Two Unlikely North Korean Missionaries Now Serving At VOM Korea

Posted on February 22, 2016 by tdillmuth

2015-12-12_18-150-0301 graduation ceremony 22On December 12, 2015 we celebrated the graduation of seven North Koreans from our UU program. Five of our students finished one-year of studies (they will return for another year of training), but two of our students finished the full program. Our two graduates are not the typical “seminary graduates” that you might think of when you picture graduates being sent out as missionaries. One graduate, Mrs. K, is in her eighties and she often experiences health challenges related to her age. The other graduate, Mrs. L, is in her seventies and is almost completely deaf. And yet, without reservation, we can say that these two students are truly the best of the best.

Despite their age and physical limitations, these two ladies are almost always the first to clean and cook at our office. They are also the first to go on any of our missions trips. They are the first to launch gospel balloons into North Korea, they are the first to spend time with orphaned NK children and they are the first to meet NKs as they cross the border into Thailand. In fact, over the last few weeks on Mrs. K’s vacation, she has been evangelizing her daughter’s company . . . about eighty employees in all! These two ladies have exemplified lives of service, evangelism and care for all those around them.

In fact, right before our graduation service, Mrs. K took time to pray for and minister to one of our newest staff members. This is pretty typical for Mrs. K, in that she is always thinking of others even when the focus should be on her!

Just days before graduation, Mrs. K also hand-delivered God’s word to a group of NK women and orphans. Despite her severe leg pain, she still went on the missions trip saying that she wouldn’t miss this UU trip for anything. While on the trip, she experienced a complete healing and she was able to spend a considerable amount of time with the children both teaching/preaching and having fun.

This is the reason why we’ve asked them to be interns at VOM Korea. They will be instrumental in preparing and bringing food to North Koreans who are lonely and hurting through our ministry to brand-new defectors. They will also play an important part in coming alongside of our current UU and UT students to disciple them in evangelism and discipleship. They will also still accompany us on our UU mission trips in order to help train some of our newer UU students.

Graduation day represented one of the largest crowds we’ve ever had at VOM Korea, with family, friends, former UU graduates, and South Korean ministry leaders gathering to celebrate Mrs. K. and Mrs. L. What’s most exciting is that they finished UU, not simply because they finished two years of study, but because they were faithful in evangelism and discipleship in their household and beyond.

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Richard Wurmbrand: Thank God For Bad Offerings And Don’t Become One Yourself

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Pastor Foley

If you’ve ever been discouraged because you received a poor offering from a church where you spoke, Pastor Wurmbrand offers a reason for giving thanks (from his own personal correspondence):

A poor pastor came once to a thrifty church in which nobody gave money. They did not have even offering baskets. So, after he preached, he passed around his hat, asking people to put there their gifts. The hat returned to him. He looked in it. It was empty. He overturned it so everybody should see that there is nothing in it. Then he said “Let us thank God for this offering. ” The audience believed he was mocking them, but this was not his intent. He said, “God, I thank you that in a congregation like this I got at least my hat back.”

But as with all Pastor Wurmbrand’s writings, the joke is never the end but always the setup for a deeper Kingdom punchline (or much-needed punch in the gut):

We owe our faith to God. It is His gift. But we  are meant to put in it many virtues, as enumerated in II Peter l.2o [Editor’s note: Perhaps the intended reference is II Peter 2:5-7]. It is very sad for God. if, at the end of one’ s life , He gets only his hat back; a bit of faith without fruits. We hope that you will be fruitful in the Lord’s service.

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Worshipping From Memory at Dachau Concentration Camp

Posted on February 10, 2016 by tdillmuth

Dachau 1 As I wandered through the Dachau Concentration Camp, devastated by the images and memories of what happened seventy years ago, I was reminded of the Orthodox Resurrection Sunday service that took place just days after Dachau was liberated. Fr. Dionysios, a prisoner of Dachau himself wrote this after worshipping in the prayer room at Block 26, as quoted by Douglas Cramer . . .

They aren’t wearing golden vestments. They don’t even have cassocks. No tapers, no service books in their hands. But now they don’t need external, material lights to hymn the joy. The souls of all are aflame, swimming in light.

Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox prisoners at Dachau couldn’t rely on the elements of worship that they used before imprisonment. But those things that they committed to memory before they were imprisoned, the Holy Spirit brought back to remembrance.

This was evidenced by the fact that the priests who did that Resurrection Sunday service, did it largely from memory. Douglas Cramer also quotes Gleb Rahr (also a prisoner at Dachau) on what he remembered from that service,

The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras—everything was recited from memory. The Gospel—“In the beginning was the Word”—also from memory.

And finally, the Homily of Saint John Chrysostom—also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live.

Dachau 2How would we worship if we were in a similar situation? Would we be able to sing the hymns without the words on PowerPoint? Would we remember any Scripture, other than John 3:16? Justin Long, a missionary researcher, recently attended a worship service that was designed to be like a prison service in a restricted country. With his permission, I have posted a portion of his article below . . .

For one thing, we would not have speakers or amplifiers or microphones. So those were unplugged. We would not have PowerPoint, so the computer was shut off. We would not have sheet music or lyrics printed out, so those were put away. We probably would not have our Bibles, so those were closed.

How would you worship – if all you had were the songs and Scriptures you could personally remember?

For about an hour, that’s what we did. Various people would start up a song–maybe only remembering a snatch of it–and it was amazing how the rest of the group picked it up and carried it forward.

Others would pray aloud, just briefly, mostly (in this context) for their people group or for people they knew.

Others would start up a Scripture, and maybe finish it, or someone else would.

This was an amazingly powerful thing to do, and a good reminder of the need to hide God’s word in our heart. What if we did this in our churches on occasion?

 

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