November 21, 2005

Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.
Matthew 25:46

Dear Friends around the world,

Someone we met more than 20 years ago wrote us recently and asked about the general condition of the church and its institutions. Since Art is at the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) headquarters and has some contact with the Presbyterian Reformed Church of Korea (PROK), he should field these questions.

The Christian churches are growing slightly in numbers but greatly in their facilities, programs, and level of understanding. The PCK reports a constituency of almost two and a half million people, and the PROK is about one-seventh of that. Each church and each individual has their own experience with Christ, and the PCK is heavily into world mission, supporting 870 missionaries in 79 countries.

Sue and Art were happy to be present when Kwangju Christian Hospital (KCH) celebrated its centennial last week and when Yonsei University Hospital dedicated a wonderful new “smart” building for their 120th anniversary in the spring. While a century ago Kwangju had one church, there are now 1,200 churches of different denominations, and the one hospital has become 1,000 clinics and hospitals.

Art is more closely involved with education, teaching a course this semester at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary (PCTS) in an electronically enabled classroom and helping the chaplain program for internationals at Yonsei University. Both Yonsei and Han Nam University are starting colleges in which all instruction occurs only in English. Art gave a special lecture as adjunct professor and preached at Linton Global College of Han Nam University. Yonsei’s Underwood College opens its doors next March. The seven seminaries and five universities related closely to the PCK are producing a great crop of human resources, including those trained in theology, not all of whom can be placed in churches.

Sue’s activity is more in the field of social work, and Korean Christians are doing more and more to help and include the disabled, foreign workers, prisoners, and the aged.

Both American and Korean Presbyterians are supporting the Lighthouse Foundation program, which Sue leads, with prayers and funds to provide some 40,000 portions of soy milk and bread for young children in North Korea. Orphans and day care infants receive this twice a day, kindergarten students once a day, and older children in elementary school once every two days. It has been miraculous the way the program has tripled in size over the last year, and somehow the funds that were in nobody’s budget have come in.

Trying to help the North is a delicate thing, and having become a channel Lighthouse is a vehicle for others to work through. The Reverend Moses Park, for example, of the Shalom Disability Mission in Los Angeles, California, sent off 220 wheelchairs that arrived in North Korea because of the Lighthouse connection. Every month Sue sends from China a railroad car filled with 30 tons of wheat flour, 5 tons of sugar and other ingredients, and 5 tons of soybeans to supplement beans provided from North Korean farms. In October Sue saw the orphans wearing 350 sets of cute long underwear and playing on the rug that was sent in the same donation.

At a meeting November 16 between PCK executive staff and five representatives of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reverend An,Young Ro, General Assembly Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, issued a challenge. Moderator An began by expressing his gratitude for help given in the past for rural church planting done in partnership between the two denominations and medical work such as that of Kwangju Christian Hospital. But then he said, “Now let us work together for mission around the world.” With the slow arrival of funds for the world mission portion of the PC(USA) Joining Hands and Hearts mission fund drive, we are not certain if U.S. Presbyterians can “get off the dime” and be an equal partner. But we pray that Philippians 1:6 is coming true for us all.

Yours for Christ in Korea,

Art and Sue Kinsler

The 2005 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 247