Lausanne World Pulse – A Focus on Northeast Asia: 473 Least-Reached People Groups Remain
Bright Lights in Northeast Asia: Korea and Mongolia
During the 1700s Jesuit missionaries converted Korean students studying in China. These Catholic converts returned home to start churches. Several waves of persecution almost wiped out the fledgling Korean Church. Korea’s first Protestant believer was Sup Sang Yoon, a student studying in China. He returned to Korea and started a church in the late 1870s and within two years he was assisted by two Presbyterian missionaries, Horace Allen and Horace Underwood.
Unlike the OMS in Japan, Korea’s Presbyterian missionaries placed as much emphasis on leadership training as they did on winning converts. The abundance of trained leaders allowed the Korean Christians to form their first locally-controlled denomination, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Chosun, (GAPCC) in 1912. By 1921 GAPCC was sending missionaries to China.
In 1950 Christians still made up only a small percentage of the Korean population. Between 1950 and 1953 the devastation of the Korean War sparked a revival. Thousands were killed or displaced by invading North Korean and Chinese armies. There were many believers in northern Korea who were either killed by the communists or driven south. Korean Christians and foreign missionaries fed the hungry and cared for the sick and wounded. These acts of love bore much fruit. Thousands of Koreans received the Lord and new churches were planted across South Korea. Today twenty-eight percent of South Korea’s population is Christian.Two things made Korea different from China and Japan. First, missionaries to Korea were not from countries that had colonial designs on Korea. In fact, being a Christian was one way to defy their Japanese colonizers. Second, the early missionaries emphasized leadership training. For these reasons South Korea is the most significant missionary sending country in Asia today. Only the United States sends out more evangelical Christian missionaries.
Mongolia is one of the last frontiers of Christianity. Dr. James Gilmour, a Methodist from Britain, won only sixteen converts in that country between 1872 and 1888. The church he founded fell apart after his death in 1893. By the time the communists took control of Mongolia in 1921, there were no Christians left in the country.
The door for outreach opened again after communism collapsed in 1990. A team of Native American missionaries won two converts shortly after the change in government. By Christmas Day 1990, there were two hundred Christians in the country. English teachers led many of them to the Lord. By 1998 there were ten thousand Christians worshipping in over sixty churches. Much work still needs to be done, but Mongolia presents tremendous needs and opportunities. The country has a serious problem with abandoned children. Several mission agencies have started orphanages which also have schools. They are planting seeds of faith that will bear fruit in the next generation. Many of Mongolia’s church leaders are young.Prayer is the fuel that sparks the spiritual flames of heaven around the world. Ask God to open the hearts of every people group in Northeast Asia to Christ. May missionaries and native believers work together to spread the gospel. Pray for open doors throughout this region. Pray for spiritually mature, mission-minded church leaders in Mongolia.