As promised, here is the sequel to my last blog. How often God has used women in His program is beyond counting. I trust that no one who has ever read my literature on the subject of "women in ministry" has ever come away thinking anything else. There is truly a place, and this article, written and translated by Koreans, is one of those places...

Bible Women

When the Gospel reached Korea for the first time, there was strict segregation between men and women. The Bible men could not approach the women with their Bibles and that is why the Bible women came into being.

Mrs. Adamson who was working in Bu-San, employed one Bible Woman in 1896 and perhaps this lady would have been the first Bible Woman in Korea. Even if the only place of ministry for the Bible Women would be the kitchen, at least that place was opened for them.

Some of the Bible Women were from the gentry class, like Kim Sarah, but most of them were widows or mature women from believing families.

One of the essential qualifications to become a Bible woman was that she had to be able to read. But women who could read were very rare. Apart from some lady from a well-to-do family, hardly any women knew how to read. For this reason, if the candidates met other important criteria, they were recruited and taught how to read first.

During the period of 1898 to 1904, about 15 to 30 Bible Women were employed. They were paid by the Bible Society, but they were under the supervision of female missionaries. Sometimes, they were partially supported by other mission organizations and churches apart from the Bible Society. In that case, they spent a proportional amount of time selling Bibles.

Their main task was to visit women's quarters and read to them from the stories of the Bible and explain the truth. One of their major responsibilities was to teach "Han-gul", the Korean language. Women during this period did not know how to read and write, thus they were not interested in buying the Bible. So when they finished working during the day, the Bible Women gathered women to teach them during the evening.

A "Mrs. Jones" who supervised the Bible Women made the following comments about the effect of the Bible Women teaching Han-gul: "Finding how many people who have learned how to read gives me the greatest joy...three years ago, in our church here in Kang-Hwa, we did not have anyone who could read, but now I can see 29 people who are reading their Bible."

So Korean women learned to appreciate the Bible by learning how to read. Around this time, Bible study meetings opened up in many places for women, and most of the women who came to the meetings believed in Jesus and learned how to read. Of course the Bible Women's book sale record was far behind that of their counterparts, but the truth of the Gospel and Christianity that they preached gave new freedom and joy through Jesus Christ to those women who were poor and marginalized in society.

Education was provided for the Bible Women to improve the effectiveness of their ministry. In the report to the American Bible Society written in 1901, Mrs. Skrinton said that the Bible Women were doing a great work but were not meeting the demand. So, she decided to start a Bible Women's School. A Bible class began in 1897 and a Bible study class and college started in 1905.

The English term "Bible Woman" also came to mean "Evangelist" woman. Now when mission organizations and churches use this term, it almost always means female Evangelists. When it is used by the Bible Society, it means the Bible Women. However, during the early days when there was great shortage of female workers there was not a clear distinction. And when the churches grew through the 1910's the number of women evangelists grew but the number of Bible Women decreased. This means that the emphasis moved away from Bible sale to evangelism toward non-believers and Bible study.

And now you know.......... the REST of the story!