South Korea: Prayer that Flows Like a Mountain Stream

Celebration Story We invite you to share with your congregation the following story from Will Loewen, Witness Worker in South Korea. The story should take no more than 2 minutes to read aloud. You might also wish to include the story in your church newsletter. This story is part of Equipping #83 February 2008.

Amidst a conversation I do not understand, I hear a word I recognize. “Hallelujah!”

The conversation between the man and his mother continues, and again I hear the word, “Hallelujah.” The man will tell me later that he was simply telling her that his family had attended that morning’s prayer service.

Prayer is a fundamental part of the Korean church experience. Our congregation (Jesus Village Church in Chuncheon, South Korea) has five morning prayer services per week, Tuesday through Saturday, at 5:30 am. I can barely haul myself out of bed for this prayer service. This man has done that, and his mother couldn’t be prouder.

He goes on to tell me that despite Korea’s current prosperity, most of the people here can remember more difficult times. Poverty, separation of families, and tremendous loss of life brought great sorrow to these people during their civil war. The Koreans pray for their han to be lifted. Han roughly means sorrow and regret, but encapsulates so much more. They pray for estranged family members and praise God for bringing them out of poverty and strife and ask for blessings upon those less fortunate.

No matter what the time of day or week, Koreans pray passionately. Prayers flow from their lips like the mountain streams that carve their way through the countryside; effortlessly, almost rhythmically. Prayers here often happen with many people speaking aloud at once. Koreans are a busy people, busier by far than our friends back home but still they make time to pray, even if it means meeting before the sun comes up.

There was a time when prayer was all that the Korean church had, and they will not allow their current prosperity to erase that from their memories. This determination is a powerful reminder of how much I also should draw close to God in prayer.

Will Loewen and his wife Ana, are Mennonite Church Canada Witness workers in South Korea where they live, work – and worship with Jesus Village Church in Chuncheon. Jesus Village Church was the first South Korean congregation to identify itself as Anabaptist. JVC became an Associate Member of Mennonite World Conference in 2003.