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YoungNak Presbyterian Church World Gospel Mission
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Chapter 17 - YoungNak Presbyterian Church World Gospel Mission
“Bring 500million to Christ!” Reverend KyungJik Han wrote, and then carved into a stone next to the entrance of the YoungNak Prayer Mountain. With that the young adults followed the vision of the reverend, all the daily evening bible fellowship members started to volunteer on an evangelical mission during summer, called “Nationalized Gospel Movement by the YoungNak Presbyterian Church.” In the beginning young adults committee leader SoonTae Park (who is now an elder) and the steering members went to the AnMyun Island for the mission. At that time Layman’s department’s pastor SungJae Lee also went, also did several elders to help with many teams. It was chosen to be AnMyun Island because it was the biggest island and was not evangelized. The island was the biggest in the Yellow Sea.
All the members who were going were prepared for about a month for VBS, all the evangelical team were taught by professionals. We prepared a large sheet of paper to write the hymns. A theme song lyric was written for the mission team by Sister HyeKyung Ha (currently a wife of a pastor). The young adult committee music leader YoungJun Kim composed. He also conducted Hosanna Choir in YoungNak Presbyterian Church. If I sing the theme song now I get encouraged
VBS was in the church; volunteers were made for labor because ‘New Village Movement’ throughout the nation, house to house evangelism was made. One team was divided to three separate specialties and during night time everyone gathered to have an evangelical rally in the village with people invited to join. Wherever we were sent, first on the arrival we met with the community leaders and greeted them. On the first night we brought some of the food we had from Seoul and using the locally grown vegetable we bought to make a meal, and requested their help for the evangelical movement in the town. All the elders of the village gladly accepted and helped with the evangelism. At that time rice was short (this was when Korea was poor) so the nation was ordered to have half rice and half barley to be eaten. When we served the half mixture the elders were surprised that even people from Seoul followed the national protocol and ate the same. All the sisters were told not to put anything else beyond basic makeup and no fancy clothing were worn. It looked like soldiers were inspected before being shipped off and if sisters needed corrections they were made. The sisters obeyed. When we went to AnMyun Island, there were 8 separate teams gathered as many people from all throughout the island whenever a pastor held an evangelical rally.
At that time with the young adult group’s funds set by the church was too short for the 150 members’ expanse. Several young adults who ran business supported the funds. But one I could never forget the elders and the deacons who had helped to gather the fund for the volunteer. A desk was set up in the front of the church field and those who had wanted to help with the funding gather the funds. I think today the relationship between the young adults and the elders are almost cut – off. But the deacons and the elders of the YoungNak Presbyterian Church showed our relationship should be like.
At one point while the desk was being cleared, Reverend KyungJik Han gave an envelope with funds and said “you are doing a good job” despite the heat. I get emotional thinking about this even to this day. What kind of reverend would ever show this much care! Was this because of the young adult evangelical movement that started on its own? No, it was the generosity and faith the elders and the reverend showed example, thought the grace of God.
The next year we were going to Andong, KyungBuk Province with the message “Andong County to Christ!” At that time the nation was suffering from major drought and all throughout the nation the land was like a sauna and the fields were like a turtle’s back. The prime minister at that time went to North Kyungsang Province to have a ritual for rain. This place was the hometown of young adult team leader SoonTae Park. Also the city of Andong is well known for the Confucianism with the famous Do-san Training Hall. People still wore traditional garment and hat. They were not very friendly with Christians. So several groups were sent to investigate the area and the churches there, but they were no suitable religious workers for the churches around. Many of the villages of were in rugged mountains. We gathered about 300 members to serve for the 18 churches in that area. There were VBS team, medical evangelical team, and labor teams. There were a lot of members because of the many VBS team, medical, doctors, and oriental medicine doctor. The medical team made some stations and rotated teams around.
We were all prepared to go but the report from the investigation team had a disappointing news0. We were all ready to head down but no rain had come even during the last night. The locales there were very cold with God saying, “If God exists, how come he is so neglecting?” The government office even said “you guys shouldn’t come.”They were not expecting the evangelism to be helping.
