wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Korean-Americans make mission pledge

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Note #7519 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

Korean-Americans make mission pledge
02456
November 11, 2002

Korean-Americans make mission pledge

Group to mark anniversaries by supporting 20 workers for 10 years

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE - A 120-year cycle of Presbyterian mission was completed here on
Nov. 8 with an announcement from the National Korean Presbyterian Council
(NKPC) that it will financially support 20 Presbyterian Church (USA)
missionaries for the next 10 years.

The NKPC, which represents about 400 Korean-American congregations in the
PC(USA), said the pledge was  "the best way" to celebrate two key
anniversaries - the 120th of the arrival of Presbyterian missionaries in
Korea and the 100th of the arrival of the first Korean immigrants in the
United States - according to the Rev. Insik Kim, coordinator for East Asia
and the Pacific in the Worldwide Ministries Division.

Kim told the Presbyterian News Service that the Korean churches now devote $2
million a year to mission support, much of it outside the General Assembly's
mission budget. "They felt it was time that our mission giving better reflect
our close relationship with the PC(USA)," he said.

Some of the new missionaries may be Korean-American missionaries already in
the field, but not under PC(USA) appointment. The NKPC moderator, Dok
Hyun-Cho, said he hopes the first two appointments can be made by next June.

The NKPC also pledged to contribute an undisclosed amount to PC(USA) mission
projects around the world, and set a goal of establishing 200 new Korean
Presbyterian congregations in the next decade.

Kim noted that in the 120 years since Presbyterian missionaries went to
Korea, the church there has flourished despite political upheavals, wars and
the division of the Korean peninsula. "These Christians have just refused to
give up," he said, "and now the Presbyterian church in Korea is one of the
strongest in the world."

Kim called the NKPC's commitment "a challenge to the rest of the
denomination, to leave our differences behind and work together for Christ's
mission."

The NKPC also said it will consider giving new-church development assistance
to a presbytery in Mexico; to encourage Korean-American Presbyterians to
consider short-term and volunteer mission service; and to work with WMD
leaders to make PC(USA) mission more visible in Korean Presbyterian
congregations.

"From humble beginnings 120 years ago, God has blessed Korean Presbyterians,"
Kim said. "Now they bless us."

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