Global Village and Refugees: Missionary Role of Korean Church

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Refugee issue is hot one in South Korea as well as Global Village. How do Christians feel about refugees? According to one source, “Christians are twice as likely to fear refugees as help them”. Why do Christians react this way when the history of our faith has been deeply immersed in the story of migration from the very beginning? Adam and Eve were forcibly displaced from the Garden of Eden. Noah was a migrant. Abraham, Moses, and Joshua spent much of their lives on the move. Jesus, himself, was a refugee. How should we respond to refugee issue today? The Bible assures our Christians that “God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline“(2Timothy 1:7). The Bible is clear about what we should do: welcome the stranger, or as Jesus called them in Matthew 25, ”the least of these“. Thus, this essay aims how to deal with the issue from a Biblical perspective. Based on the Biblical teaching, the current refugee issue is not problem but possibility and opportunity for missionary enterprise. The migration including refugees, whether forced or voluntary, should be viewed not as accidental but part of God’s sovereign plan.

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