by Pastor John Kim

Introduction

When Lighthouse Bible Church San Diego was being planted, the commitment to have a worldwide view toward ministry was something that we wanted to see integrated into the life of the church from the very beginning. While we had little in terms of resources and manpower, I really wanted to see our church have a heart for the world and invest into a long-term relationship with another church in some other country.

Czech Republic

Having attended the Master’s Seminary, I had a good number of friends and classmates who had become missionaries and were serving in different countries all over the world. I emailed many of them inquiring if there were any opportunities for us to partner in some way. Initially it was quite discouraging as no one seemed to have time… or were too busy… or already had what they felt was adequate. It seemed as though no one really had the time to consider such a relationship.

But one friend from my days at Grace Community Church responded with interest. His name was Peter Smith and along with his wife Sonya, who was a classmate of mine at Los Angeles Baptist High School, had gone to a town called Kladno, just outside of Prague to do missions work. I was pretty excited because I knew Peter to be a very enthusiastic and dedicated Christian and had watched him serve at Grace Church. I was especially encouraged by his character and heart for people. I had a pretty discouraging experience with a short term mission trip while in college, and so the importance of Christian character in the lives of pastors and missionaries really stood out to me as a requirement. After some initial discussions, Peter then brought up the opportunity to possibly partner with a friend of his in a city called Ostrava, which was close to the border of Poland on the eastern side of the Czech Republic. He shared that he was already partners with some pretty big churches at the time and while he was open to partnering together, he asked if I would be open to considering Ostrava because not too many people were interested in going out to that part of the country. It was a coal-mining industry and a place where criminals and problematic people were sent during the communist era, so it was definitely not a tourist destination compared to Prague. But the most important thing was the character of the missionary, and after Peter assured me that this missionary was a solid man of God. I thought it would be good to go on a scouting trip to meet the missionary and his family and get a chance to see what it was like.

So in the spring of 2000, I went to the Czech Republic for the first time. I definitely did not know much about the Czech Republic, other than that they had surrendered pretty early in World War II to Nazi Germany, and so the city of Prague was not bombed like so many other cities in Europe. After arriving in Prague, I went to a train station where I took a train to Ostrava. The city of Ostrava was the third largest city in the Czech Republic and I found out that there was very little evangelical presence there. So it was with great anticipation that I looked forward to meeting the missionary and his family.

I wasn’t too familiar with what the missionary looked like. He told me he would be wearing a beige jacket and had a beard. There were two stops that sounded very similar and so I was a bit confused. At the first stop I looked out the window and saw someone that seemed to fit the description, and so I stepped off the train and met Meinolf Mellwig for the very first time. I had been told that he was a German missionary who had come to the Czech Republic with his wife and children, and that they were in the same missions agency as my friend Peter. I anticipated meeting someone stoic and serious but hard-working and dedicated. My first interactions with Meinolf were very straightforward. I met his wife Martina who was very friendly and kind. They had a little girl, Anika who was almost two years old and they drove me around town to see the sights. They also had four other children who were in school – Katrin, Johannes, Matthias, and Lukas and lived in a three story home in a village called Polanka. I got to attend a church service which was held in a small room in some kind of building that they were renting. I found out it was a Brethren church, and that they had the Lord’s Supper every Sunday which was a little different since they used a common cup for everyone to share. Everyone seemed friendly and though I couldn’t understand anything they said, it was neat to meet them all for the first time and get a chance to fellowship with Czech believers.

So we decided that we would partner together in running an English camp that coming summer. It would be in the mountains at a hotel and we would plan to teach several levels of conversational English as well as plan sports and games. The evening meetings would be where we would sing Christian songs and then teach on different topics with an evangelistic purpose. Since it was the first time for both the Ostrava church and our church, it was looking to be a very interesting experience. Since both churches started around the same time in 1999, we figured that our churches were pretty much at the same stage of development so we would be able to grow together in this way.

