August
August 2015 2015 Newsletter
Vol.1 Issue 4
HILL CITY
NEWS
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Letter from the Editor P.2 Welcome to Hill City P.3 Get to Know Hill City P.4 Reset Revival............P.5 Women’s Retreat.......P.6
Revival
Letter from the
Editor
Hi Hill City! I hope that ya’ll are getting excited about next week’s “Reset Revival,” if you aren’t excited now, after you read this letter you will be. For next week’s revival there’s going to be tons and tons of good information that you won’t want to miss. Matter of fact, you probably should bring a couple of your friends and coworkers out to the revival. I’m sure that you don’t want your friends or coworkers to miss out on this revival. I’m also real excited that Pastor Jon Choi will be speaking for the revival. The topics that Pastor Jon will cover for the revival has me seating on the edge of my seat. On Friday, Pastor Jon will talk about having a heart that truly worships God. I know for my own experience having a heart that truly worships God is something that has been pressing on my heart for years. I have to be brutally honest, truly worshiping God is something that I’ve frequently struggle with on a daily bases. I don’t know about you, but I get so caught up and obsessed with Facebook, Youtube and all the hype that social media pushes at me daily that I find it hard to focus on God. Although I say that I want to truly P.2
worship God daily and know him better, my actions sometimes don’t line up with my words. I’m glad that Pastor Jon will be touching on the topic “A Heart Worship”. The revival will continue on Saturday with the discussion on “ How to read the Bible effectively”. I’ve been wanting to learn how to study and read my Bible, so that my relationship with God can be richer and deeper. I try and read my Bible on a daily bases, and sometimes during my devotionals/ quite times with the Lord, I feel overwhelmed and confused. In those moments of my confusion, I just pray and ask God to help me understand his word. I’m sure happy that Pastor Jon will touch on the topic of reading my Bible effectively. I hope that you all are planning to come out to the “ Reset Revival”, and make sure that you bring a friend with you! See you all soon, Nikeya
Welcome to Hill City Solomon Kang
Hill City wants to extend a warm welcome to Solomon Kang, we’re so happy to have you here. Solomon isn’t a total stranger to Hill City Church, he use to attend the ministry eight years ago when it was called the English Ministry of Korean First Baptist Church. Now eight years later, the English Ministry of Korean First Baptist Church has changed its name to Hill City Church.
City Church community; he is currently serving with Hill City News (HCN). “ I’m hoping to get more involved in other ministries, where there is a need,” Kang said. When he’s not serving at HCN, Solomon enjoys jamming out on his bass guitar and listening to hip-hop, jazz, blues, and funk music.
“I’m really liking my experience [here] at [Hill City Church], but more importantly I truly believe that I’m called to be a part of this church,” Kang said. “ I really love the people here. [I believe] that church is not a building, but a community of believers. I really feel at home with [the Hill City Church] community.” Solomon didn’t waste time in finding a place to serve in the Hill
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Get to Know Hill City Hill City, what are your top 3 Bucket list things to do? Daniel Kim
Photo By: Nikeya Williams
Grow closer to God Go to Korea and Israel Read the whole bible in a year
Kyuyon Yo Travel to Southeast Asia Go scuba diving Have kids
Jehee Cho Get married Go across the entire Great Wall of China Climb Mt. Everest
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Photo By: Nikeya Williams
Photo By: Sophan Theam
v e R
l a iv By: Nikeya Williams HCN Editor
Hill City Gears up for Reset Revival
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his coming weekend, Hill City Church will host the fall revival “ Reset ” with guest speaker Jon Choi. The revival is schedule to start on Friday, August 28 at 7:30 p.m.- Saturday, August 29 at 10:00 a.m. at Hill City Church. The revival will start on Friday night with the Choi speaking about having a heart that truly worships God. “ The devil tempts believers to worship various idols,” Choi said. “ We must be on guard and focus on God and worship Him alone.” On Saturday, the revival will continue with the seminar class on how to read the Bible effectively; moreover, this seminar will include handouts and exercises on how to read the Bible and why we use so many translations when reading the Bible. The inspiration for the revival topics came from Choi’s passion to speak on what it means to worship God in spirit and truth. “ We’re facing so many temptations to worship various idols in life (success, education, love of money, etc.),” Choi said. “ God is actively searching for true worshipers (John 4:23).”
