It was a wonderful time in the Sierras, spending the past 3 days with 3 pastors who are older & wiser than me in many ways: Pastor Ed Kang (Gracepoint Fellowship Church), Pastor Chris Pak (Bridgeway Church of Silicon Valley), and Pastor Don Kim (New Community Baptist Church). We thoroughly enjoyed eating lots of good food (which my wife packed all nicely for us — thank you!), talking about life & ministry, singing old songs, and enjoying the beauty of the snow & trees all around us at the Sierra Lodge. We even hiked up the big hill all the way to the train tracks!
Man, I am blessed to have spiritual mentors such as these men of faith who are diligently and faithfully serving in ministry near me. Pastor Ed continues to guide me (these past 20 years and still going strong!) and simply put, he’s my pastor; he tells me the hard truth, points me to Jesus, and is there when I need to be ministered to. Believe it or not, Pastor Chris was my first campus ministry director when I first served under him as a staff intern at Berkeley back in 1989; that was when I made many mistakes and realized that God’s grace is what we all desperately need. Pastor Don, the oldest of the three, was ordained into full-time ministry exactly 20 years ago; and so this pastors retreat turned out to be an informal 20th anniversary of sorts. Just being with them brought back many memories, too many to write on this weblog…
Last night, we picked up the guitar and sang the good old praise songs of yesteryears. Suddenly, I was transported back a full generation when the only musical instrument we had at church was a guitar (but we sure made up for it with passion!). The four of us sang songs like, “Share a little bit of your love, my friend,” “It only takes a spark to get a fire going,” and “I just keep trusting my Lord, as I walk along.” Yup, these tunes were before iTunes for sure!
(BTW, in case you were getting worried…No, we did NOT sing “Kumbaya” — that would have required a campfire, and besides, we didn’t want to hold hands.) 
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