Faith and Spirit of Early Pioneers |
For the last 40 years God blessed not only UBF but also Korea politically and economically until Korea is recognized as one of the developed countries in the international society. Now we can freely visit other nations. Last year we had a summit meeting between North and South Korea. For the second time families, who were separated due to the Korean War, met one another after 50 years of separation. Now there is open communication between North and South Korea. Someday we hope to hold conferences at Baekdoo Mountain, the highest mountain in North Korea. This was beyond our imagination. When we served the world mission work, in obedience to Jesus’ word, “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” and pleased God, God blessed Korea abundantly. In order to bear the blessing of being a kingdom of priests to the world, we needed the economical and political strength of our nation. If we are poor, how can we support all our missionaries? I believe that serving world mission is the way that Korean churches can bear God’s blessing.
Second, we showed the possibility of self-supporting lay mission. There is a great limitation for ordained ministers to carry out missionary work. For example, Islamic countries and some African countries do not accept these missionaries. Furthermore, it is not easy for them to acquire native languages. But professional workers such as doctors, nurses and technicians are welcomed anywhere. So UBF self-supporting professional lay missionaries can go to anywhere including communist countries and Islamic countries as professional workers or students. They are self-supporting missionaries. So they can be sent out as many as possible. This kind of self-supporting lay mission became a good model of Korean church’s overseas mission. Indeed God used our UBF ancestor’s faith and missionary spirit very preciously.