Choi truly hopes that the revival will help Hill City learn how to truly worship God and touch the heart of God, and fall in love with God’s word. For more information about the “ Reset Revival,” please contact Pastor Han Oh at: pastorhanoh@ gmail.com
Hill City’s lead pastor Han Oh hopes that each person that attends the revival will have a renewed sense of purpose to start the new academic school year and work. “ I think of the revival as a new way to start fresh,” Oh said. “ I think that the fall is a [perfect season] to have a revival, it helps people refocus on the [important things].” P.5
Women’s Retreat
Photo By: Melissa Choe
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I am....beautiful, loved, daugther of God! By: Hana Kim HCN Feature Writer
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ften times, society creates an ideal image that each individual “should be” striving for. However, on Friday, August 6th – Saturday, August 7th, the Hill City Women’s Ministry attended their first “Women’s Retreat”. Rain or shine, or even some minor difficulties did not stop these women to strive for closeness with God and with each other. The theme “Unmasked” targeted on how often we, as a society, tend to align ourselves with these rules and regulations that will ultimately define who we are. But those couple of days spent in that house reminded me of how beautiful we all are because of the simple fact that we are all God’s children. From preparing meals together, singing praises and praying, I felt that I grew so much closer to God. Something that really spoke to me during Saturday evening was the sermon by Melissa Choe. We looked into the story of the Samaritan Woman in John 4:1-18. Here there were a few points that was brought to our attention from this well-known story. By placing myself in the shoes of the Samaritan Woman, figuratively of course, it was brought to the attention of the other women and myself of how often we act like the Samaritan woman. How often have we or even I talked back to God when He was trying to speak to us/me? As hard as it is to accept at times, the living water will quench our thirst for our search of making ourselves significant and secure. This living water, written in John 4:1-18, is Jesus Christ. I am not sure about anyone else, but I know that I think it’s easier to just hide away all the nasty parts of my life from the eyes of God or from close sisters/brothers in Christ. Although Christ might not always point out our lies to ourselves, I
am sure that He will use others in our own lives to make us realize that there’s no point in hiding. By accepting our flaws and human mistakes, Christ is giving us an opportunity to be “real and free”. I know that God will love us regardless how much we fight and struggle, but is it not better for us to give ourselves to our loving Father so can feel freedom? And an important question that was asked was “If I’m not right with people, then how are we right with God?” By “unmasking” myself I know that God makes no mistakes. Having my sisters in Christ by my side for that weekend opened my eyes to God’s perfect creation – us.
Photos By: Jasmin Kim
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e m co
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F C H k
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By: Solomon Kang HCN Columnist
Welcome! I hope you’re all excited about the new semester coming up! I just wanted to share a few tips for those of you who are about to kick off the school year, either as an incoming freshman or returning student. These are all life skills you will have to learn eventually, but it pays to learn them from someone else’s mistakes (like me) instead of your own.
were right, I would have no excuses about not having enough time to study for all my exams. Even if the professors for different classes happened to schedule exams back to back, I should have been keeping up in the lectures and reading on my own to not get so far behind. It was by God’s mercy and grace that I got through college!
