The day God spoke in a cafeteria

We all model our lives on stories we’ve heard and the people who exist in those stories. There are, of course, the biblical accounts of God’s people and Jesus. But there are also stories closer to home. The stories of our parents, grandparents, or people we hear about often make a profound impact on who we are and what we work at becoming.

This series looks at some of those stories as told by people within our Canadian Mennonite Brethren church family.

God speaks to us in many different ways. For Grace Kim it was through a conversation she overheard in a cafeteria. It changed her whole life and directed her into full-time pastoral ministry.

Grace was born in a Christian home and raised in Seoul, Korea. She grew up attending a Presbyterian church.

As she was about to enter university, Grace found herself at a crossroads. When Korean students go to university, they register for a specific program of study and must choose a major before beginning. Grace was thinking about a major, but was uncertain where God wanted her.

Grace Kim

In Korea, there are small Christian retreat centres called “prayer mountains” where people spend two or three days praying to God and asking for guidance. Grace set off, together with her sister, to a prayer mountain to seek direction for her university studies.

During the second day of this quiet retreat, she and her sister were eating in the cafeteria when Grace overheard a conversation at a nearby table. A group of ladies was discussing the need for missionaries in China. The conversation spoke to Grace. Sharing the gospel with Chinese people was what God wanted her to do. She knew it.

Later, she asked her sister about the conversation. Her sister hadn’t heard a thing, and couldn’t even recall such an exchange.

But for Grace, the call was clear. Much like Isaiah in chapter 6:8, “I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here I am. Send me!’ ”

But there was one problem. There was no way a Korean could get into China at that time. What was she to do?

Grace prayed and asked God if it was really a word from him. If it was, she would obey the call. Immediately peace came into her heart and swept through her body. She knew the conversation she had overheard was from God.

She entered university majoring in Chinese language studies, still uncertain as to where she would be going but knowing with confidence this was what God wanted for her.

Over the next years she graduated with her degree in Chinese, then attended and graduated from the China Evangelical Seminary in Taipei, Taiwan. She served in a Chinese church in Seoul and became involved with other ministries. Eventually Grace took a sabbatical year at Regent College in Vancouver, which led to the opportunity to serve as Mandarin pastor at Pacific Grace MB Church. She’s been there for the past two and a half years.

Grace never found out who the ladies were at that table in the cafeteria. But she knows she heard God’s voice that day. And now she’s in exactly the right place.

Ken Reddig is director of the Centre for MB Studies, Winnipeg.