Seoul (Feb. 16-17)
Our first seminar was held at Seoul's Sarang Community Church ("sarang" means love). John taught in English and Peter translated. In these seminars, we also used the same visual aids as in TERM seminars, and the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (see Chennai recap for more details) to contrast a polytheistic belief system with what the Bible says.
John's PowerPoint presentations were all translated into Korean!
There were about 170 participants at this seminar, including pastors, Bible college students and those in ministry.
Participants checking out the visual aids.Daejeong (Feb. 18)
This large church in Daejeong was a 2-hour drive from Seoul. There were about 140 participants at this seminar.
Even our visual aids were "Koreanized"!
Since there were Bible students from Mainland China at this seminar (and also at the Ansan seminar), Derek translated John's teaching into Mandarin through simultaneous translation equipment.Korean Military - Special Forces chapel, Seoul (Feb. 19)
Through our friend Peter, who is currently in the Korean Special Forces, we were blessed to have dinner with a military general (more details in an entry below) and to have John preach at the special forces military chapel.
About 300 soldiers heard the message, which was about the Passover and Christ's work on the cross.
The soldiers, with Janice (John's wife) in the foreground.Ansan (Feb. 20)
It was an opportunity that could not be passed up. A church in Ansan had prayed for 3 years (!) for someone from outside their country to come teach them the Word of truth. When they found out that a teaching team from GoodSeed was visiting Korea, they pulled together a Beginning with Moses seminar for a crowd of more than 400 in record time — one week. (We later learned that they had estimated boxed lunches for 420, and a total of 414 showed up!)
This was our biggest crowd yet! Since local universities were on break, there were quite a number of college-aged students attending.
Because visual aids are rarely used to teach adults in this culture (as in many other cultures!), the audience was especially fascinated by the many visual aids that John used. They sat rapt as the visuals helped explain difficult concepts in God’s word that had become clear for the very first time.One lady started clapping spontaneously when John broke the chains around his wrists to illustrate the concept of redemption.
- No pictures for security purposes -
The special treat at this seminar was having 7 seminary students from Mainland China in the audience. Having come to Korea on an academic visa and studying under the banner of a secular university, these students hailed from 7 different provinces in northeast China. Although evangelism in China is still prohibited by law, these students hope to go back to their homeland equipped with the knowledge and tools they needed to reach the lost. Derek translated John’s message into Mandarin for the Chinese students and they listened through headphones.
After the seminar, the team was able to sit down with the students and a few of their academic deans and professors to garner their feedback, which would be crucial for developing future tools for large missions fields such as China. We had a special time of getting to know them and their situation. Although we only spent about an hour together, it was indeed precious fellowship in the Lord.
One of the students told us: “I was truly inspired by the chronological approach. China has many remote rural and mountainous regions, especially in the West, where people are uneducated, illiterate and considered ‘uncivilized.’ I always thought it would be impossible to teach these people the Gospel because they simply would not understand all the complex doctrines. But with this approach, even people with little or no education would be able to understand. Through stories, visual aids and drama, the whole story of the Bible unfolds in a very simple and clear way. I feel that this approach could be used mightily to teach such people.”
Cheongju (Feb. 22)
Our last seminar was in Cheongju, 2 hours south of Seoul. About 150 participants attended.
Mr. Yoon translated this time.
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