Dear Friends,
On September 29 (Wed), I am leaving Seattle for Rwanda. My heart leaps for joy as I look forward to meeting with the pastors of Gisenyi, Rwanda after this 23-hour trip. Gisenyi is a beautiful area in northwest Rwanda (on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo) which features Lake Kivu. We have invited fifty pastors serving in Gisenyi, the second largest city of Rwanda and 1/4 of these pastors are women. We will pray and study the Bible together for a week (Oct. 4-8) as we dream together of evangelizing Rwanda through
building strong churches in Gisenyi.
Would you pray for this event as follows:
• That the conference will proceed smoothly and the participating pastors will be protected.
• That the Lord will renew these pastors’ vision for evangelism and discipleship.
• That each participating pastor will share what they will have learned with three other church leaders after the conference.
• That spiritual revival will come to the churches/pastors of Gisenyi as a result of our endeavor.
• That the Lord will give me traveling mercies and that He will strengthen me and my partner during the conference (Standing next to Kay is Pastor Augustine Butera, my partner and translator this ministry).
I initially planned to hold an evangelist conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Oct. 11-15. Various circumstances have arisen that required me to postpone the Ethiopian ministry. Thankfully, the Lord connected me to Next Generation Alliance of Luis Palau. We will work together to hold an evangelist conference in Addis Ababa during the third week of January 2011.
Please pray that we will make it happen to encourage and support these evangelists by providing a training conference. Amidst financial hardships and possible threat from both Orthodox churches and a growing Muslim population, these evangelists have served the Lord by sowing the seed of the gospel faithfully. We are so eager to see the kingdom of God firmly established in Ethiopia.
During September I taught “Introduction to the Pentateuch” and “Strategies for Church Growth” at Faith Evangelical Seminary. “Introduction of the Pentateuch” course was wrapped up after eight hours of instruction yesterday and “Strategies for Church Growth” course was taught through an intensive week of modular class format. People often think that in a Church Growth class students learn how to grow churches in numbers only through an employment of secular business principles. This, however, would be “church fattening.” Church growth is a discipline in which students learn how to grow healthy churches through evangelism and discipleship. I would like to share with you a post-class email of a student (a pastor in his mid-fifties): “Dr. Chung, my heart goes out to you and I thank God for the magnificent class we had last week. It truly opened my eyes to Evangelism and Discipleship. I have never had anyone to teach me as you have done last week. I will with the help of God put what I have learned to use. I just pray that Faith Seminary will offer more classes with you teaching like this, a continuation of Church Growth principles. It is needed. I will attend if it was offered.”
Every time I read this type of feedback from a student, I am thrilled as a professor. I feel so indebted to Faith Evangelical Seminary as the school administration granted an Old Testament professor like me the privilege of teaching a practical ministry class. Evangelism and discipleship are my focus and passion. I have always dreamed of developing my students not only as skillful exegetes of the Bible but also as top leaders who are capable of growing healthy churches through evangelism and discipleship. As good pastors produce good churches, good professors produce good pastors. Would pray that the Lord will constantly develop me as good professor who excels in the areas of research and teaching by setting an example for my students to follow?
Last Sunday I spoke at the chapel service of the state prison at McNeil Island. With 134 years of history, the McNeil State Prison is one of the few remaining island prisons in the United States. Seeing the inmates approach God’s throne through praise and worship and respond to God’s word with deep emotion, I saw how true the Apostle Paul’s admonition is even inside a prison, “The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17). After the service was over, one of the inmates held my hand and said that he wanted to come to visit me some time in the near future as he was to be released from the prison on Friday (September 24). I would love to visit with him too. Click on the following link for more information about this prison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOh3GeAUohQ
After returning from Rwanda I must tackle my Doctor of Ministry dissertation. Would you please pray for wisdom and focus as I write and study in the midst of my other family, work, and ministry responsibilities?
Thank you for praying for my mom. Her health has phenomenally improved during the past two months as a result of God’s answer to prayer and His provision of a daily caregiver for her. We are also grateful that my dad is relatively healthy and can still drive.
Grace is now in 5th grade, her last year of elementary school. Please pray for her continued academic and social progress as we trust God for her future but do our best as parents to provide her with the best opportunities to grow and develop. We continually ask God to help Grace thrive in every area, in spite of her autism. Kay and Grace will visit family and friends in Louisiana and Arkansas while David is in Rwanda.
As always, we thank you very much for your prayers and support. You can obtain more information about our ministry at http://www.david-chung.net. 
We always love to hear from you as well.
May you be blessed in Him,
David Chung