QTin September 2023 Trusting, Dwelling, Rejoicing in the Word of God

By QTM

Publisher's Notes

Table of Contents

QT Guide | How to Use QTin

I Love QTin | Kyungdoo Lee, Doyoung Kim, and Eunsil Kim

Library of Beatitude | Joy Found in SufferingThink Movie | We, Who Are Not in the Spotlight

August Reading Guide | Proverbs, Romans, 2 Thessalonians, Joel

August Calendar

August Scriptur

• Language: English
• Publisher: QTM
• Release date: Aug 14, 2023
• ISBN: 9791192205533

Book preview

Publisher's Notes

God Counts Us

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The original Hebrew meaning of the name for the Book of Numbers is in the wilderness. But I think the title Numbers is fitting because God counts us during our times in the desert. People love numbers. That’s why God counts us with numbers.

The Book of Numbers contains the first and second censuses (chapters 1 and 26). Between these two censuses, the first generation of Israelites that came out of Egypt perished after wandering 40 years in the desert because they complained against God. Still, the second census shows only 1,820 fewer people than the first. We think we would not be left with anything if God punishes us for our sins, but when we return to keeping His orders, God chooses and protects us and recovers our losses.

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron (Numbers 4:1)

When God wants to say something important, the verse starts with the LORD said to Moses and Aaron. Even though each tribe has a lay leader who has great power, God appoints ministers and speaks to them.

I have served the churches as a lay member and minister. I realize that the level of responsibility I feel after becoming an ordained minister is incomparable to the one of a lay church member. A church member may do his assigned role, live his own life, and rest when he wants to. But a minister always has to be in the temple. A minister thinks of the church 24/7 and cares for and prays for the members. There is no break time. That is why, no matter how competent the church members are, they need a pastor. The pastor can be their shelter.

Take a census of the Kohathite branch of the Levites by their clans and families. (Numbers 4:2)

When choosing leadership in the church, it is important to consider ‘clans and families.’ Many competent people come to church alone. But it is easier to give positions in the church to those whose spouses also come to church. When a married couple comes to church together, there is a higher possibility that their family is healthy and they are more capable of serving in the church. Those who come to church alone sometimes cannot accept positions in the church even though they are competent because their non-Christian spouses or family members do not cooperate.

I had read the Bible many times and done QTs since I met God at the age of 30, but the church didn’t give me a position. I didn’t have a close friend group even though I had served in the church for a long time. However, I have been closely communicating with God through QTs and witnessed the fruits of salvation and family restoration through what I have done, so this didn’t bother me.

Don’t feel discouraged because your husband does not come to church or you don’t have a position. Having a position or not, all we need to do is to work for the salvation of souls in the clan and family God has placed us in. When we do this, God will count and bless us with spiritual fruits instead of a position.

Count all the men from thirty to fifty years of age who come to serve in work at the tent of meeting. (Numbers 4:3)

God tells Moses to count the number of men aged thirty to fifty who can work in the tent of the meeting. Among the Levites, God counts the men who can dedicate their most productive time in life to God. The men aged twenty or more from other tribes could join the army, but the Levites should lead the army in spiritual warfare, so they needed to be trained for ten more years. Also, they retired at fifty, ten years earlier than other clans.

I met God in my thirties and started QTs. God opened my lips after my husband’s death and told me to spread the gospel. I spent my thirties and forties evangelizing, training, and leading QT groups, and my fifties and sixties as the pastor of a church. A widow like me is listed as one of the most miserable people in the Bible, but God has allowed me to dedicate my prime years to His ministry, and I am incredibly grateful for that.

How have you lived, or how are you living your thirties to fifties, the most productive years of your life? Are you thinking, ‘I will serve the church after my kids get married, I earn some money, and have enough for retirement’? If you dedicate your prime years to God, God will take care of your retirement years and your life after death.

Dear QTin readers, I hope you and your family be counted into the family of God and serve as the dedicated workers whom our Heavenly Father blesses.

Out of fear and trembling to achieve salvation,

Chief Director, QTM

Rev. Kim, Yangjae

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Q. Jambo! (Hello) Please introduce yourselves to our readers.

Young-am Kim Hello, I am Missionary Young-am Kim. I went to church for the first time when I was in seventh grade. I listened to the church’s advice and read the entire Bible. Since then, I valued God’s Word greatly. When I became a young adult, I met my wife who also went to church, and we got married and had three kids.

When I was 38, I took my family on a self-funded missionary trip to Dar es Salaam (the old capital of Tanzania). At first, we suffered from diseases and money problems, and my wife and I fought a lot. That was when God showed me my stubbornness and sins through the Word, and I realized, ‘I can’t be a missionary through my own strength.’

I decided to let go of my will and asked God to lead us through the Word. God led us to Zanzibar, which had a Muslim population of over 95%. After five years, we returned to Korea and were invited to a QT group. During our four months in Korea, my wife and I attended this QT group and repented our sins and mistakes in the missionary field. We continued to do QT every day, even after returning to the missionary field.

Pil-soon Yoon My name is Pil-soon Yoon. I am the wife of Missionary Young-am Kim. I was born and raised in a poor, non-Christian family. I went to the church near my childhood home by myself. When I was seven, I received Jesus as my Savior after receiving a prayer at my church. Since then, my father started to persecute me for my faith. My wish was to leave home and be free to worship God.

