A Bible that is four-day study marking the twentieth anniversary of just one pastor’s arrival in Kenya has drawn thousands on the weekend. Kenya became a bridgehead for Korean missions to Africa.
- By Ariel Zirulnick Correspondent
Desire for a four-day bible research extravaganza was indeed building here for days. Across Nairobi, Korean Pastor Ock Soo Park’s smiling face has beamed straight down from posters as Kenyan followers passed out fliers that are inviting locals.
The function had been the good thing Mission Church’s first African Bible that is“National Crusade” held this week in Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium to mark twenty years since Pastor Park first stumbled on Kenya.
Within the arena, famous Korean and Kenya gospel vocalists done, and Kenyan spiritual leaders translated sermons that are korean. Locals clapped and danced in the industry as Korean site site visitors strummed guitars on phase and sang in Swahili.
In Southern Korea, the good thing Mission Church is controversial in certain quarters, with numerous mainstream Korean Christian groups rejecting its unorthodox understandings of sin and salvation.
But those details did not deter approximately 2,000 Kenyans – many of whom are not evangelicals – from collecting on Thursday to dance and pray in a cool drizzle, or even the 1,000 spiritual leaders who endorsed the “crusade,” or Park’s numerous Kenyan adherents.
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While the existence of US and European missionaries has waned in Kenya since its mid-1900s heyday, conventional and evangelical churches from Korea have actually trickled in. About 70 per cent of Kenyans are Christian, together with national nation is actually a bridgehead for Korean missions to Africa. With this present revolution of missionaries, the goal is apparently less about transformation and much more about propagating their view of proper biblical teachings.
Kenya has drawn more Korean missionaries than just about other African nation, claims Barnabas Ra, a Korean missionary who has got worked right here for 14 years. The missions started around 1981, and today you can find 130 such “units” – singles and families – in the nation. About 40 % remain in cities; the others fan out to more rural components. Those working beneath the Korean Mission Fellowship, an umbrella team that will not are the great news Mission Church, raise $4 million to $5 million per year for Kenyan churches.
Korean churches are interested in Kenya by the prevalence of English, the general proximity to Southern Korea, and a current tradition of Korean missionaries. Their numbers are gradually increasing in other countries that are african well, Mr. Ra claims.
‘Wide, but shallow’?
Grace Muthungu, a senior system officer utilizing the nationwide Council of Churches of Kenya, an umbrella organization for nonevangelical churches, claims the rise in Korean missionaries is perplexing, given Christianity’s prevalence. However their motives appear good, she states.
“They have sound doctrine. The Bible is the authority,” Ms. Muthungu states. “They’re perhaps maybe not attempting to bring a tradition this is certainly international to 
people.”
And she acknowledges that Kenyan churches require outside assistance. The early US and European missionaries didn’t complete completely teaching the Christian faith, she contends. Given that they’ve “gone quiet,” Kenyans need assist from somewhere else.
Ra agrees. “There is really a population that is big of Kenyans, however when you learn it deeper, you observe that Kenyan Christianity is superficial – wide, but superficial,” he claims.
He sees the task of Korean missionaries like himself as teaching Kenyans “proper” gospel and training pastors that are local and helping Christians to face by themselves. They attempt to remain away from social problems like tribal techniques, although their objective has attempted to end the practice of female genital mutilation right here.
“Teach somebody how exactly to fish – that’s what the Koreans do for all of us,” claims Rev. Isaac Lugaka, whom traveled through the Kenya city that is central of to attend this week’s occasion. “at first they brought the Bible, nevertheless they didn’t show us just how to read it,” he claims, talking about very early missionaries.
Cultural mismatch?
The distribution of solutions by Korean missionaries has generated some mismatched objectives right here. As an example, while a Kenyan church might expect the missionaries to go out of once they create a college or borehole, the missionaries frequently note that as simply the beginning of the partnership.
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Then you can find social miscues, records Good News Mission user Grace Muita. Koreans are relaxed, and revel in traditional instruments in their solutions, while Kenyans “are used to leaping and playing around,” she claims, laughing. But Korean missionaries will also be Swahili that is learning to down to Kenyans.
Muthungu associated with nationwide Council of Churches claims Korean missionaries could possibly be part models for Kenya’s vibrant community that is christian. “The Koreans happen bold adequate to visit Africa. Possibly we have to emulate them,” she claims. “If Koreans will come here, we to can deliver missionaries out.”
