Daniel Im

Pastor + Author

destiny

Haiti and God

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By now, most of you know what happened in Haiti this past week – a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake just west of the capital, Port au Prince. The International Red Cross estimates about 3 million people have been affected by the earthquake, while approximately 200,000 people might have died as a result of the event.

After this happened, the infamous televangelist Pat Robertson said straight out that this earthquake happened because of the pact that the Haitians made with the Devil:

“Something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. [The Haitians were originally] under the heel of the French. You know, Napoleon the third, or whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay it’s a deal. Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other.”

Now those are some powerful words for someone who isn’t God. [Read more…] about Haiti and God

Discovering Myself and My Calling Through Writing

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I recently began to write for a monthly devotional publication – Living Life: A Journal of Spiritual Formation & Reflection (It is published by Duranno and the English version is translated into Spanish and Russian), and guess what I’ve discovered about myself? I love writing. I even consider writing to be a potential strength for me as well – albeit I do still need to improve many aspects of this skill.

In Marcus Buckingham’s Go Put Your Strengths to Work, he considers there to be four S.I.G.N.’s of a strength.

  • S uccess
  • I nstinct: How you feel before the activity
  • G rowth: How you feel during the activity
  • N eeds: How you feel after the activity

Based on these SIGN’s, I can deduce that writing seems to be a strength of mine.

  • S uccess: When I write assignments, I typically receive A’s.
  • I nstinct: When I even think about writing or having the opportunity to write, I get really excited.
  • G rowth: As I write, I can easily concentrate and get into the zone. Even if I am interrupted, I can easily begin writing again.
  • N eeds: Afterwards, I feel such a sense of accomplishment and joy.

But it wasn’t always like that…I didn’t always like writing.

Here’s my story… [Read more…] about Discovering Myself and My Calling Through Writing

Ministry and Life Transitions

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3 days remain.

I only have 3 more days in Canada.

There are only 3 more days until my wife and I begin our new life in Seoul, Korea.

How did it get this way? How did we end up leaving our ministry and our life in Montreal to move to the other side of the world?  How were we so sure that this is where God was calling us? How did we know that this was God’s will for our lives?

[Read more…] about Ministry and Life Transitions

our calling in life…

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“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader.”

These are the words of Crawford Loritts that have encouraged me today.  In a sermon entitled The Call to Courage from the 2008 Desiring God Pastor’s Conference, Loritts digs out an amazing insight from Joshua 1:1-9 regarding the calling that God has given us and how God uses it to sanctify us.

Here it is:

“Every assignment that God gives His people is His primary means of sanctifying His leader…some of us are getting burnt out because we are separating the sanctification process from our ministry. I understand boundaries, rest, variety in life, etc…

…but the very thing that God is using to draw you to Himself is the calling that He has given you.”

Wow.

The primary calling that God has given me is to love God and love others.  More specifically, he is calling me to do that through pastoral ministry.  Getting even more specific, God has given me a desire to minister to those who are intercultural (those people who are attempting to balance their different cultural backgrounds and upbringings).  And to really hone in on exactly what God is calling me to do – he has given me a calling to minister to 2nd generation Asians (those born and raised in a country that their parents immigrated to) and to those who minister to 2nd gen Asians.

Perhaps that is why I am so energized and have such a renewed sense of calling upon coming back from ministering to 2nd gens in Korea?

conversations with the homeless (radio appearance)

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This upcoming Friday July 18th, I’ll be appearing on the radio, CKUT 90.3 FM at 8:30 am. You could also listen from the internet by clicking here.

I’ve been asked to appear on a radio show with Jeffrey Mackie to comment on an event we did a month ago with our youth ministry – Conversations with the Homeless.

We did the event for a couple of reasons.

Did you know that there are approximately 2100 verses on the poor and the oppressed in the Bible? That definitely says something in itself. Did you also know that in one of Jesus’ first sermons, he proclaimed that he was not only called to share the good news to the poor, but to also act and set them free from their oppression? (Luke 4)

As a result, I know that all of us have had contact with the homeless. My question to you is: What was your response? Did you ignore them? Did you give them something? Did you demean them? etc.

The easiest “charitable” thing to do for individuals who are homeless is to give them food, right? Well, instead of merely meeting their physical need, and feeling good about our “charitable” work, we thought we would take the next step and do something different – something that many people refuse to do and in many ways, something that is actually more difficult. We decided to give them our time. In other words, conversation.

I hope you can tune in and hear the interview.