Unfortunately, another South Korean medical missionary was killed by the Taliban this morning.
The victim, "identified as 29 year-old Shim Sung-min was found about 50 miles from where the original group of 23 Korean Christian volunteers was abducted on July 19, near Qarabagh on the main highway.
Shim was said to have quit his job at a Seoul IT company two months ago to become a teacher to the disabled at a church in Seoul"
Of late, their church Saemul Presbyterian, has been criticized for sending missionaries to such a dangerous place. I do not agree with this criticism, rather I praise God that he still raises up men like Shim who hear the voice of Jesus say: "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." and who answer by saying "I will follow" and dying to self they quit comfortable jobs, and take up their cross and serve their savior in dangerous and difficult circumstances.
In prior centuries, it was understood that becoming a missionary was an assurance of an early death. It was said that the young men and women who served Christ in the mission field went out bearing their coffins with them. They went because they loved their Lord, they heard his call and they saw the need. They saw the sin, the sickness,the want, and the darkness in which many whom Christ died to save were living and their desire was to go bearing light in that darkness; to feed the hungry, tend to the sick, and bring the eternal hope of the gospel to a world without hope. So they went out with Christ's assurance: "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it."
As I read the story of these missionaries, I was reminded of the story of the awesome self-sacrifice of the Moravian missionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries, here is but one of their stories from a letter written by a Pastor R.M. McCheyne to his congregation in 1839:
"The most striking example of self-devotedness in the cause of Christ of which I ever heard in these days of deadness, was told here last week by an English minister. It has never been printed, and therefore I will relate it to you, just as I heard it, to stir up our cold hearts, that we may give ourselves to the Lord.
The awful disease of leprosy still exists in Africa. Whether it be the same leprosy as that mentioned in the Bible, I do not know, but it is regarded as incurable, and so infectious that no one dares to come near the leper. In the south of Africa there is a large lazarhouse for lepers. It is an immense space, enclosed by a very high wall, and containing fields, which the lepers cultivate. There is only one entrance, which is strictly guarded. Whenever anyone is found with the marks of leprosy upon him, he is brought to this gate and obliged to enter in, never to return. No one who enters in by that awful gate is ever allowed to come out again. Within this abode of misery there are multitudes of lepers in all stages of the disease. Dr. Halbeck, a missionary of the Church of England, from the top of a neighboring hill, saw them at work. He noticed two particularly sowing peas in the field. The one had no hands, the other had no feet - these members being wasted away by disease. The one who wanted the hands was carrying the other who wanted the feet upon his back, and he again carried in his hands the bag of seed, and dropped a pea every now and then, which the other pressed into the ground with his foot; and so they managed the work of one man between the two. Ah! how little we know of the misery that is in the world! Such is this prisonhouse of disease.
But you will ask, who cares for the souls of the hapless inmates? Who will venture to enter in at this dreadful gate, never to return again? Who will forsake father and mother, houses and land, to carry the message of a Savior to these poor lepers? Two Moravian missionaries, impelled by a divine love for souls, have chosen the lazarhouse as their field of labor. They entered it never to come out again; and I am told that as soon as these die, other Moravians are quite ready to fill their place. Ah! my dear friends, may we not blush, and be ashamed before God, that we, redeemed with the same blood, and taught by the same Spirit, should yet be so unlike these men in vehement, heart-consuming love to Jesus and the souls of men?"
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