TroyHope Ministry

Pastoral Column | DeC 2024

I can’t believe I am going into my ninth month here at TroyHope Ministry. Time has flown by so fast that I feel like I’m missing something.

Although many things have happened and are still taking place like our men’s Monday night Bible study, Wednesday Growing Strong in God’s Family Bible study, Saturday morning prayer, THM Golf Tournament, church picnic, family retreat, Mongolia Mission, college campus visits and House Church Ministry, there are other things that flourished.

Our College and Singles ministry is thriving, and our women’s ministry had their soft opening. Our Sunday worship attendance has grown, and we are seeing a steady stream of newcomers each week.

This year, TroyHope Ministry will have a Christmas Concert on December 22 filled with music and carols. But this could not have happened without you. I truly thank God for allowing me to be your pastor and I can’t wait for our Christmas Eve and Watch Night Service to bring in the New Year for us.

Earlier I mentioned that I felt like something was missing and the obvious is my family. By the time you read this column, Andrew is married now and my mother would be back in Michigan to be with me for the winter months.

2024 was a year of accomplishments that include, transferring to the Global Methodist denomination, full Elder’s ordination, Andrew’s graduation from seminary, Kaitlin’s start as a third-grade teacher.

In the New Year, we will launch into a brand-new theme about sharing God’s story in our story - “His Story.”

Throughout 2025, I will be asking each House Church to identify one or more individuals who has a life changing God size story to share so that God’s story will make history in our midst.

The passage that we will focus on comes from 2 Corinthians 3:2-3 where Paul says, “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

By sharing our story with each other, God will use it to move the hearts of others to realize that God is creating a new story in our lives too.

By the end of 2025, my prayer is that all our stories (history of 2025) will naturally become HIS STORY for the world to hear.

One untold story that remains to be revealed is about my wife Rev. Tarah Lee. I am excited that in June of 2025 she will move up to Michigan to join me. This will be the first time in 27 years that my wife and I will be living apart from our children. I pray that His story will begin a new adventure for both of us as we reconnect in doing Kingdom work together as a couple once again. Merry Christmas and a blessed and Happy New Year everyone.

Rev. David Ryu