100 years and counting

A Cause for Celebration!

This past Sunday was a very special day…one of the more memorable experiences I’ve had in the past two years. In 1907, the founders of OMS international came to Korea from Japan and began what is now known as the Korean Evangelical Holiness Church (KEHC). As part of my special role in traveling and doing photography for OMS, I was privileged to be a part of their 100^th anniversary celebration which took place in the Seoul Olympic Stadium that was constructed for the 1988 summer Olympics.

The story of the KEHC’s history is compelling and hope inspiring. During it’s relatively short 100 years of history it has seen hard times and good times alike. When the empire of Japan invaded Korea in the early 1900’s, many Korean believers were imprisoned, martyred and scattered. Later, when Korea fell into civil war, the church in the North was separated from the South. To this day, it is not known what happened to those KEHC church members in North Korea. Yet with all the hardship that the Korean church has endured, it stands strong today. With almost 2600 churches and a membership of over 700,000 people, the KEHC is one of the greatest success stories that OMS has. As a nation, South Korea is second only to the United States in the total number of missionaries it sends around the world. The KEHC plays a part in this strong missionary sending tradition. Today, OMS partners with KEHC missionaries in several countries around the world. As for the celebration that I got to attend, I don’t really know where to begin. As a group of foreign guests we were escorted into the stadium to sit on the ground level directly in front of the stage. As we entered the stadium, the stands were already mostly full. An estimated 90,000+ people were there to join the party. Throughout the course of the night there were bands, dramatic performances, preaching, congratulatory speeches, and even a fireworks show. It was a lot of fun and I feel so blessed to have been allowed to be a part of it.

ECC’s worldwide Gathering

Due to the 100^th celebration in Korea, ECC decided to hold a worldwide gathering of it’s coordinators in Seoul for the week following the celebration. Due to political situations and problems with visa’s, not every coordinator was able to attend, but even so there are over 60 of us gathered in Korea for the remainder of this week. It has been so much fun to witness a combination of cultures as men and women from 6 continents meet to discuss church planting multiplication and methods of evangelism. As these leaders come together, they are encouraged by the stories from their fellow workers around the world and I think we are all gaining a better appreciation for how much we all have in common. Here is a partial sampling of the countries that are represented in our meetings (South Africa, Cameroon, New Zealand, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Ukraine, Estonia, Brazil, India, Japan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and many more!)

For more pictures from the stadium celebration or our ECC conference, please check out my photo gallery.

Russia Trip Update

Dave and I began this latest trip last Sunday leaving in the afternoon from Portland. A young man (Marty) from Oregon left with us on his way to work at the OMS camp in Spain for the next 5 months. Since this was Marty’s first trip outside of the United States, Dave wanted to escort him personally to the camp in Spain. The short detour to Spain wasn’t far out of the way for us and it provided a good opportunity for Dave and I to visit some of the friends we had made at the camp one year ago when we stayed for two weeks to work there.

After dropping Marty off, Dave and I made our way to Moscow where we’ve been since Wednesday. The purpose of our trip to Moscow is really three-fold. First, Dave is on the board of directors for the OMS seminary in Moscow. As I sit here writing this blog, Dave is involved with his board meetings. Secondly, we are here for the seminary graduation ceremony tomorrow (Saturday). I’m unsure of the number of students graduating this year, but last year it was around 13 students if I remember correctly. The third reason we are in Russia is to visit some churches. On Sunday I am heading three hours North of Moscow to visit an ECC related church. After that I’ll be returning to Moscow on Monday.

The rest of my time in Russia next week will mainly be passing away some extra time before heading to Korea on Thursday. Dave is going to make a brief trip to India for three days while I stay behind in Russia on my own. The reason I’m not going is to save some money on the airfare. Dave is going for meetings only, so I would have just been stuck there in a Hotel for those days. The same is true for me here in Russia except that I am a bit more free to travel around on my own and at least the temperature here is well below 100 degrees which can’t be said for India.

I have uploaded some of the most recent photos of our trip so far onto my photo gallery. As the trip progresses I’ll try to keep posting some new pictures as often as I can.