We had requested the senior pastor to pray to God for his mighty hand to have rain. Everyone in church prayed for the mission and rain. The mission team had another special prayer meeting after the evening worship service to pray before we were going the next early morning. We prayed “Give us rain Father in Heaven!” While we were praying the investigation team that was there called to me. I went downstairs to get the urgent message from the office and they said “Rain! It’s raining!”I couldn’t believe their words. “Is it really raining? The reply was “positively raining!” I rushed upstairs to shout that it was raining, and then everyone got excited and shouted in joy. God had answered are prayers and all the young adults were in tears.
We took the train next early morning in Yongsan to arrive at Andong and saw it was still raining. In the train ride we were blessed by the gospel with a group bible study a passage from Thessalonians. When we arrived at the train station in Andong it was still raining. The young adults walked in rain in delight. We went to the spot to be greeted prepared by the mayor of Andong. The mayor and the county official of Andong who greeted us said “we are not Christians but I think your prayers have been answered by having this rain,” and gave us thanks and welcomed us.
Many separate teams went off to the rural areas of the County of Andong. There was enough rain from the storm. The team who were ahead of us to head to the town had ropes tied so that the members of the evangelical team wouldn’t fall into the river. It was beautiful to see the sisters and brothers seeing they were glad to be in the evangelical mission even if getting wet.
“Andong County to Christ!”
All the important events from the evangelical mission were documented with a camera. Several young adults who worked in the TV programs added their voice to make it into a documentary to be played in YoungNak Presbyterian Church. “Great job YougNak Presbyterian Church young adults, you have shown glory to God!” At that time we sang the “YoungNak Young Adults theme” which was written by Sister YoungJa Huh (now a pastor’s wife) and composed by the Calvary Choir conductor elder Doowan Kim in a loud voice. Every time a daily evening bible study was over, all the events, and every evangelical mission this theme was sung. The evangelical mission was possible through God’s strong hand that helped.
Several teams gathered for a night of evangelical rally in an elementary school in the middle point of town. The pastor gave a sermon, and then the teams sang special hymn. After sermon a movie titled ‘Martyr’ which showed the life of Pastor KiPung Lee. At that time the main actor was grandson of Pastor KiPung Lee also went. A lot of people had gathered. Everyone was walking happily home after the meeting was over in a distance about 10km away while talking about the event. It was quite a distance so some of the elderly and the young were in a tractor that people had brought. Most of them walked, some on bicycles. At that time the roads in a rural village were almost pitch black. It wasn’t even asphalted. It was a time when the roads were bumpy and guided only by the moon and the stars.
A bicycle came urgently while we were only few walks away. “Something went terribly wrong!” The news was that the tractor carrying many of the elderly had fallen into a rice patty! It was devastating news. If the tractor did fall, how many of the elderly would be injured or even died? There were no hospitals nearby. I went to the site in a hurry with a borrowed bicycle. But the shocking thing was no one was injured! The tractor had fallen because one of the wheels was severely damaged. But how is it possible no one is injured? Everyone had answered that someone had “caught us in a soft blanket.” I think the angel of God had caught every one of them.
I went back to tell them of the good news and we continued on praising God, when another bicycle came to us. “Something else went horribly wrong!” The tractor that was carrying the young children had broken a connecting rod in the engine and the back carriage and had flipped! How do we deal with this? How could something like this happen again? All the children might be injured and bleeding… I went again with a borrowed bicycle to check. Sure enough, the connecting rod was dug deep into the ground and the back carriage was flipped. But this times another miracle! All the children were safe! Hallelujah!
The children also replied that someone had caught them in a soft blanket. You could not have imagined how greatly emotional the members were that night!
That night was definitely a Jehovah’s night. We said that we would pay for the repair of the tractors but the driver’s insisted they repair on their cost and apologized instead. With the great grace, everything was finished and was about to leave on bus to AnDong city with great thanks. While the bus was taking off the children who were running along the bus said “come again!” still is in my memory.
All the pastors, elders, and the medical team, and also the young adults who were helping with the fiery passion for national evangelical reason I give my thanks and all the exemplary members who had gathered the funds, and finally miracles God had shown!
(January 2011)
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YoungNak Presbyterian Church World Gospel Mission
Young man! Where are you?