Kimchi Mission

"A couple of years ago a leader of a British mission agency asked me, 'What can we do to help Korean mission movements?' and I told him, 'Nothing!' He looked rather shocked but it was a truthful answer - he came 50 years to late." KeungChul Jeong was in my office today and that was his frank comment on the attitude of western mission movements towards Koreans. KeungChul, who leads the work of Interserve in Korea, was, of course, right in most respects but I still wished we had a little longer to talk - he had to rush for a train or something. He was correct in that a lot of us from the West underestimate Korean missionary maturity. He also saw that we have a difficulty in receiving, we prefer to give. He was also rightly reflecting the self-understanding of Korea as a nation which now sends more cross-cultural missionaries than any other except India and the USA. But then he might just (if I may be allowed to suggest it) be making the same mistake as the British. Collaboration, partnership, sharing (call it what you like) is important for the strong as well as the weak - Koreans need Africans, Indians and Peruvians as partners in mission, just as much as do we Brits.

Well, I'm in Seoul in October so perhaps we can talk some more then. We discovered we have a mutual friend there - Henry, a Korean mission leader from whom I learnt much in Southern Russia ten years ago. Perhaps we can enjoy Kimchi together and discover some new recipies for partnership.

EAT Lunch

I wasn't expecting such a good lunch today at EAT in Baker Street. Well, the food was actually not that good - overpriced and somewhat bland - but the conversation was great. A colleague asked me to meet a student from London School of Theology who wanted to talk with someone about partnerships in mission and as I was in London destined for another meeting - which is another story! - I agreed to meet Lanri. I must admit I was expecting just another student looking for a quick way to get someone else to write their asignment, I've had plenty of those meetings, but I was wrong. It turned out that Lanri is a mature student, hails from Lagos, Nigeria, and is really passionate about partnerships in mission. I can't believe it, but he tells me he is one of only two students at LST majoring in mission - what has become of LST? We had a great hour or so sharing passions and now Faith2Share is destined to become the case study in Lanri's disertation. That's good, but better still, I was encouraged to find another African brother who really believes we can build kingdom partnerships. Perhaps it was worth the £3.95 sandwich after all!