This is an article from the September-October 1995 issue: One Local Church Takes on the World

The Korean Church Gets Serious About The Evangelization of the 10/40 Window

The Korean Church Gets Serious About The Evangelization of the 10/40 Window

At the Olympic Stadium during the last week of July, 10,000 children prayed for the needy children of the world. This was just one of many Korean AD 2000 Track follow-up activities flowing from GCOWE '95. "The Korean AD 2000 movement will continue in close partnership with the AD 2000 international office to achieve evangelization of the peoples in the 10/40 Window." This comment was made in an official publication describing the follow-up activities of the Korean church with the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement.

International Board members of the AD 2000 & Beyond Movement, Dr. Mrs. Lee and Dr. David Kim discussed and reviewed the plans for launching a global five year initiative, emerging out of the GCOWE '95 process. With a bi-pronged focus on country-wide AD 2000 initiatives and a detailed plan to implement the vision of a church for every people and the gospel for every person by the year 2000 in the 10/40 window, "The Joshua Project," was formulated. It will be launched at the upcoming meeting of 200 core AD 2000 leaders to be held November 28 to December 2nd in Colorado Springs. "I am very excited about this vision," said Dr. Lee after review and discussion. She indicated that she is making plans to fly to Colorado Springs for "the launch," the name given to the gathering.

Preparing for Praying Through the Window II

An official report on GCOWE 95 published in early August 1995, pointed to four primary impacts by GCOWE '95 on the Korean church. Perhaps the most far-reaching stated was as follows: "Korea's vision for the 10/40 Window broadened and heightening the desire to focus missionary efforts on this region." During the October 1993 prayer initiative an estimated one million Korean Christians participated in the Praying Through the Window I focused on the countries of the 10/40 Window. Preparations are being made for this next major prayer initiative October 1995 in Praying Through the Window II focused on the 100 Gateway Cities. As a result of the gathering of 10,000 praying Korean children in July, it is expected that many Korean children will be participating in the October 1995 Prayer effort.

The Mobilization of Korean Denominations

A primary focus will be on the mobilization of the denominations of Korea for the evangelization of the peoples of the 10/40 Window. Korean AD 2000 Executive Committee members plus AD 2000 tracks will work with denominational church leaders to carry-out various activities of the 13 international tracks.

One of the major activities will be the convening of the denominational leaders to consider the challenge of the least evangelized peoples of the 10/40 Window.

The plan under consideration involves motivating these denominational leaders to mobilize prayer in their denominations for the up-coming October 1997 Prayer throughout the Gateway Peoples of the 10/40 Window.

It includes adopting each of the significant least evangelized peoples on the AD 2000 target list by a careful system of assigning responsibility for the evangelization of each of the peoples, so that every one is adopted for evangelization. "The plan is to encourage redeployment of the existing mission's force of these denominations for the evangelization of the peoples of the 10/40 Window," said Dr. David Kim, Executive Director for the Torch Center, that hosted GCOWE '95. David also serves as senior pastor for the 5000 member Alleluia church and on the International board of the AD2000 & Beyond Movement.

Today there are more than 4,000 long-term Korean missionaries spread across the world. About 10% reside in the former USSR. Contrary to the popular belief that most Korean missionaries outside of Korea work simply with Koreans, a recent survey revealed that around 90% work with non-Koreans.

Korean American Churches to Adopt 300 Unreached Peoples

Already there has been a commitment made by leaders of the Korean churches in the U.S. to adopt 300 of the integrated AD 2000 target list at their AD2000 focused conference in Wheaton next year, at which Christian leaders are expected from 3,000 North American Korean churches. In addition, the Torch Center has begun the process of adopting 100 of the list of least evangelized peoples. In both cases, they are considering re-deployment of existing missionaries to the unreached peoples.

Mission Aflame '95 in Pusan--seed bed for prayer, and for the mobilization of new missionaries for the 10/40 Window Five hundred student Christian leaders met for four days in a beautiful University campus over looking the Korean port city of four million. This was the first time that a Christian activity of this nature had taken place on this campus. It had been the vision of a student of the campus a number of years ago to see a large gathering of dedicated Christians meeting on the campus. From early morning to late at night the delegates met. In the second night over two-thirds of the young people responded to the invitation to become mission's mobilizers. Among the speakers was Dr. David Lee, Chairman of the WEF Mission's Commission. David commented that he observed the stirrings of revival in the evening meetings in Mission Aflame 95. For more than forty five minutes some 300 students prayed on their knees on August 8th. Many wept openly. On August 9th, one half of the delegates came forward to dedicate themselves to become missionaries to the peoples, cities and countries of the 10/40 Window. There was an extended times of seeking God with fervency and devotion. While still on their knees, David Lee provided practical suggestions on steps they needed totake to become an effective missionary in the 10/40 Window. He talked about being sure of their salvation as their faith would be tested by fire in the 10/40 Window. He talked about memorizing portions of Scripture, of completing their studies, of beginning to get to know mission agencies working in the 10/40 Window.

Korean Students, Professionals, Businessmen Take Up The Challenge Of The 10/40 Window

Korean businessman, Elder Che, husband of AD 2000 & Beyond International Board member, Dr. Mrs. Lee, departed August 1 for Kazakhstan, at the invitation of the President Nazarbayev of that country to provide consultative advice on building of the national infrastructure from their abundant supply of raw materials. In a Middle Eastern country an engineer sitting beside me on a flight to Korea described how he came to faith in Christ in that restricted access nation. Upon asking about the circumstances, he described a vital community of witnessing Korean Christians making up at least 5% of the Korean working population of some 30,000 residents. Though there are no officially authorized missionaries in that country and very few internationals of any kind, there lives a robust community of Christians. as an opportunity to share their faith. The strong commitment for the evangelization of the 10/40 window by Korean Christian leaders suggest that tentmaking efforts will increase significantly in the coming years.

The Korean Church Takes On The Giant Of The 10/40 Window

Over 200 short term missionaries fanned throughout Mainland China over the past several months. Many of them were students taking time out of their vacations. The leader of one group of 215 who went to China, Mr. I, reported on the vision to establish bases in 100 universities of China. One of the great advantages for Koreans is that they already know the written Chinese language. Students are encouraged to learn the spoken language and to establish bases throughout China for the evangelization of the nation.

Over the next 18 months, Mr. I is considering sending teams to do on- site research among the 85 or so significant least evangelized peoples in China as part of the global Joshua project. His vision includes involving teams in the on-site prayer effort focused on the significant least evangelized peoples among the Chinese peoples in October 1997 and establishing a church planting movement in each of them by December 31, 2000.

Conclusion: A fresh spirit of cooperation is one of the major fruits of the Korean Movement of the Twenty First Century, which is the name given to the AD 2000 & Beyond movement in Korea. "In the history of the Korean church, it was the first time for diverse Christian organizations, denominations and church leaders to cooperate. Korean Christian Council which has more than 40 denominations, Korean Evangelical Fellowship, Korean National Council of Churches and Korean World Missions Association all officially endorsed the AD 2000 Movement. SM 2000 was organized by 15 Christian student university groups which joined together tosponsor the major meeting in the Olympic Stadium. 'For so many groups to cooperate was also a big first!' The article on the future prospect of the AD2000 movement in Korea finished with the words: 'Yes, together we can obey the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ, and yes, together we can achieve the task of world evangelization--Yes, together we can.'" With a committed focus on the evangelization of the 10/40 Window and a fresh spirit of cooperation among Christian groups, we can anticipate signifcant efforts to that end in the years to come.

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