3 minute read
Congratulations to SIM Korea
Key entity celebrates 25 years in our global family
BY JOSHUA BOGUNJOKO, SIM INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR
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It is a great honour for me to congratulate the SIM Korea office on the 25th anniversary of their joining the SIM family.
The first SIM Korea mission workers, Rev. Sam and Sarah Kang, were commissioned in 1981. They were sent not only to my home country of Nigeria, but to my home region!
As many of you know, I was raised in a village in southern Nigeria. When I started high school, I moved to Igbaja town and attended the SIM school there, which shared a campus with the Igbaja Seminary.
Rev. Sam Kang served for many years as a professor at Igbaja Seminary, though I did not know him at the time. So, Igbaja unites us as the special place where my salvation journey began and where mission workers from SIM Korea began their journey.
The first church in Korea was planted in 1893 and ushered in more than 100 years of church growth and outreach. The SIM Korea office was established just before the turn of the 21st century; the governing council of SIM Korea was first formed in 1997. Then, in 2000, SIM Korea became a joint owner of the whole mission, ushering in, we pray, 100 more years of continued growth and outreach.
I would like to mention SIM Korea’s first director, Mrs. Sarah Kang. Both historically and today, our mission teams everywhere have depended on the contributions of godly women. Sarah’s gifts in administration and leadership helped establish the Korea office on a good foundation.
All of SIM is grateful to Mrs Kang, to her successor, Rev. Yong Sung, to the SIM Korea board members, and to the SIM Korea directors and staff, who have faithfully shepherded the affairs of SIM Korea; and for the care of SIM Korea workers that has made their entity one of the leading offices in SIM.
Korean mission workers today are known for many qualities. I can only mention a few of those, but they include their devotion to prayer, their emphasis on church planting and theological education, and their resilience while serving in some very challenging locations.
These characteristics not only harmonise with our SIM purpose, ethos and core values, they enrich our teams in ways we would not achieve without them.
We look forward with great anticipation to what the next 25 years will bring for SIM Korea and its mission workers.
May the partnership between the Korean church, SIM Korea and the SIM global family continue to advance God’s gospel for his glory.
PLEASE PRAY
• Give thanks for the many Korean workers sent out to share the good news of Jesus Christ with communities where he is least known.
• For the team in the SIM Korea office, that they would continue to work well together and support their faithful mission workers around the world.
• For God to raise up more men and women from the Korean church to join his global mission.
Youngchun Heo shares the gospel with South Asian villagers.
Petro Chang (centre with child on lap) with his discipleship group.
Sungil Kim using an Instagram frame during a training session for Sunday school teachers in Peru.
