I approach two upcoming events with a bit of trembling, and much anticipation and hope as well.

First, Nov. 7-11 I will be in North Korea with an MCC team. 

This is our first visit since the Sep. 1 U.S. State Department travel ban/restrictions. (We needed permission from both North Korean and U.S. governments to travel – how strange). I am grateful our team of four will be hosted by a counterpart who was one of the North Koreans MCC hosted in Winnipeg in May. We will monitor MCC soybean and canned meat shipments serving children at orphanages and assess new engagement possibilities. Yet the larger purpose is to bear witness that the policy of governments does not set the policy of the church, a church called to pursue Christ’s peace across the deepest divides. In fact, while we are in Pyongyang, just 100 miles away in Seoul President Trump will be in South Korea. (For those who are praying people, pray for our MCC team, for the North Korean people we will meet, for Donna, who will stay in South Korea, and for our children, who sometimes wonder why Dad is doing this).

 

Second, November 17 in Seoul I will address an international conference on the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation organized by Handong University. 

My title is “God’s Reformation of Peace ‘For Such a Time as This.’” I grew up in South Korea, and witnessed vast Christian growth those years and since (as well as the vast growth of economy and militarization). Yet the divide between North and South is the greatest since the end of the Korean war, “Make My Country Great Again” (from U.S. to China to Japan to Russia to the Korean peninsula) is the refrain of this time, and the dominant kinds of Christianity have not offered a faithful response. (Link to conference: https://cori0401.wixsite.com/reformation).

The divide between North and South these days seems like an “incurable wound” (Jeremiah 14: 17-19). Even then, I bear witness that God is planting seeds of hope in the cracks. For the promise has been made in Jesus Christ, “the dawn from on high shall break upon us, and guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79).

P.S. On Sep. 4, TIME magazine ran a 6-page article on dear colleagues of ours who have labored faithfully for many years in North Korea (attached). These kinds of stories are rarely reported. I can also say that MCC is planting many seeds under the radar in unlikely places, on all sides of the divide – here in the South, across the DMZ, via our United Nations office in New York, and our advocacy office in Washington DC. See:  TIME September 4, 2017