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| HEADED FOR SOUTH KOREA-ASIA PACIFIC CONFERENCE |
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We are excited to join Jim & Kathie Lowans as they lead the Teen Challenge Asia Pacific Conference in Seoul, South Korea hosted by Jonathan and SungJoo Aird. Teaching will be led by Greg Fischer and Koy Chhim. Cathy and I will be training on evangelism as well as leading worship and devotions. We are looking forward to going to the street on Wednesday to reach addicts. Leaders from across the Pacific Rim from Australia to Cambodia to China will join us as we continue to trust God for chain breaking, nation shaking strategies for this region. |
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| DRUG ABUSE IN THE ASIA PACIFIC REGION |
| Korea is locked between the affluence of the west and the nuclear threat to the north. The Supreme Prosecutor Narcotics Division, reported a marked increase of 26.2 percent in offenses related to marijuana use. Psychotropic drug arrests, rose from the previous quarter by 16.1 percent. Such numbers raise questions about a growing population of pot smokers in Korea. |
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China is a vast country with 22% of the world's population. The influx of people into China’s urban centers is expected to more than triple in this decade alone, with the majority of these new arrivals aged 15 to 35. They will face both the stresses of an industrial lifestyle and the vastly increased availability of both illicit drugs and alcohol. As a result, in recent years alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and drug abuse have grown in China.
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In the chic clubs of Shanghai, a city of 20 million, teens pop candy-colored Ecstasy pills. Many truck drivers use "ice" to stay awake on road. Still, these days, the most alluring drug in China is a derivative of that ancient curse, opium. More than 70% of the nation's drug addicts use heroin, known in slang as "China White." Pray for open doors for Teen Challenge across Asia. |
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Leaders from 8 nations who gathered in Seoul, South Korea last week for the Asia Pacific Teen Challenge Conference.There is a trumpet sounding across the Pacific Rim. It is a call to revival, the rise of the underground church and the release of the Spirit. |
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Jim & Kathie Lowans led the Teen Challenge Asia Pacific Conference hosted by Jonathan & Sungjoo Aird. It featured training led by Greg Fischer and Koy Chhim. Cathy and I were blessed to minister, as well as lead worship and facilitate outreach. Prayer, fellowship and some lively interactive discussion were part of this exciting time of ministry and casting vision for the Asia Pacific Region of Global Teen Challenge.
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NORTH KOREA |
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| The night time satellite image to the right tells it all. As the light shines from South Korea, darkness shrouds North Korea. We ministered to a team of "first fruits" believers from North Korea who pleaded for the help of TC. We prayed and shared with them. We will share a report later as pictures and report need to clear significant security concerns before posting. |
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| Miracle in A Tuk Tuk - It was Sna, four years later, and there were tears in his eyes! |
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Jim & Kathie Lowans, Asia Pacific Regional Representatives of Global TC, met Sna in 2009. He works 16 hours every day driving tuk tuk to shield his family from the harsh realities of the streets of Phnom Penh. Day to day, moment to moment, he struggles to feed his wife and 6 children. He drove Jim & Kathie Lowans as they ministered in Cambodia. As he drove them each day, they opened their hearts to him. When it was time for Jim to minister in church Sunday morning, Kathie invited Sna to the service.
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"I cannot take the time from work", Sna confided, eyes averted as he looked to the ground,
"I must feed my family."
"How much do you make on a Sunday morning?" Jim asked? "I will pay your Sunday morning fares if you will come to the service with us." Quietly Sna looked up and ... (click for the story). |
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| PRAY FOR KOREA |
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One of the most touching moments during my last visit to South Korea was praying at the barbed wire fence on the 38th parallel at the DMZ. We saw the prayer requests stuffed in the wall that divides North and South Korea. Following UN sanctions, recent nuclear threats by the Korea government against the USA and troops amassed across the border have heightened political tensions between North and South Korea as families separated by the DMZ remain divided |
BACKGROUND: At the end of World War II, it was determined that the Soviet Union would liberate the Japanese held territories North of the 38th Parallel and the United States would liberate the South.
In 1948, with a failure to unite the two regions, elections were held and the new South Korea came under the power of Syngman Rhee. Kim Il-Sung took power in North Korea.
On June 25, 1950, communist North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel and attacked the democratic South Korea. The 38th parallel, the pre-war boundary between the countries, became the focal point for negotiations of a cease fire. There has been no peace treaty, only a cease fire for over 50 years. The 38th parallel continues to be the most highly defended border in the world across the 3 mile wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). |
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Recent Korean history reveals the sobering possibility that it may only be a matter of time before. North Korea launches a sudden deadly attack on the South. And perhaps more unsettling, Seoul has vowed that this time, it will respond with an even stronger blow. Lost in the headline-making North Korean bluster about nuclear strikes on Washington (in response to U.N. sanctions) is a single sentence in a North Korean Army Supreme Command's statement of March 5. It said North Korea "will make a strike of justice at any target anytime as it pleases without limit." |
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