community.

Q. What changes and lessons did you experience through the ministry?

The mission I had pictured in my head was different from mission on the actual field, and things I had hoped for didn’t always happen. Even while giving my best to what was entrusted to me, doubts would rise: “Will there really be any fruit?”

But through our team, God began to break things that had held the lands of Japan and Laos in bondage. He caused worship to rise up in places where no one worshiped Him, and as I sensed the Lord being glorified through that, a firm conviction grew in me: “As worship and prayer continue to be offered in these places, I became convinced that God’s work will surely be established and carried forward.” Even though our ministry didn’t show immediate visible fruit, we were able to finish the outreach with joy, trusting that God’s Kingdom will surely come to Japan and Laos.

[Ha Seon-hyang]

Q. Please introduce yourself and tell us where you went on outreach.

Shalom, hello. I’m Ha Seon-hyang, a graduate of CYP DTS Cohort 5. I went on outreach to Nepal and South Korea.

Q. What did God do during your outreach?

What I experienced most deeply through this outreach was God as the perfect Guide who goes before us, prepares the way, and is already there waiting for us. Serving on the kitchen team in particular, I experienced His careful guidance and provision even more vividly.

I had often heard comments such as, “There’s nothing good in Nepal,” from staff and missionaries as we prepared for outreach. The more I heard this, the more my worries about food and living conditions grew. Then, unexpectedly, on the flight to Nepal, God led me to meditate on 1 Timothy. The words of 1 Timothy 4:3–5, “everything God created is good,” stayed with me, though at the time they were hard to fully accept.
Then, right after arriving in Nepal, the same verse came to me again as a notification through the GodPeople Bible app. In that moment, I realized God already knew my fear and wanted me to move forward in gratitude and faith. From then on, in the kitchen team — from team building to the final meal of the trip — I sought God’s voice in prayer at every moment and chose obedience even when I didn’t understand. As a result, during our time in Taplejung, at an elevation of about 2,200 meters, we never once lacked a meal; God graciously provided the food and ingredients we needed every single time.

Another unforgettable moment was the day we arrived in Korea after the staff separated. It was late at night, there was no time to prepare breakfast for the next morning, and the leadership had no cash on hand either. I prayed, “God, we have to feed our team tomorrow morning. We can’t let them go hungry. We need bread.” When we arrived at our lodging, the staff and pastor had already prepared welcome kits for everyone — bread, drinks, and Scripture cards. Standing before the fact that God had already prepared everything before I even prayed, I could only praise Him.

God’s provision continued throughout the Korea leg of outreach as well. Whenever we worried about running short on food budget, God supplied what we needed through “flowing” (spontaneous giving) and other offerings, and even on the very last day of the team’s time together, an unexpected designated offering of 250,000 won came in, allowing the community to eat abundantly. Each time, God held onto me through Matthew 6:26, reassuring me again that the Father who feeds the birds of the air will surely take care of us to the end.
Through this outreach, I deeply experienced that God knows our needs better than anyone, always goes ahead of us to prepare the way, and fills us with the very best.

Q. Was there a testimony or episode that stood out to you?

The testimony I remember most from outreach is the time I directly experienced God’s generosity.

Until then, I had strongly believed that “money is something I earn and spend myself.” I held a bias against relying on support and God’s financial provision, and I had never personally experienced God as the One who provides financially in my own life.
During a lecture on finances in the DTS lecture phase, a desire grew in me to personally experience whether God really is as generous as He is described. But since I had already paid all the tuition and both outreach fees, it weighed on my heart whether deliberately “testing” God with finances was really the right motive before Him. I wondered whether deliberately creating a financial challenge for myself was really the right motive before God. In the end, I decided to step out in faith and give God room to show me His generosity. I set a specific time frame and amount to test God’s generosity: the period would run until I boarded the flight back to Jeju after outreach, and the amount was 3,000,000 won — the cost of the first outreach phase.
Still, part of me doubted, “Will God really provide that much?” Without realizing it, I had been confining God within the limits of my own thinking. Even so, with a desire to experience His generosity for myself, I waited in faith to the end.
The night before my flight, I was exactly 70,000 won short. I thought, “See, I knew it. There’s no way this will be filled,” once again confining God within my own thinking. But at the same time, I prayed earnestly, “I want to experience Your generosity. Let this not be someone else’s testimony, but my own. I want to become someone who fully entrusts my finances to You.”

Not 50,000 won, not 100,000 won, but exactly the 70,000 won I was short—the full amount was provided the evening before my flight.

In the end, God provided the full 3,000,000 won I had been trusting Him for, and His generosity became no longer someone else’s testimony, but my own.

Q. What changes and lessons did you experience through the ministry?

The biggest lesson I learned is that God uses even my weakness. I used to be someone who was afraid to show my weaknesses — whenever they surfaced, I tried to hide them or cover them with something else. But during my three weeks in Nepal, I could no longer hide or turn away from my weakness. Day after day, I found myself in tears, having to face the deepest parts of my weakness, and in the end I had to admit there was nothing I could do in my own strength.

At the end of that process, I prayed before God like this:

“Lord, I am this weak. I cannot do this on my own. But since You have led me this far, I now entrust it to You. Lord, if You want to use even someone like me, please use me. I’m putting myself completely in Your hands.” It took three weeks before this confession could leave my lips. And after that prayer, God did not turn away from my weakness — instead, He showed me that He works through it. Because of my weakness, He led me to go, one by one, to people I had hurt or from whom I needed to ask forgiveness, and through that process I experienced His restoration and His work.
I am still weak today. But what has changed is that I no longer try to hide or cover my weakness. I have come to accept myself as I am before God, and to trust that He will use even my weakness.

We look forward to seeing our CYP DTS brothers and sisters live as His witnesses wherever He has called them, praising God and declaring who He is among the nations!