Faith of Our Fathers
This past March, I traveled to Korea to conduct a weekend revival at the Sahmyook International SDA Church and to shoot episodes for my history youtube channel that I am starting called Docu-Devotionals. During my stay in Korea, my mother and I traveled to Seodaemun Prison Museum. Seodaemun was built during the Japanese Occupation that was infamous for holding Korean political prisoners who sought independence from Japanese rule. With a capacity of 500, it ended up cramming 3,000 inmates both men and women with the aftermath of the March 1 Independence Demonstrations.
Conditions were brutal, with 40 and 50 inmates crammed into a 13 square meter cell. What amplified the brutal conditions were the harsh winters and humid summers that Korea is known for. Prisoners were subjected to immense physical torture. In one of the rooms in the prison were mug shots of many of the prisoners who were inmates there. There was one inmate’s mug shot that had a very special significance to me; it was a mug shot of my great-grandfather Chung Dong-Shim.
My great-grandfather was a Seventh-day Adventist pastor. In the 1940s, during the height of World War II, Japan tightened its restrictions on Christianity and forced all Koreans to adhere to Shintoism (The Japanese State Religion). Protestant Christian Churches were instrumental in fueling the Korean independence movement and Japan sought to crush the dissent.
Adhering to the counsel from Ellen White to not be involved in political movements, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was not involved in the independence movement, and still was able to function for much of the occupation. But times have changed. While holding a worship service, the authorities raided the church where my great- grandfather pastored. My great-grandfather pleaded with the colonial police not to arrest the congregation but just to take him because he should bear the punishment of imprisonment because he was the pastor. And so he was arrested and held at Seodaemun for 6 months. But somehow, through God’s mercy, he survived his imprisonment and went on to come to the United States and help begin the Korean American Adventist Church in Los Angeles and passed away at the age of 94.
Not only did I learn about the sacrifice my Great-grandfather did for his congregation but also the heroic deeds of Seventh-day Adventist missionaries that brought the Advent message to Korea. There was Theodora S. Wangerin, who along with her husband Rufus was sent by the General Conference to Korea in 1909. Tragically her infant daughter and husband died of an illness. Tragedy continued to visit Mrs. Wangerin, when her sister, Mimi Scharffenberg, who also was a missionary to Korea and translated Patriarchs and Prophetsin Korean passed away at the age of 35. Yet, Mrs. Wangerin would return to Korea and would be the director of the Publishing Ministry in Korea and worked faithfully even during the Korean War. In fact, through Mrs. Wangerin’s efforts, legendary General Douglas MacArthur gave the Seventh-day Adventist Church special permission to have Koreans pick up Adventist literature from the SDA publishing house in Japan to have it distributed in Korea when there was a ban for all Koreans from leaving the country in the height of war.
And then there is Dr. George Rue graduate of Pacific Union College and Loma Linda University School of Medicine, and founder of the Seoul Sanitarium and Nursing School. His contributions to the church and even to South Korea itself is immeasurable. He was a personal friend and physician to South Korea’s first president Sigmund Rhee. He was responsible for the education of many of our grandmothers and mothers who are nurses today. But his lasting legacy was chartering a ship that allowed almost 5,000 Seventh-day Adventists and other Christians to escape North Korean forces to Jeju Island so they would not be murdered by Communist forces.
Without the efforts of these pioneers, we would not literally exist. We would not enjoy the fruits of living in the prosperity and opportunity that the United States has given us. God has entrusted us with much through the sacrifices of the early Adventist pioneers that ministered in Korea. And if there is a lasting legacy today, perhaps their story being retold to us of the Christ like love that they displayed for a nation that was impoverished and war torn, to minister to people living in the yoke of brokenness and bondage, can awaken a love for the missionary spirit to continue their legacy.
These brave souls believed that they were hastening Christ’s return. So too, when we have a love for souls, we too can continue on the legacy they established. In a world that is waxing cold today of indifference and brutality, now more than ever, we can show the world and demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom to all the world, be it in our schools, neighborhoods, communities, or too far off places, to declare the everlasting gospel, and then we can fulfill the hope of these early missionaries to see Jesus to take us and them home to live happily ever after in the ceaseless ages of eternity.
Peter K. Chung is a social studies teacher at San Gabriel Academy near Los Angeles, California. He is also an associate evangelist for Revelation of Hope Ministries and has a religious liberty and end times events podcast called “Healing the Nations,” and is in the process of starting a youtube channel called Docu+Devotionals. He also is gathering research materials to write a book on Korean Adventist history to inspire the next generation to be faithful Seventh-day Adventist Christians.