With the eyes of the world now having left Korea, we might turn our attention to some Koreans now living in Australia. One suspects that they are doing more for ‘world peace’ than the Olympic movement…
In mid-1986, three Koreans from the University of NSW (UNSW) met together and prayed. This was the start of a Korean student Bible study group that has been growing ever since.
But can we justify an ethnic Christian group? A different kind of racism? Are we not all family after all?
Well, the main purpose of our meeting is to encourage and evangelise Korean students on the campus of UNSW, and to help them to come to Christ without being unnecessarily hindered by cultural differences. As a long-term goal, we hope to see some full-time workers for the Lord coming from our group, to serve and evangelise the Korean Community in Sydney, and people in other parts of the world.
We have seen six friends graduating so far, and currently about twenty students are attending the group. Considering that the whole Korean population on campus is about 100 including post-graduate students, the Lord has been extremely generous in guiding our group. Due to the small size of the Korean student community and also the particular character of Korean culture, most of the students know each other. So it is important for us to progress in godliness and show examples in our lives in order to evangelise them.
Most of the undergraduate Korean students in Sydney are migrants and most of the graduate students are overseas students. As these overseas postgraduate students have more pressure from study, and hope to finish their studies as quickly as they can, it is relatively difficult to invite them to the group. Last year we prayed that more male students would join and that the Lord would send post-graduate members. Praise the Lord! At the end of Session 1 we saw two new post-graduate friends becoming Christians–now we need to pray about female members to restore the balance!
Each week, apart from joining the 350 others at Campus Bible Study (run by the Anglican Chaplaincy), we have our own large group meeting at 1-2pm and five small groups, comprising one Starters group for investigating Christianity, two Growth groups for new and growing Christians, and two Servants groups. Most of the small groups are led by students, and the large meetings are led by myself with the help of other friends in the group.
In Session 1 this year, the main emphasis was on making personal quiet times part or our lives. As a result, most of our regular members have started and are continuing personal quiet times. In this session, we are learning and practising evangelism. Also, we pray that several new students who joined this session will settle comfortably, because we expect quite a big turnover of members next year as most of our foundation members graduate.
At the end of each year, the annual houseparty is held, where we train and encourage one another in our group, and also fellow Korean friends in other universities. Among our programs so far since July 1986, the most encouraging events were the annual houseparties. Many changed their views about university evangelism and cleared skepticisms.
Encouraged by our group, Korean students in Sydney University, Macquarie University and the University of Technology have started Bible study groups. Once in two months, leaders in each group get together to have fellowship, encourage one another and discuss about the annual houseparty.
Pray for the ministry to Koreans on our campuses, that through those that graduate, the whole Korean community might be reached for Christ.
