THE KUKMIN DAILY

Missionary Kim Jae-han (55·wearing red hat in photo, crossing the river with local believers in Darien province) has been carrying out his ministry in the Amazon jungle for the past 25 years. In 1989, Grace Korean Church in Los Angeles dispatched him to Venezuela, where he spent 20 years communicating the Gospel to seven tribes including the Yanomami. Since five years ago, he has been spreading the Gospel to the Embara tribe in Darien, Panama.

Death from disease or from fights between tribes is very common in this region. Life there is made even more dangerous by its character as a drug-trafficking area that is visited frequently by guerrillas from Colombia. Yanomamis and Embaras live in a mostly natural (nude) style even today. It is customary for Yanomamis that, when a family member dies, the rest of the family cremates the dead body and drinks a liquid made with the powdered bones. Life in these tribes is primitive, and they are not accustomed to accepting the trappings of outside civilization. Therefore, evangelizing them is not easy.

Missionary Kim recently started three churches in Panama, while working on rebuilding the old New Tribes Mission (NTM) center. NTM left here after its three missionaries were killed by guerrillas about 20 years ago.

When Kim visited San Jose, Costa Rica, last October to participate in the ministry of One Body, a Bible reading campaign organization, he told me, “I heard Korea now ranks number 1 in its suicide rate. If you ever hear of someone who is considering suicide, please send that person to the Amazon. When you spend time here, you learn how much you have, and how blessed you are, because here you are entirely vulnerable with none of the benefits of civilization, and you know you could die any time.” He said, “I have often witnessed troubled Korean-American children learning lessons about life and changing dramatically, during stays of 1 or 2 weeks or 1 month here.”

Missionary Kim shared a couple of stories. A young man had quit college due to drug addiction, and his parents pushed and persuaded him to go to the jungle in Panama. At first this man resisted doing anything, but soon he gave up. In the jungle, without working, he could not get anything to eat. Working hard and sweating, his body was detoxified. Every evening he joined in Bible study. Recovered physically and spiritually after one month, he returned to the States and is living a normal life.

Another young person, the daughter of an elder, used to spend her days cursing and condemning her parents. During her stay at the jungle, however, she learned how much she was blessed. Reportedly, upon return from her 2-week mission trip, she hugged her parents and told them how much she loved them.

Kim said, “Many young persons, on short-term mission trips to the jungle, confess that they had no idea the native people were living in such poor conditions, and say they have learned that they are really blessed.”

Young men and women teach Bible school, play football, draw, and play together with the native children, while telling about figures in the Bible or teaching lessons from the Bible. Young doctors perform medical exams and treat children while passing on God’s love.

Kim said, “Even under the hardships of the Amazon rainforest, it is possible to meet God, recover one’s self-esteem, and find the purpose of one’s life. My heart breaks when I see a young person from a good background who is lost without knowing God.”

Kim’s recent focus of ministry is to rebuild the NTM center in order to establish a training institute, through which he plans to nurture spiritual leaders of the Embara tribe. He also plans to make the center a pivotal point for those who come here on short-term mission to communicate about the Gospel to local people. To date, repairs have been made to the lodgings, the cafeteria, and the shed that houses the water tank, so that the center presently can accommodate 50 persons at one time.

Kim said, “We need a space to educate the native people… I ask the Korean churches for their intercessory prayers, that construction of classrooms may start soon.”

Reporter Pyeong Seon Jeon (junbs@kmib.co.kr) from San Jose, Costa Rica, with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)

Photo courtesy of Missionary Kim Jae-han


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