I met my husband, and we started a family based on our Christian values. I have been working as a missionary with my husband in Africa for 25 years, but my side of the family still doesn’t believe in God, so I pray for them every day. I was encouraged when I was told that God will achieve salvation in my family when I selflessly serve for other people’s salvation.

My sin is that I easily judge other people based on my own standards and I seek credit for the good things I do. People are not at ease around me, so I ask God through QT and prayer to make me a person that people feel comfortable around like the air they breathe.

Q. When did you dedicate yourselves as missionaries? What is your mission in Tanzania?

Young-am Kim In 1998, my wife and I meditated on the verse, Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20). Through this passage, we decided to dedicate our lives to Jesus as missionaries instead of seeking worldly success and a comfortable life for ourselves. Our whole family went to Tanzania without any preparations or training.

We started out by serving for ten years at a College of Information and Technology preaching the gospel at the school dormitory each Saturday. In 2003, we started an NGO called Africa Agape Association. Based on my wife’s experience teaching kindergarten run by the staff house of the college, we started teaching kindergarten, elementary, and middle school students in our school and we are currently preparing a high school curriculum.

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Pil-soon Yoon Many people told my husband to become a missionary because of all the experiences he had in serving in a missionary group. I disapproved, thinking, We can preach the gospel in Korea with the gifts God has given us. Why do we have to go to another country and become missionaries? Ten years later, when our children were in kindergarten and elementary school, God called us to become missionaries as missionaries through a sermon on Galatians, and my husband and I dedicated ourselves to becoming missionaries in Africa in 1998.

After receiving a certificate for teaching at a school for education in Tanzania, I have been serving at Eden School for the past 12 years. I didn’t study seminary, so I don’t know theology, but I am sharing what I learned through QT with the students and teachers.

Q. How have you been using the English QTin series? What benefits and changes has it brought to your students?

Young-am Kim Our students in Eden School are learning Scripture through the English version of the QTin series. Children between fourth and sixth grade read QTin Kids and middle school students read QTin Teens. Every morning for 15 minutes, the students meditate on QTin with the teachers’ guidance. This is when the whole school is silent. Then the students gather in a QT classroom and share with me and my wife what they have meditated on. We do QT with our students for a total of 45 minutes each day.

To our students, the QTin series is like morning dew sprinkled on the grass each day. Like many other children in Africa, our students come from poor backgrounds, so they want many things. But thanks to QT, they don’t complain about their circumstances. The Word leads them in setting their life’s goals and teaches them why they need to study.

We hold a QTin festival at the end of every semester. I want to share some of the testimonies our students gave during this event.

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Q. What was the biggest hardship you experienced as a missionary? What is the Bible verse that got you through your ministry in Eden School?

Young-am Kim There was a time when we couldn’t get registered as a school by the Ministry of education, because some Muslim parents reported that we were teaching the Bible. Also, the government made it hard for me and my wife to get visas. However, these obstacles led us to seek encouragement and comfort through God’s Word.

Through the Bible passages I meditated on with QTin, God gave me courage, the strength to endure my sufferings, and the patience to go through each day when I need to wait quietly. People and circumstances change, but God’s Word does not change. That was why I could go through many sufferings by following His Word.

Pil-soon Yoon The people in Zanzibar Island, where we do missionary work, are Muslim. The government authorities are all Muslim, so schools need to teach Islam and other religions are not allowed. Even though our school strictly followed administrative guidelines and the proficiency level of our students is quite high, the educational authorities supervised and controlled our school just because we taught the Bible. There were two incidents when our students couldn’t come to school because the authorities canceled our school registration.

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During these times, God told me through QT that the chief manager of the ministry of education had a hardened heart like Pharaoh, and that he too is a person whose soul needs to be saved (Exodus 4). I repented and prayed to God to help me love the chief manager like God loves him.

Since we won our case in court, all Muslim parents of our students have agreed to their children learning the Bible. When I meet the parents that trust our school enough to let us teach their children the Bible, I pray that God blesses the people of Zanzibar.

Q. At the LORD’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped. As long as the cloud stayed over the tabernacle, they remained in camp (Numbers 9:18). During your journey in the missionary field, when do you need to set out and when do you need to stay as the Israelites had done?

Young-am Kim As the students of Eden School learned about what the Bible says, they started to behave well and focus on their studies. They get high scores on the annual national academic achievement tests. This reputation is drawing more children to our school, despite the fact that we are a Christian school. But when the education ministry imposed regulations on us due to our religion, some students were persuaded to leave our school and the number of enrollment fell again. We face financial challenges because we have fewer students than other schools.

When there is oppression from the Muslim community, however, we think of it as a time when God is ordering us to stay at our camp like He did to the Israelites and lift our thanks up to God. Because we have fewer students than other schools, we can be more attentive to our students’ needs and can lead them with the Word like the cloud that stayed over the Tabernacle.

God tells us to set out without hesitance when we teach our students the Word. He tells us to train the students with the Word, do QT with them, and apply the Word to our lives no matter what obstacles we face.

Pil-soon Yoon God tells me to set out when I fear another opposition by the Muslim community and am hesitant to spread the gospel. I am helping missionaries adapt to the missionary field, and I try not to complain about this work by doing QT every day. It isn’t easy to come up with