October 2023
One Year in Korea!
It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since our family has moved to Korea! We came to help bring back the revival and renewal movement here. We love being in Korea, where so many things are close and convenient. Joshua, our youngest, walks to school and can go to after-school programs on his own, such as the archery team that he has joined. He often hangs out with other school kids and brings friends to our home, all on their own. Last fall, we renovated a home in the neighborhood that was already owned by the ministry. It comfortably houses the four of us—Abraham, Gloria, Elizabeth, and Joshua—minus Ernest, who’s studying at LSU. (A few months ago, Elizabeth also started a gap-semester internship in the US.) We’re very grateful for this house, within walking distance of the prayer center!
Jinju International Prayer Center
Jinju International Prayer Center, led by Gloria’s father Rev. Jin-hong Kim, is a beacon of hope and faith in Korea, fueling the prayer and revival movement 365 days of the year with 3 to 4 passionate worship services a day. In this generation when many prayer centers are losing their spark and closing, this place is still going strong, preserving the vibrant tradition of fervent prayer, worship, and revival-style preaching.
We welcome all to the Center. Many come seeking renewal, revival, or even a first-time experience with God. Our ecumenical ministry embraces people from any church or any stage in their spiritual journey, helping them experience God’s presence, recharge, and equip themselves to carry out the Great Commission. Pastors and newcomers alike find healing here. For example, a woman unfamiliar with the church or Jesus recently found healing and freedom from spiritual torment here. She accepted Christ and has embraced daily prayer and is growing in the Lord.
Each week, God sends us visitors from all over the country, including many pastors, ministers, and missionaries seeking strength, as well as lay persons seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit. With an average of 30-40 worshipers attending each of our 3-4 daily services, guests stay from just one service to a month or longer. They come and experience revival and renewal, then take back the spirit of prayer and revival to their homes, ministries and mission fields in Korea and around the world. While the number of people visiting dipped in the past two years due to COVID-19, more people have begun coming again in 2023 since public health measures were lifted in the spring. On holidays, we’ve seen over 100 people in service. We’re praying that this growth trend continues, allowing God to impact and inspire more people through our center.
This past year has been marked by extraordinary experiences and memorable people. For example, in the spring, one kind pastor successfully completed a 40-day fast here, and continues to visit. On a recent visit, he testified that he received many answers to prayer! Several cancer patients found healing through days or weeks of prayer here, and a man who relied on crutches now dances during worship. Emotional restoration is common to see here: by their body language and conversation, we see many people arriving downtrodden, anxious, and clearly oppressed. But through extended times of worship, prayer, and preaching, we see their emotions healing. We love to see them with smiles as they lift heads and hands in worship! Spiritual deliverance is also common. For example, a teacher was delivered from demonic oppression here, and ended up spending a month with us absorbing our teaching and solidifying her healing. Special recognition goes to HimChan (“Strong”) Church from the neighboring city of Suncheon. Their leaders embrace the homeless, the mentally challenged, children who have lost a parent, and many other struggling people. They regularly bring people like these to our center, and many find healing and recovery!
International Revival Seminary
Founded years ago by Rev. Jin-hong Kim, this apprentice-style school trains students to lead prayer and revival ministries with our unique spirit and approach. From already ordained pastors seeking growth, to untrained beginners, we have many eager students finding mentorship here. We emphasize hands-on learning— first watching, then helping and doing. Gloria often coaches students individually or in small groups, helping them hone their revival-style preaching skills. Within a few months, many become leaders in our main worship services. Our graduates from over the years are in many places, doing many kinds of ministry: evangelism, church planting, international missions, running houses of prayer, and more.
Online Reach
Rev. Jin-hong Kim has long used the power of media to spread God’s word, with sermons aired on Korean Christian TV and an early-established YouTube channel. During COVID, we worked hard to set up live streaming equipment and train volunteers and staff to run it. (You can view our YouTube channel at jinjupray.live). Even post-COVID, our YouTube channel continues to grow steadily, extending the reach of God’s message. It is common to have just as many or more viewers online as in-person attendees. Our sermon videos often receive hundreds or even thousands of views, and our subscriber count is approaching 3,000. While the online experience is never as good as being present in person, it inspires newcomers to visit, and is a source of ongoing encouragement for those who have visited in person and want to continue to refresh their prayer and worship life at home. We continue to iterate and improve, exploring ways to engage younger people, such as short video clips, interactive live sessions, and more.