1. Money Management: When I was a brand new freshman, I would get a Starbucks coffee whenever I felt like it and go out to dinner with my friends every chance I’d get. I was working part-time to help pay for expenses so I didn’t think anything of it when spending that money, but I ended up wasting all of my income on unnecessary things without even realizing it. When the time came to pay the bills, I always found myself asking my parents for more money than they had originally agreed to give me. It’s important to sit down and figure out exactly how much money you need to pay all the absolutely necessary expenses like housing, utilities, car insurance, gas, and groceries (not eating out). Then you will have to exercise some self-control and monitor your spending to make sure you don’t exceed your budget with the non-essential expenses (the fun things). Easier said than done, right?
3. Surround Yourself with the Right People: When choosing the people who you should spend most of your time with, make sure they are people who will help you in the right direction. The best people to surround yourself with are those who love you for who you are, but aren’t afraid to tell you the truth (in love) even if it’s not what you want to hear at the moment. When I was a sophomore, I had to make a really tough decision to stop hanging out with my closest circle of friends because I knew they would tempt me to do worldly things with them. This doesn’t mean I stopped being their friends, but I just had to make sure I removed myself from situations where I was tempted to stray from the Lord. I began spending most of my time with friends from the church that I was involved with at the time. People tend to influence us more than we like to think. That’s why the scripture says “what fellowship does light have with darkness?” I hope you can use these lessons that I learned in college to avoid making the same mistakes. Don’t be like me, be better than me. It will pay off in the end.
2. Time Management: You always hear people say “I don’t have enough time for ____.” I know I have many times. Well if I’m brutally honest with myself, most of the times I’ve said or thought that it actually was not necessarily true. It was just an excuse to get out of something. If I really valued and cared about that thing, I would MAKE time for it. For example, I will use my studying habits (or lack there of) as an illustration of this point. I had a bad habit of procrastinating until the night before the exams to study. Sometimes, it was so bad that I didn’t even understand the material that was taught throughout the whole semester until the night before the final exam. If my priorities
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Profiles: Hana Kim By: Sophan Theam HCN Contributing Writer
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aving a knack for international politics and immigration law studies, Hana Crystal Kim brings her fun, energetic, and lively personality to Hill City Church. Hana enjoys reading the book of Psalms in the Bible, and she liked reading the “Hunger Games” book when it first came out. While attending college at the University of South Florida (USF) Hana started attending Hill City Church in Spring 2013, but her personal relationship with Christ started years before she attended Hill City. It was the second time when she visited Lake Yale for the youth retreat when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to step forward and accept Christ into their heart, and Hana walked up. Although she was scared to step forward, Hana felt a comfort and relief when she accepted Christ into her heart. Since that moment, Hana has experienced God’s love daily. As an international studies
major at USF, Hana relishes in being apart of Alpha Kappa Phi International Sorority. When she’s not studying hard and attending meets for Alpha Kappa Phi International, Hana can be found singing, dancing, playing computer games and hopping on the next airplane to travel the world. In the next five years, Hana hopes to be in law school.
If you are interested in doing a profile for the next issue if HCN, please contact Sophan Theam at sophan.t@gmail.com.
Thank You for Serving!!! Hill City wants to “Thank” Jehee Cho for his years of service, dedication, and love to Hill City Church. A week ago, our dear brother Jehee Cho moved to Orlando, FL, to continue his education and ministry. During his time at Hill City, Jehee served on Hill City Fellowship (HCF) leadership team and he led praise & worship every Sunday for Hill City Church.
Thanks again Jehee for seriving at Hill City Church, we will continue praying for you. Jeremiah 29:11 “ I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord. They are plans for peace and not disaster, plans to give you a future filled with hope.”
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Hill City News Staff Thanks for reading this issue of Hill City News! We hope that you were blessed by our stories, photos, and updates on Hill City Church.
For more information on how you can join Hill City News, please contact Nikeya Williams at nikeyaw07@gmail.com.
Things to Remember in August.... *Reset Revival August 28-29. *TOM Prayer Meeting @ 7pm Every Wednesday Night! *Small Group meeting weekly, please contact small group leaders for meeting times. *If you ever need a ride to church, please contact David Yang at dkyang258@gmail.com.