Listen to this article
GRACE KOREAN CORPS
CAPTAIN FRED KIM meets seminar delegates during the four days of meetings. |
Captains Fred and Chris Kim of the Santa Clara, Calif., Korean ministry have reached out in faith to the world—in recent years completing several missionary trips to Africa.They recently returned from Senegal, one of the countries they visited last year. Their mission, the Moslem Mission, is to bring the word of God through the redemptive love of Jesus Christ to Africa’s Moslem nations.
Captain Fred Kim’s report is below. The story of the Kims’ 2003 trip to Senegal, Gambia and Mauritania was reported in New Frontier, July 14, 2003.
As we have responded to God’s call to cast a global vision, as written in the Territory’s priorities, we have learned that God can multiply our effort. Indeed, the Moslem Mission may have seemed impossible, but as we took the step of faith, we saw that it is possible. We can bring people in Moslem countries to Christ; nothing is impossible with God.
Six of us from Grace Korean Corps traveled to Senegal for our ten-day Moslem mission. Our biggest event was a seminar in Ziguinchor, the main city in the region of Casamance, the southern part of Senegal. The seminar’s theme was “Abundant Life.”
We invited about 100 people to the event—all 14 church pastors and lay leaders attended. For the first time the seminar was open to all the churches in the area, and delegates stayed at the conference center built by the World Evangelism Council. The center had been terribly damaged during tribal war but we helped to rebuild it to facilitate the seminar.
Last year, I led the seminar at the church for two days. This year, it was for four days, and we lived and ate with the delegates—we really got to know them.
We translated the material into French and as I spoke in English, about seven to eight different translations took place for the various tribes.
As she did last year, Capt. Chris Kim led the Evangecube presentation during the seminar. We brought a lot of Evangecubes because this is a wonderful tool for easy evangelism just using pictures. This was received with excitement—after her presentation they practiced with the cube in groups.
Many of the delegates had never tried reaching out to Moslems but with new confidence they vowed to bring people to God.
The whole time I could see the delegates’ appreciation that we had come to teach and share with them. All of them made a commitment to God and the church. The seminar was a first for most of them and served to raise their morale, helpful since Moslems in the area had persecuted them.
During the seminar, I took turns with the African pastors. God filled us with the Spirit. The Word of God is most important in any situation and we are glad we shared the love of God through the Word.
This was a historic event from which we will soon see fruit.
After the seminar we distributed medical supplies that we had brought from the U.S., thanks to Majors Wayne and Trish Froderberg of Golden State divisional headquarters and a medical charity. To the people here these are life supplies. There was one clinic run by a church—we gave them a lot because they had registered nurses.
On Sunday our group was invited to six local churches. Afterwards we gathered at one church for a united service. About 400 people came together! Capt. Chris again led the Evangecube presentation and people practiced in groups. I felt like this was the feeding of the 5,000—a spiritual feeding!
After the service we had a Bible quiz contest. Grand prizes were the luggage we had carried to Africa. We didn’t need it because we gave away most of the things we had brought. To my surprise, many had memorized Romans 8 and 1 Corinthians 13.
Later that night, we showed a movie. Many people came, some of them Moslems, non-believers. Afterwards we had an invitation, and a few people came and accepted Christ, a brave move in a Moslem country.
The next morning, Monday, we had a prayer breakfast and evaluation session with the pastors so we could better organize our next seminar. This meeting built rapport with the pastors.
Afterwards we flew to Dakar, the capitol of Senegal, where we held an intercessory prayer meeting for Senegal with the pastors there. About 50 people came, including denomination leaders.
We visited several cities in the last days of our trip. We had a prayer walk in Mauritania at the Senegal border. Later we led the service at a Lutheran church in St. Louis, where we again offered the Evangecube seminar.
Back in Dakar, we led the service at the hosting church, again offering the Evangecube seminar and prayer time. Here I was impressed to see college students from Gabon filled with enthusiasm and responding well to the challenge.
Before we left for the U.S. we all prayed that the seed we have spread will grow and bear fruit. Our plan is to come again next year to nourish the fruit and plant more seeds. We praise God who made this trip possible and may it continue as the Grace Korean Corps’ vision!
