SLS successfully conclude the Korean Christian Medical Personnel Seminar Part I
The third seminar of ‘the Korean Christian Medical Personnel Seminar Part 1’ was held on June 13. This seminar consisted of a lecture on Islam and questionnaire session. In fact, the meeting was scheduled for two hours but the meeting concluded much later than expected as the audience was so passionate about asking questions on the subject that they are interested.
Rev. Hae-Seok Yoo (Representative of FIM Ministry) lectured on the subject ‘Past, Present and the future of the Muslims in Korea.’ He talked about the Muslims in Korea from the past to the future and lectured about the rapid growth of Islam in Europe and crisis and our way out of this. Yoo said, “Muslims in Korea started to enter from Silla Dynasty and they were settled among upper class from Goryeo Dynasty to Chosun Dynasty.
Muslims started growing from 1990’s through immigration, international marriage, and conversion. Due to low birth rate, aging and avoiding dangerous and demanding job of Korea, the growth of Islam population is axiomatic in near future. In Europe, the population of Muslims was about 7.2 million in 1970 and it became 53 million in 2007 and the number is still growing rapidly. Many of the church buildings have transformed into Islam temples. After Europe has Islamized, there are many social problems like terrorism, sexual abuse and violent crime, drugs and more. In order not to influence by this Islamic wave, Korean churches need to form a healthy, open-minded and transmission churches. After the lecture, they had a question and answer session. They shared strategy about an effective way of evangelizing Islamic countries and a successful case of Islamic mission.
Representative Shin shared his opinion after the meeting and said, “I realized that the issues on Islam are very urgent and Christian need to be very careful and be awakened. However, medical men should treat Muslims with love having an unbiased point of view. Korean Christian medical ministry should evangelize more diligently as Muslims in Korea is the good materials for evangelism.” Dr. Soo-Jung Lee shared, “For me, it was great opportunity to have interest in Islam and I now have a dream to evangelize the Muslims.”