Thursday, May 6, 2010

Preparing Missionaries for Korea!-?









That's right. The Philippines is sending missionaries to Korea, probably the world's most evangelized and mission sending nations. I'm sitting in a cool classroom counting the minutes until we are dismissed from the last day of class to face the oppressive Manila heat.
I'm co-teaching KAIROS with Bibien Limlingan. (top left picture)
KAIROS is a 'grand daughter' of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement. KAIROS is 8 lessons, rather than 15 (in Perspectives), and each lesson is about half the length of each Perspectives lesson. Bibien is a Filipina serving with the "Philippine Mission Association". She invited me to help her train Philippinos for mission service in Korea. We are just minutes from completing training for a group of 7 young Adults who are being sent by their home churches, and called by Korean churches. Next week they will fly to So Korea to teach ESL classes in schools, and participate in outreach programs with their adopting Korean churches. Korea is asking for 5000 Filipinos to come and teach ESL. These churches are responding to this need by equipping Philippinos to come and teach with a purpose. It's fun to take part in equipping these young adults (all singles) to go out for their first cross-cultural mission. They'll be in Korea for at least 2 years.
I'm in training too - become certified as a 'lead facilitator' for KAIROS classes. We want to encourage the spread of this course throughout Asia and the Pacific. This is an exciting program that is helping churches develop a mission framework. Pastors and members of churches who invite KAIROS to their congregations tell us; "I've never heard this before!" They're excited - and so are we!