Yo Han

On Wednesday, my 10th grade student Yo Han Lim was in a fatal moto crash.  Our high school has about 90 students, all of whom knew him pretty well - in fact, even most elementary students and teachers knew him.  He was just hard to miss: boisterous, outgoing, impulsive, the life of the party. 

He loved leading worship and just jamming on the guitar with friends in the hallway after school.  In French class, he would shout out vocab words when we were reviewing them and often knew them, but never bothered to learn their correct pronunciation.  He was always the first one done with quizzes, even when I made him go back and proofread, and they always had silly mistakes because he had rushed. 

In so many ways, he was an open book.  If he was frustrated with schoolwork, it was obvious.  If he was confused, he would ask me a million questions in a row.  If he was excited, he couldn't contain his enthusiasm.  So his major life transformation in 9th grade was well-known to the whole high school.

Yo Han and a classmate presenting each other in French during the French II fashion show last fall.  They went for "le look de couple."

To get to know him for yourself, here's his story in his own words.  He wrote this as a Facebook note in December 2011.

This is a story of my life from maybe second grade? But just the main events :)  hope this makes u laugh :)

So when i first came in to Logos international school it was 2003 january.  I was put in to kindergarden, and i only knew the alphabets. I studied the some english words and i was able to skip the first grade and go in to second grade. Some of the friends i met in second grade are still in 10th grade. :) kinda cool.

Little Yo Han, far left, playing with his younger brother Daehan (in the red shorts) and some Khmer friends

[...] Fourth grade was the beginning of my 'getting in trouble everyday' year. I started getting behaviour contracts and i had to get a smiley face for every class. if i got enough amount of smiley faces, we would go to pizza company and eat pizza :) We also had the thing called "flipping the cards" and everytime a student was loud or caused some kind of trouble, they had to go flip their card and first it was green then yellow then red and then the final black. black meant going to the office. well, to be exact, every week, i visited the office with a black card under my name. and in second semester of 4th grade, i was in the office more than i was in class. I wrote tons of sorry papers to teachers too. It was kinda of fun year.

Fifth grade came, and it was just a normal year. I was mean. Lots of girls hated me in fifth grade. I also fought a lot. I still went to the office. nothing really special though

Seventh grade. This would be the year i would never forget. After i got back from korea, i wanted to do all this stuff that i though was cool, such as skipping school on the day when we had a bible test. (don't judge me please :) i don't do this anymore :) ) and i was caught of course..haha and man, this was a miserable year for me. I had 3 F 2 D 2 C and 2 B's. NO A's haha. I, would like to thank my parents for being tolerant. I also had to prove my improvements to the teachers so that i don't get kicked out of Logos and at the end of that year, i did improve :)

8th grade was a little better:) it was the year of 'lets enjoy before we get in to highschool'  lots of friends, lots of fun. barelly no visiting the office and writing sorry papers.

Then i went to kenya, for the summer vacation and it brought a great impact on my life.  It changed the way i looked at things and changed my perspective on everything.

I came back for 9th grade, and i have to say that it was my favorite year so far.  OUr class Unity was really strong. Everyone worked hard. Many service trips without service hours brought our class together because we didn't go just to get service hours but out of pure heart to help the people and to show christ's love. I was able to exprience what unity was. It was just a year of everything mixed together; happiness, joy, conflicts, responsibility, unity and lots of other stuff. but it was the best year.

10th grade, started with a 'kind of quiet' and 'lets not do anything' atmosphere. I felt something was missing and so did my friends. I hope that after this break, everything will get better, and all i hope is that everything will go well in 2012.

I don't know how God will use my life to glorify him, but so far, its been great. lots of up and downs but its life. who says life is fair and who says there will be only joy. Actually, from sorrow and pain, we gain, learn, and exprience lots of things. So my last sentence would be... I don't know whats planned for me in 2012 but i trust God and i believe that God will make my 2nd semester of my 10th grade even more awesome than my 9th grade year :)

He couldn't have known how that last sentence would be fulfilled.  Ever since that Kenya trip before 9th grade, Yo Han was markedly more excited about God.  This year, he and a friend started a Friday morning prayer group, mostly praying for the student body and asking God to unite students in Christ and to bring them closer to God.  His passion spread to a number of his classmates and students in other grades.  Mourning him has highlighted the spiritual legacy he leaves us.

Performing with Logos friends during a gig downtown. 
Besides God, music was his #1 priority.

Here are a few of the other sophomores' Facebook comments about him.

From Matthew: A Man of God, A True Follower of Christ, He was and still is my friend. I look up to him and will always remember him till the day I meet him. He's now chilling with Christ and all the rest. He has shown me so much and encouraged me through my problems. He showed me that change in one's life really does happen because it happened to him...
I'm glad I had a friend like you, Yo Han Lim

From Becca:Yo Han, you are amazing.  You taught me how to talk about problems instead of keeping them all inside.  I want to be just like you.  I had such a great time playing music with you.  Whenever something goes wrong while we were playing music, you would look at my face and we would telepathically communicate and fix the problem, letting the song end so perfectly awesome!  As we have grown together and studied in the same class for over 10 years, I have seen many changes in you, GREAT changes.  God really DOES have a plan for you and I hope he has a great plan for me too.  I WILL miss you from time to time but I know that I WILL meet you again.

From Moses: "I have the hope in God that in the end, I will be in a perfect relationship with Him and that I will be in His perfect kingdom praising God...I learned that I should have faith in him and preserve in every hard situation believing the fact that He is working in my life, in areas I cannot see and that He has everything planned for life."
-Part of Yo Han Lim's Bible essay about faith-
Yes, Yohan. I am sure that you are in His perfect Kingdom praising God.
Yes, Yohan. God had everything planned for your life.
Actually, His plan for you is in progress.
Because, God will still carry out wonderful miracles to the world, through your death.
Yohan, see you soon up there.

From Kristi, a teacher: When I walked into school Friday morning the Khmer cleaner on the 4th floor (who only speaks Khmer) was looking at the pictures of Yo Han Lim and asking what happened. I told her that he had died in an accident. She was really upset and said that he used to help her clean when he noticed it was hard for her. She said he also prayed for her when she was going through difficult things. This is the guy who John Roberts had to teach how to sweep in 8th grade. The testimony of Jesus working through his life just doesn't end.

Last but not least, Gabie, a student who moved back to the Philippines, posted his chat with her from a while back.  These are Yo Han's words to encourage her:

Gabie, i Sincerly sincerely hope that God will not only get you fired up for Him but bring you to a point where you realize „This is the amazing God that i am worshiping and this is the God that I am calling on to,“ The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. – Proverbs 1:7  I hope this verse can be your starting-offf verse.  To fear the Lord, not to be scared but consider him as the almighty one that deserves all the glory from you!  I will pray for you too! Hope you grow stronger in Christ and there will be times of trouble for you and everyone but having patience and faith in the Lord that he will pull you through it.  God will show you things thats beyond your imagination , He will work in your ways that you never imagined and always stick to this verse whenever you question God of what he is doing in your life and circumstances that you are in that God has put you in to be the light. „For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neithe are your ways my ways,“ declares the LORD. And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine –Isaiah 55:8

God loves you GABIE!

Besides Kristi, all these comments are from students in 10th grade.  I get to work with them.  How incredible is that?  I can't wait to see Yo Han's prayers for his classmates continue to be fulfilled through the tragedy surrounding his death. 

In Korean: "Lord, I love you!  :-)"