The mission trip from h***

Each year LCS students who served their Lord and his people during the summer on a mission experience are invited to share their stories in chapel. The stories are unique, because they deal with God’s unique creatures, and yet they are similar in impact. Our American students return from their mission experience enriched personally, realizing how trivial our problems are by comparison to those of people elsewhere in the world.

What if you went on a mission trip, and two of your leaders were killed while the remaining members of your group were held hostage? This is exactly what happened to a group of about two dozen missionaries from the Saem-mul (“Spring water”) Presbyterian church in a suburb of Seoul, South Korea. They were on a mission of mercy to Afghanistan, and were seized by Taliban terrorists as their bus traveled between Kabul and Kandahar on July 19. Most of the group were women, but two male leaders were executed to demonstrate that the captors were serious about their ransom demands. Over the last several days, the last captives were released and brought back to Korea safely.Let the record also show that the Taliban did not begin its attacks on Christians when the United States invaded Iraq. This story reminds us of what the Taliban was up to in the weeks and months leading up to 9-11-2001.

What did the Taliban achieve with this act of terrorism? The South Korean government agreed to withdraw its 200 soldiers from Afghanistan, even though they were working in non-combat roles which provided humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people. They also had to promise not to send any more Christian missionaries into Afghanistan, or they would face the death penalty under Sharia law. Unfortunately, because the Korean government negotiated with and acceded to the Taliban’s demands, they have become emboldened and vow to repeat that strategy with citizens of other nations.

Throughout the past six weeks, these brave Korean Christians have been labeled “reckless” and “stupid” for defying their government’s warnings not to go into Afghanistan. They have returned to their homeland apologizing for their actions, despite the fact that they were the victims in this saga. They are now reporting severe beatings for refusing to submit to Islam and bow to Mecca at the appointed prayer times. And the South Korean government is apparently going to make them reimburse the treasury for the funds expended in their rescue.

I’m going to include links at this point to several commentaries on this whole incident. Here is a link to the Korean newspaper JoonAng Ilbo, which expresses outrage at the terrorists, but also says

By ignoring the government’s warning and rashly carrying out a mission in a politically unstable Muslim country, the captives have laid a great burden on their country. By violating international principles and directly negotiating with a terrorist group, our country has invited censure from other countries. Korean churches cannot escape the scathing criticism that their aggressive missionary work put the lives of several innocent young people in dire jeopardy.

By contrast, here is a link to a piece by an American Korean missionary, who reminds his fellow Koreans

The Rev. Robert Thomas was 26 years old when he died near Pyongyang, North Korea, 140 years ago. By some accounts, he was executed in 1866 by Korean soldiers. Before he was killed, he gave a Bible to his executioner, who later became a Christian.

Though he did not do great mission work in the eyes of people, he gave his life for Korean Christians and churches. Because of his sacrifice, the seed of the gospel was planted in Korea. Because of his love, many Koreans, including me, became believers of Jesus Christ.

And here is a piece from Persecution blog, in which the author defends the Korean Christians’ actions and insists that they have nothing for which to apologize,

Yet, it is amazing to me how these poor Christians are being made out to be some horrible people because they simply went over to serve. This is an outrage and if anyone needs to apologize it's the Taliban and the South Korean government to their people. The missionaries are completely innocent and they lost a few of their friends to this terrorism that they all went through.

We have many students from Korea in our school this year. What is your reaction to this story? It certainly presents a dilemma that most of us never face—on the one hand, the government says “Don’t do mission work in Afghanistan,” but on the other hand, the Lord says “Make disciples of all nations.” Should we “Shake the dirt off of our sandals” when rejected in one place, or should we be as bold as the first disciples, among whom only John survived to die a natural death and not that of a martyr?

Praise God for the courage of the South Korean missionaries, who not only endured physical suffering at the hands of the Taliban, but also endured the emotional abuse and ridicule of those who believe that Christians deserve to suffer when they confront sin and unbelief and urge souls to repent and believe the Gospel.