Community Engagement
When the spring semester started, we launched Kingdom Leaders English Worship, a children’s ministry in our living room, capitalizing on the allure of learning English from a native speaker. So far we have attracted mainly Joshua’s school friends, and four from non-Christian backgrounds have already committed to following Jesus! We ask for your prayers as we continue to disciple and develop them into leaders for God’s kingdom, and for growth in numbers in this group.
Jinju, a city known for education with its numerous universities, presented Abraham with an unexpected opportunity. In the spring, at a friend’s invitation, he gave a guest lecture at the AI department of Gyeongsang National University, the largest local university. This has opened the door to teach a graduate-level class on AI Ethics, as an adjunct professor this fall. We pray that this will give us an opportunity to connect with more young Koreans and even international students and lead to further avenues to engage the next generations with God’s vision for their lives! Already after the first three classes, one student has said that he is being inspired not just in the area of AI Ethics, but to live an ethical life in many other areas.
Work toward Future Vision
We came to Korea with a clear yet broad vision: to bring the prayer and revival movement to the next generations, and to raise up young leaders in Korea and beyond! We have many dreams about the specifics, and these are still developing and growing inside us by prayer and planning. However, our first year has largely been a transition, supporting existing ministry and finding smaller opportunities like the Kingdom Leaders English Worship. We continue to learn, network, and explore long-term vision pathways. In Fall 2022, we journeyed with Elizabeth to Heart of God Church in Singapore for a conference on raising up a strong, young church. Their church is truly amazing! They are reaching and discipling generations of young students, and we highly recommend that everyone in the Body of Christ take a look at how they are doing this! In the spring, Gloria took a 3-month course on starting and running a Christian school, offered by an organization that seems aligned with the vision that we have for training and raising up the next generations.
Our current challenges include setting up systems to sustain and propel the current ministry, and finding and funding dependable staff and partners for daily tasks that consume much of our energy. Essentially, we’re not just running a prayer center; we’re also operating a cafeteria, a “hotel” with rooms for up to 100 people, and a prayer park that demands extensive landscaping. We have many short-term volunteers as people come and go, but we need committed, long-term staff to free us up, enabling us to focus on significant advancements toward our long-term vision, rather than just incremental additions to our current ministry.
Prayer Requests
While we’re eager to share the positives, we must also mention the spiritual battles we face here. Unpredictable challenges arise at the worst times. The enemy tries to sow discord, exploit situations, and undermine God’s work in the ministry and individuals. Yet we persist by God’s grace, and especially under the unceasing prayers of our founder, Rev. Jin-hong Kim, and those learning and growing under his guidance. We ask also for your unwavering prayers, in the following areas.
1. Pray for continued growth in ministry opportunities, and growth in the capacity to meet those opportunities. Pray for staff and resources to sustain and grow. Pray for margin, rest, and continued energy.
2. Pray for the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, as we plan and begin to execute steps toward the long-term vision of reaching younger generations and equipping them to be Kingdom Leaders!
3. Pray that our ministry team and volunteers would remain unified. Pray that the Kingdom of God will continue to make headway against the darkness that tries to undermine God’s plans.
Financial Support
We’re grateful for the love offering from Amber and Elichai, and for the continuing monthly support from Chad Brooks’ family—your contributions make a real difference! While we’ve been leaning on our personal savings to support both our family and the ministry’s needs, that well isn’t bottomless. In order to make the prayer and revival movement accessible to everyone, our ministry does not charge for food or lodging. It is entirely supported by donations, but these are not yet in a position to fully cover our family’s needs or our ambitious expansion plans. If you feel led to be part of this endeavor, you or your church can partner with us to continue spreading the spirit of prayer and revival in Korea, and work toward our long-term visions for future generations.
Click here to make a tax-deductible one-time or recurring contribution through our US-based partner mission agency, Americas Hand in Hand. We thank you in advance!
Mission Trip or Internship?
One of our exciting initiatives is to begin offering short-term missions or gap-year style internships here.
If your church is interested in a mission trip to host a VBS, do work around the prayer center, teach a class to seminary students, or anything else you are inspired to offer, begin a conversation with us! You can also come for a one-week immersion to experience the revival-style prayer at our center, catch the fire, and take it home with you. Or if you’re visiting Korea, contact us and come spend some time with us for a few days!
If you or someone you know have a passion for God and are intrigued with immersing yourself in Korean culture and spirituality– and if you are willing to commit to an intensive 3-month internship of prayer, outreach, and hard work, we’d love to hear from you. This is an opportunity for you to learn and grow in an environment of passionate Spirit-led prayer and ministry. But beyond that, it is also a chance to make a real impact. We are on a unique mission field, and we believe the fields are ripe for harvest, as Jesus told us. Reach out to begin a dialogue with us!
