Christians Long for Another Pyongyang Revival
It's a special year in Korea, two Presbyterian missionaries say. In the centennial year of the Pyongyang Revival, Christians are rallying in hopes of reigniting the spiritual fire that swept the peninsula a century ago.
"... there is a longing to experience again the repentance of sins and unity for mission that came with the fire of the Spirit's work one hundred years ago," wrote Sue and Art Kinsler, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission co-workers in Korea since 1972, in a letter.
Dr. Samuel Moffett, son of Samuel A. Moffet of First Church of Pyongyang (Chang Dae Hyun) where the revival was sparked, told Christianity Today magazine that there has not been anything "as conspicuous" as the 1907 Pyongyang Revival in the last 100 years.
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This year, the South Korean Church declared 2007 as the International Year of Prayer for North Korea during the centennial celebration on Jan. 14. While in celebration all year, churches in South Korea will focus on praying for a new revival to help North Koreans come to Christ and to help spur the reunification of North and South Koreas.
"Some have mentioned that without God's special work at this time a last chance for spiritually reuniting North and South may be lost, as the older generation who remember relatives over the border is dying out," the Presbyterian missionaries stated.
The Presbyterian Church of Korea, which claims the largest Presbyterian membership in the world, and other Christian organizations are holding spiritual rallies in different regions of South Korea.
Meanwhile, Sue Kinsler made her 42nd visit to North Korea to help feed starving children. She is currently recruiting support with the slogan "Celebrate the Pyongyang Revival by doing a five loaves and two fishes miracle of feeding one million North Korean children." Through the Lighthouse Foundation, which she founded in 2004 to care for hundreds of orphans and is also now serving the physically challenged, Kinsler is also preparing to open the Botong River Sheltered Workshop in May 2007. The shop will cater to the needs of the disabled.
North Korea was recently named as the worst persecutor of Christians for the fifth straight year by Open Doors in its annual World Watch List.
