I'm coming to the end of a really insightful week in Korea.
I was invited to be part of a delegation of Nextmove (a network of mission agencies focussing on adapting to include diaspora communities in their work) to be part of a Symposium on Diaspora Missions. It was an academic symposium, with a few of the world leaders in diaspora missiology. Although I was there to learn and wasn't presenting anything, I got an upgrade to being a Dr!!
Our Nextmove group with some of the organisers.
It was significant that this took place in Korea, which has a fairly young missions movement of 30 or 40 years, but has also made great strides in developing diaspora missions within the last 20 years.
During our time together, they included a service to commission 5 new missionaries, all serving diaspora communities in Korea. The ceremony included traditional dances and an International choir.
The church which hosted us has an incredible heart for the nations. It's a large traditional church, which also includes ministries or congregations for 8 different language groups.
Within the church complex, they have 2 floors of accommodation for missionaries. Any missionaries are able to stay here for up to a month, with food at the on site restaurant, a health centre and many other facilities, all free of charge. They really know how to practice hospitality!.
The view from my room.
The organisers of our trip were also incredibly generous, enabling us to enjoy wonderful Korean food at every opportunity. Other churches also invited us out for meals. This is just one example of the spreads put on! (Unfortunately my chopstick skills seemed to get worse as the week moved on!)
And being in Korea was a very different experience. The cities are predominantly high rise, so have a very high population density.
But even amongst all the modernity and development, there are elements of the ancient Korean culture and history.
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