July 2006

Dear Friends,

Korean Christians have mission fever. The last figure we heard was that the Korean church has 22,000 missionaries around the globe. More striking than the number is the experience of rubbing shoulders with these saints wherever we go in mission. Having spent the first 22 years of our mission career in Korea, it is understandably a thrill for us to discover these messengers of the gospel in every corner.

While in Afghanistan last fall we were able to worship with more than 40 Korean missionaries as they gathered in the downstairs of a home in Kabul. The little congregation included a young adult group that had come to the country for a month to work in a difficult rural area of the country. We discovered a Korean restaurant in the city that was begun by an émigré whose parents had fled northern Korea some decades before. In addition to serving good food, this was a safe haven for believers. The hospital we worked in had recently received a young Korean surgeon and his family who have declared their intention to stay for life - not just a passing fancy!

There are several hundred Korean missionaries serving in East Africa, founding and operating schools, churches and community development projects. There are two large Korean-speaking congregations in Nairobi. Our Korean prosthetist, Elder Choi, and his wife are examples of this dedication. The Chois followed the Topples to Kenya more than 10 years ago. Their financial support has come from Korean churches in the United States as well as Korea. Now near retirement age, they have their eyes on a new field of work in China.

The Koreans do it with class. Addis Abba, Ethiopia has recently become home to the Myeung Sung Christian Medical Center. In a country with marginal medical care available even for the citizens of its capital, this two-year-old hospital with 150 beds has state-of-the-art equipment and several specialties including neurosurgery. The director of the hospital tells me that he received part of his training under Stan in our Ae Yang Won Hospital 45 years ago.

Daughter Sissel and Stan discovered in April that Mongolia, with its Tibetan Buddhism and Communist background, is a nation looking for a sure path for its future. Christianity is just getting started there and, yes, the largest numbers of messengers of the gospel are the Koreans. Thanks to a Korean-founded university and Yonsei Hospital, church planting, and development work, Mongolia is finding much more than Korean industrial products and political inroads.

Many Christians of the Republic of Korea have dedicated their lives to aiding the thousands of North Koreans who risk their lives escaping across the border into Manchurian China. They are likewise risking their lives as they seek to smuggle the North Koreans via Mongolia and other routes to Seoul. Korean Christians of this day are laying aside funds and developing leadership for the day when the north-south border is dissolved between PyeungYang and Seoul.

The majority of these missionaries are Presbyterian—the second, third, and fourth generation fruit of missionaries who first arrived in that hermit kingdom more than 110 years ago. A significant number of PC(USA) missionaries are Korean immigrants to the United States. We are blessed to be welcomed into these fellowships wherever we have gone. The joy is comparable to parents seeing their children not only grown up but giving and sharing the values, enhanced and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Yes, the Christians of Korea have a fever for missions. Would that it be infectious.

Peace in our Lord Jesus Christ,

Stan and Mia Topple