The summer of 2000 provided the most incredible opportunity for our young church as a team of fifteen went to the Czech Republic for the first of what would turn out to be thirteen teams in seventeen years. We were introduced to a side of the Mellwig family that we would come to cherish, as they were not quite the stereotypical stoic German folks that we thought, but were quite funny and willing to pretty much do anything for the sake of ministry. The hotel was terrible, the service was horrible, but our time was memorable and we had numerous opportunities to share the gospel, build relationships, and truly enjoy a wonderful time partnering with the church in Ostrava.

In the years that followed, we were blessed by God to see a long-term relationship develop where the bond of the Holy Spirit was clearly seen as we grew in unity and like-mindedness in ministry. The dream of finding a long-term partnership came true and to this day we are blessed by the relationships that started back in 2000. The Mellwig family are some of the closest friends our family has, and they truly have become like family over the years as we stayed with them and they have come to visit us. The Mellwigs recently planted a new church in the city of Beroun in 2013, and we are now partnering with them there as they do the work of gospel ministry in that region.

Argentina

In 2004 I was given the opportunity to partner with some pastor friends at a conference in Argentina. Since I was the junior delegate in the party, I gave a couple of seminars but for the most part had the chance to observe and engage with the people I met. It was truly an enjoyable time as I was introduced to pastors from all over the country. One individual that was particularly interesting was a gentleman by the name of Eduardo Buldain. He was involved with a church-planting ministry that partnered with folks from the Word of Life Institute that was located just outside of Buenos Aires. After the conference I had a chance to talk with him about the opportunity to find another partner church where we could send short-term summer teams like we already were doing in the Czech Republic.

That was when we were introduced to Jorge Ahualle. It was quite a memorable trip in that Mike Chon (a fellow elder at Lighthouse San Diego and now at Lighthouse LA) and I went on a scouting trip to get to know the pastor and the church. Little did we know what an adventure it would be. We flew into Buenos Aires the spring of 2005 and upon arriving, we were met by Eduardo Buldain who informed me that I was to be speaking that evening as well as several times that weekend. I had not been told that I was preaching, and in an effort to travel light, I had not brought my laptop with me either. I thought he was kidding…he was not. We had another flight to take from Buenos Aires to Tucuman, which was the city where Pastor Jorge and the church were. They had planned a whole weekend of events including four preaching times. So I preached three times and Mike preached once. I recall in seminary that they had told us to always be ready to preach, and so I had memorized three sermons years earlier in case I ever needed them. That weekend I preached all three : one on the MVP of Lighthouse, another on the Peacemaker Pledge, and the last on the hand illustration from Fundamentals of the Faith regarding how to take in the Scriptures – hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating.

Pastor Jorge, his wife Norma, and son Josue welcomed us and we soon were embraced by the whole church. They showered us with love and food – this was the first time we had the famous empanadas (even in Argentina, Tucuman is known to make the best empanadas). We enjoyed Argentine beef and other meals with the church members, and I remember it was a joyous time as the people were very expressive and excited to see us. It was the first time that I was introduced to the Argentine custom of kissing each other on the cheek, and it was a pretty strange experience to have both men and women come at you and kiss you on the cheek. We also tried maté, the Argentine tea which would be passed around and shared from the same cup and metal straw. It was quite a contrast to our experiences in the Czech Republic, but at the same time it was such a blessing to know that we could be united in Christ even though we were from different cultures and spoke different languages.

The plan was for Lighthouse to send a team during the summer (which was their winter). They did street evangelism and they would go door to door and share the gospel as well as host events in the community where they would invite everyone to come and hear some presentations. We quickly realized as we set things up that there were challenges our work in the Czech Republic had not prepared us for.  Despite some initial issues (differences in doctrine, philosophy of ministry, and learning to work with translators), we were able to establish a very good relationship with the church in Tucuman and the first summer trip took place. While things were a bit crazy at times, the opportunity to partner with another young church provided great blessings in the coming years.

Conclusion

So that’s the story of how it happened. From our early desire to partner with like-minded churches around the world, the Lord providentially led us to two very different places: the Czech Republic and Argentina. And while our church has grown tremendously in terms of resources and manpower compared to those early days, one thing that has not changed is our longing to see all the LBC churches have a heart for the world that manifests as support for the local church…wherever that might happen to take us.