News > Africa

August 10, 2012

Dear world mission prayer coworkers: (Not many pictures can be sent due to the slowness of the internet by coworkers’ phones. I keep trying by walking around the conference place.)

On 8/08, on the way from Pretoria to Scripture Union Retreat Center on the mountainside that took 2 hours, we saw 2-3 tiny monkeys (50 cm tall, very small like a Chiwawa dog) that suddenly appeared twice on the roadside as they were trying to cross the road endangering their lives. We were scared. Except for that, there wasn’t much difference from being in North America. SA is a well developed country. Sorry to say this, but I suddenly felt as if our African brothers and sisters are in a similar spiritual situation; as dangerous as they were spiritually, ignorant and innocent yet endangered by Satan and evil powers. I thanked God for sending our precious missionaries to serve them so that they may be saved from sin, Satan and death through Jesus our Savior.

We met many precious coworkers: M. Woo Jin Kim and 3 Chinese shepherds (Hong Kong), P. Walter Nett, M. Abraham and Sarah K Lee, and Lucas Kim (Germany). We were so glad to meet Pastor Ron here and Dr. Helen Rarick too. We were also moved to see M. Samuel H and Anna Lee from Zimbabwe who came by bus taking more than 15 hours with around 40 members. Their lives as silver missionaries were more than enough to praise God. His spiritual desire and vision were very heart-moving for young Africans to grow as disciples of Jesus and be spiritual leaders for their nation as well as for all African people. He prefers not to receive a salary even though he tries to make his job as professor more official and organized so as to be more permanent. This will give more time and freedom to do the gospel work. We saw many hard tasks are before him since he pioneers this new field of evangelism through education. He could receive a 2-year visa with work permit. The security in Africa is poor and there often robberies and thefts happening in the streets and houses. Please pray for his house church and Zimbabwe mission and many more silver missionaries to go out who can support mission fields or who can pioneer with no financial problems from all UBF around the world.

We also heard around 40 Korean shepherds and our USA journey team will come this morning. May God give them journey mercy.

Africa was pioneered in 1989 when M. Jacki Yoon came to Kenya; now there are around 15 nations, most of them English speaking nations. Cameroon (French) was included but drifted away. Mozambique (Portuguese) was recently pioneered and some of the members even came to this conference. Around 44 nations are mostly from northern Muslim regions. However, our Lord already made great progress by making Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa as base camps for the whole African mission.

God raised more than 25 national house churches and many African native leaders in many countries. May God bless them to be a source of blessing to continue pioneering the remaining 40 African countries as well as other continents, too.

The conference place was very clean and calm. I could walk around the fences within 15-20 minutes as you can see in the picture. I could see the innumerable stars which I could see in my childhood in the countryside. The seven stars that look like a big spoon and many familiar stars were shining that reminded me of the promise of God to make his descendants like the stars in the sky in Africa too.

Since the temperature dropped from 60F to around 32F at night, I put on all my clothes wearing one over the other. I woke up at 2 AM, 3 AM and 4 AM because of the cold. When I got up in the morning, I felt my whole body aching from crouching due to the coldness. But the morning sunshine was so fresh and so clean I forgot my night-long struggles and had a new spirit and was joyful. My daily bread also refreshed me since I tried to write on the Song of Songs during my journey adding to my study of Ecclesiastes. Praise Jesus, the Rose of Sharon, and the Lily of the Valley!! Even though I could not see any flowers like the rose and the lily, I could sense the beauty of my Lord Jesus through the morning freshness of Africa.

Any news I get I will share with you by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for your continuous prayers!