December 13 2017
More than 100 years ago, One Mission Society missionaries discipled,
trained, and sent out two young Korean students, Kim Sang-jun and Jung Bin,
from the OMS-established Tokyo Bible Institute in Japan back to Korea to share
the Gospel with the Korean people.
From the beginning, OMS has been intentional about training
the sons and daughters of a nation to reach their own people. This dedication has
helped in the phenomenal growth of the OMS-founded Korea Evangelical Holiness
Church (KEHC), which today has more than 3,000 churches and nearly 1 million
members!
Before
the division of North and South Korea, there were also about 3,000 churches in
the north, with 132 of them being OMS related. And then the Korean War came,
and those churches were laid waste while most Christians fled south to safety. Those
that didn’t were most likely martyred.
Today,
evangelism in North Korea (NK) is impossible. For the last 16 years, Open
Door’s World Watch List has ranked it number one for persecuted Christians. Over
70,000 Christians live in prison camps as a result of their faith, suffering
forced labor, starvation, and sexual abuse.
More
than 20 million North Koreans live in darkness, having NEVER heard the Gospel.
North Korea is indeed a dark place, but OMS, along
with our South Korea partners, is piercing the darkness of NK with the light of
Christ. Here’s how:
1. We are equipping North Korean defectors.
Koreans have been a divided people for decades, but a
gradual reunification process is taking place through the arrival of North
Korean defectors in
South Korea. These refugees face numerous obstacles to
integration into South Korean society, but they also provide valuable insight
into the issues Koreans will face after reunification.
Our ministry partner, Sarangnaru, reaches out to North Korean refugees
and helps them integrate into South Korean society by providing group homes for
teens and young adults and after-school tutoring for elementary children and
their parents, among other ministries. In this way, North Korean defectors and
their families are evangelized, discipled, and prepared to make a valuable
contribution to reunification.
2.We are equipping North Korean transients.
Risking their lives for a better future, an estimated 100,000 to 300,000
have crossed the border into neighboring nations. With discretion and care, we
are evangelizing, discipling, and training North Koreans who travel to nearby
nations to return to share the Gospel within their family groups and, when
feasible, help plant underground house churches.
This holiday season, we are taking the light of Jesus into the darkest place
in the world, North Korea. Will you join us in this initiative?
A small gift of $34 will evangelize, train, and disciple one North
Korean to reach his or her nation for Christ.
Please help
us give light to North Korea by giving online here.
Tags:
north korea, south korea, ministry to defectors, give light, legacy,
November 21 2017
Did you know that before the division of
North and South Korea, there were about 3,000 churches in North Korea, with 132
of those being Korea Evangelical Holiness Churches (KEHC), started by Koreans
trained by OMS missionaries? But during the Korean War, the churches in the
north were laid waste, and the majority of the Christians fled to the south.
Dozens of North Korean pastors stayed to watch
over their churches while they sent their families to flee south. Many of them were captured
and suffered greatly, finally dying a martyr’s death. In the following decades
of continual persecution by the North Korean government, the churches and
Christians in North Korea disappeared altogether.
One pastor, who in spite of his sadness
over losing his father to the communists, has devoted his life to restoring the
church in North Korea. For several decades, he has embraced his enemies, the
North Korean people, with the love of Christ. Because of the mission of
unification in the Gospel, although he is in his 80s, he is still working hard
to restore the North Korean church.
Here is a passionately written except from
a letter he wrote to his father, who was abducted by the North Korean government:
“What
has happened to Shinuiju Dongbu Church now . . . father! Restoring that fallen
church is my fervent hope and prayer. Someday a church will stand tall again in
that place. Father, in that church where you shared the Gospel and pastored, I
see a vision of your descendants sharing the Gospel.”
This pastor has been doing the dangerous
ministry of setting up a shelter for North Koreans, sharing the Gospel with those
traveling overseas, and training them to go back to North Korea. Because South
Koreans cannot go into North Korea to share the Gospel, he has also been
training ethnic Korean Chinese nationals and Mongolians who can enter North
Korea.
There are North Korean evangelists who, in
obedience to God’s Word, are risking death to accept Jesus while overseas and
then return to North Korea. They are keeping the faith in the midst of persecution
and danger, building the underground church and sharing the Gospel.
Among the one billion people that OMS is
pursuing to share the Good News of Jesus with, there are 25 million North
Koreans who have never heard the Gospel. They are waiting for someone to share with
them. OMS has focused on training national evangelists in Korea since the start
of the Korea Evangelical Holiness Church (KEHC) over 110 years ago. The North
Koreans that we have discipled will rebuild the fallen North Korean church and
bring salvation to the souls dying without knowing Jesus Christ. The North
Korean underground Christians who have kept their faith through suffering will
fulfill the task of being witnesses of the light of Jesus Christ all over the
world. We ask for your prayers and support as this ministry is dangerous and
difficult. 
Rev. Sungho Kim, Sarangnaru adviser
Tags:
north korea, reunification, reaching lost, gospel,