Gospel Tissue Box

Greetings!

Today we went to lunch with Rev. and Sis. Shin. They have often been the “Ravens” (In the bible, God used ravens to carry food to Elijah when he dwelt by the brook Cherith) that God has sent to be a blessing to us. Rev. Shin pastors a church in Korea, but every seventh year, they give the pastor a sabbatical, so during that sabbatical year, they came to the Philippines and Rev. and Sis. Mackert met them and invited them to come and they began attending our church. Their purpose here was to learn English and also check up on some of the Korean missionaries here. When his year ended, he returned to Korea, but his wife and family remained here in the Philippines to continue their studies. She is working on a Masters degree in English. He is a Presbyterian, but he got filled with the Holy Ghost, and turned around and taught the Holy Ghost Baptism to his church and he told me that about 70 percent of them now have the Holy Ghost baptism.

Now that I have been exposed to a different culture in the Philippines, I have become curious about other cultures also, so I have often asked him about Korea. The one thing that especially stood out to me was the housing situation there. Korea is an apartment society, but to rent an apartment, the normal method is much different than in America. Instead of a monthly rental being paid, the rentor gives a huge amount of money to the owner, sometimes this can be up to $500,000.00, from what I understand, usually in the six digit range. This money, the owner has the right to invest while the tenant is in the apartment. He can put it in the bank and draw interest or whatever type of investment he wants, but at the end of the contract, he has to return the entire amount to the tenant. So the tenant loses nothing, but the interest on the money, or the ability to use it while they are renting the apartment.

I asked him about his church work there. 5am daily prayer (except Sat.) half day studying and half day visiting are his norm. Then came the interesting part, he shared that Korea was different than America in that our country was founded on Christian values, but Korea has been steeped in Buddhism. Often when they go soulwinning, if they hand out a tract or printed material about their church, the prospect upon finding out they are Christians, will immediately refuse, so, they came up with the above idea, Gospel Tissue Box! The prospect will accept the tissues and the box has verses and the service times and a picture of the pastor and the church. Novel idea indeed! Follow @ddevonshire