Welcome to the OMS Korea blog where we will keep you updated with the latest happenings and needs of the field. Thanks for visiting!
You can click on the tabs above and see the ministries of OMS Korea. The ministry links will be updated on a regular basis. Prayer requests will also be updated every week in the “prayer request” category on the right.
Please feel free to make comments on this blog. God bless you!
Pray for Bob Warren, training the trainers in church planting
and multiplication principles through March 12. He will also be preaching
in a church on March 10.
Pray for all the preparations for the spring revival meetings at Seoul
Theological University, March 17-19. Ask God that each heart will be
prepared and open to hear what God wants to say to them from His Word
through the speaker.
Pray for Bob Warren, visiting South Korea from March 6-13 to train trainers on the church multiplication strategy committee in church planting and multiplication principles.
Classes at Seoul Theological University begin on March 2. Pray for new and returning students as they begin a new school year to learn all that God has for them during this semester.
The Missionary Training Center will begin its seven-month training of new Korean missionary candidates on March 2. Pray for these candidates to be challenged and prepared for cross-cultural ministry during this training time.
Pray that God will speak to new students at Seoul Theological University (STU) during their orientation from February 17-19 and will help them begin to experience all that God wants to do in their lives during the next few years at STU.
In the year 2000, “Sunny” entered South Korea for the first time, after spending about three years in hiding in China. She had left North Korea in 1997 in search of food and hope for survival. North Korea was going through a terrible famine, and hundreds of thousands fled to neighboring China, where they had to hide out to avoid being captured and sent back to North Korea to prison and/or death.
In China, God led Sunny to Christians who helped her to find shelter, food, and protection. There she heard the gospel for the first time. Later, Sunny was captured and sent back to North Korea where she was imprisoned and beaten. She called on the Lord, whom she had heard helped Daniel in the lions’ den, and she experienced God’s protection.
Sunny was released and escaped to China again, but those who had helped her before were afraid she was a spy and turned their backs on her. Finally, one of the Christians there found a journal that Sunny had left behind, and in reading it realized that she was sincere in her growing faith. They decided to help her again, and she lived in hiding for three years until she was able to reach South Korea.
I met her after she arrived in South Korea. Through Sunny, I learned more about the terrible realities in North Korea, as well as the cultural differences and barriers that make it difficult for North Koreans to accept the gospel. I developed a greater concern for North Korea, and for North Korean defectors in South Korea in particular. I became involved in a Korean prayer movement called PN4N (the Prayer Network for North Korea and the Nations), for which I translate prayer requests into English so that people around the world can pray more specific, focused, and continuous prayers for North Korea.
Sunny is continuing to be transformed, as God helps her to overcome some of the hurts she has experienced from Christians and misunderstandings about the gospel. Sunny has an especially tender heart to help those in need. She works as a nurse and saves her money to help those around her, and hopefully be able to help her family in North Korea as well.
Please pray for North Koreans to have the opportunity to hear the gospel and be transformed, and pray for me to be faithful to God’s call to pray and prepare for ways to reach out to the North Korean people.
Lisa, me, Jan & Tom Sparrow
I’ve spent the last two months in the United States, where I’ve been able to see many of you and share some about my ministry in Korea. One highlight was traveling to Indiana, Kentucky, and Colorado with Lisa Hwang, who works in the OMS Korea office. We visited the OMS headquarters, spoke with college students interested in missions, and met missionary colleagues and supporters.
Now I’m preparing to begin the spring semester at Seoul Theological University on March 2, where I’ll be teaching students in the English department. I’ll also be teaching English to Korean missionary candidates preparing for the mission field. Pray that I’ll have wisdom as Korea field leader as we work in partnership to train leaders to plant and grow churches in Korea and overseas, and reach out to foreign workers in Korea.
Thank you for your prayers and support, which keep me working for God’s Kingdom in Korea and around the world. God bless you!
Pray for Susan Truitt, returning to Korea on February 16 after spending the last six months in the South Pacific and the United States. Pray for strength and wisdom as she gets back into the ministries in Korea.
New students in the graduate school of theology at Seoul Theological University had an orientation retreat from February 1-3. Pray for them as they begin their seminary education and prepare for ministry.
New students in the graduate school of theology at Seoul Theological University will have an orientation retreat February 1-3. Pray that this will be a great time for these students as they begin their seminary education and prepare for ministry.
Continue to pray for the six trainers learning church multiplication strategies and passing on that training so that more churches can be planted effectively in Korea.
