Introduction

God has done a great work in changing the hearts of many people throughout America in redirecting them back toward the family. A return to family education and family discipleship throughout this land is truly a testimony to the work of His Spirit. Yet this work is not limited to our own country. God is changing the hearts of His people all around the world, renewing in them a desire to build strong families for the glory of God. However, the task of reorienting the family back to God’s design is not easy. It requires special ministry on a personal and mentoring level that results in making disciples of the nations.

Surely this can be the role of the homeschooling movement— being God’s messengers for family renewal among the peoples of other nations. Yet this is not an easy task. The magnitude of the need worldwide and the cultural, linguistic, and economic barriers that separate us present a formidable challenge. What is needed today is a dedicated army and a strategic bridge that can be used to adopt this message and transport it to the world.

Facing this challenge alone could cause us to despair. However, I believe that God has raised up another country to partner with us in this task of discipling families worldwide. This nation is South Korea—a country that is uniquely suited to be God’s bridge to bring homeschooling and family discipleship to the world.

Korea—The Center of the World

Korea has a way of making anyone who has lived there for any length of time feel as if it is the center of the world. Its people are so dramatic and passionate about the twentieth-century issues they have wrestled with—colonialism, communism, political violence, war, industrial development, democracy, and human rights. These issues seem to be so important that it is easy to forget the Koreans are not well known.

Although Korea is a middle-sized country, with a combined population for North and South Korea of almost 70 million people and a land mass roughly equivalent to the state of Utah, it has always been dwarfed by its much larger neighbors. Throughout history, Korea has been forced to act as a buffer between the great powers of China, Japan, Russia, and the United States. Its story is that of being placed in the middle of many conflicts between these great powers and of suffering under invading armies that have trampled Korean soil.

There were the Mongol invasions of 1234, 1274, 1281, the invasions of the Japanese warlord Hideyoshi (1592–1598), and the Manchu invasions of 1627 and 1636. It was subjected to colonization by the Japanese beginning in 1905 and was not freed until forty years later at the end of World War II in 1945.

Although Korea has only recently received our attention in the West, its residents are, in fact, an ancient and complex people whose rise out of poverty into freedom and unprecedented economic growth is one of the most inspiring stories of our age. Their well-documented history reaches far back to the year 668 AD, with other records indicating their existence even 2000 years before that time.

From the beginning of its ancient history, Korea has always held the position of being a strategic bridge within the heart of northeast Asia. It was through Korea that the culture of China reached the islands of Japan. It was through Korea that the Japanese exerted their influence and power throughout China. Korea has been the focal point of major wars fought between the great regional powers, and the battles fought upon this rugged, mountainous land have determined the fate of many nations.

These events have resulted in the Korean people becoming a very passionate, resilient, but also stubborn people who are able to survive and rebuild, even through the most incredible devastation. Their stubbornness and fear of foreign, warring powers could possibly explain why Korea remained one of the most closed nations to the West — one of the last nations to open to Western technology , trade, and most importantly, to the message of Christianity, even toward the end of the nineteenth century. Known as the hermit kingdom, it was one of the least-explored and known nations within all of Asia because of its closed-door policy. While the Gospel was being preached in other neighboring nations, Korea, in its stubbornness, remained closed.

However, God has a way of transforming a stubborn nation into a brokenhearted people. Through pressures and crises, Korea began to slowly open its doors to missionaries that had been praying and waiting for an opportunity to spread the life-giving Gospel message among its people. These missionaries labored with great personal sacrifice and much suffering.

Eventually the seeds of sacrifice grew and resulted in the establishment of healthy churches throughout the nation. Yet years of shamanist animism, Buddhist rituals, and Confucianist doctrine continued to cause the majority of the people to stubbornly resist the call of the Gospel. God, in His sovereignty, used the ruthless oppression of imperialist Japan to humble the nation to cry out to Him for deliverance.

Further shame was heaped upon this nation when it was divided in one of the bloodiest conflicts in all of history. To this day, the date June 25, 1950, brings back a flood of painful memories. By the end of the Korean War, when a truce was reached in July of 1953, the statistics of death and destruction were staggering. As many as three million Koreans are believed to have died from a cause related to the war. In addition, 900,000 Chinese were dead or wounded. Over 33,000 Americans, 1,000 British, and 4,000 other nationalities perished. The economy was also pulverized. Northern industry was wiped out through extensive bombing, and the south was flooded with one million refugees from the north. 300,000 women were left widowed and 100,000 children were orphaned. Even today the evidence of the devastation is apparent. Of today’s 70 million Koreans, one out of seven come from families that were directly split up by the war. It was a time of incredible chaos, poverty, and starvation.

However, these events were mightily used by God to bring a wave of revival as never seen before in human history. The churches filled with converts, and the Gospel spread with incredible fervor. Today there are millions of believers throughout this land with as much as forty percent of South Korea’s population declaring themselves Christian. By relying on Divine Providence and embracing a solid work ethic, the nation began to rebuild and experienced some of the most rapid growth and development ever witnessed by man. Yet all this was accompanied by an incredible cost—the devastating breakdown of the family. The worldly pursuit of success and materialism replaced the priority of family life, bringing rapid moral and family decline.

Today Korea finds itself in the midst of yet another crisis. Having received the attention of the world’s most powerful economies, it is now the center of military logistics for all of northeast Asia. It is also the focus of Christians throughout Asia, who wait and watch as one of the largest populations of Christians responds to the challenges in their society. It is a time of great hope and great challenge on the Korean peninsula. (BRAD: this second to last sentence sounds like Asian Christians are watching themselves...?)

Korea’s Greatest Challenge

The two biggest issues facing Korea today are family and education. How Korea responds to these issues will ultimately determine its destiny as a nation and its place in the modern world.

Traditionally, more than any other people group, the Koreans have placed great emphasis on the family, group cohesion, and harmony in relationships. While many Asian cultures stress the importance of group cohesion, the emphasis is typically placed on businesses and public organizations with large numbers. Such is the case with the Japanese. However, Korea has throughout time been a nation to focus on small-group rather than large-group unity. At the center of that focus has been the family.

Koreans have always recognized that family unity and filial piety are the basis of its entire civilization. However, this foundation has been seriously compromised through the current fragmentation of the family and moral decline throughout society. While Koreans almost universally acknowledge the woe that has beset them, few offer a valid response.

The situation at the heart of these issues is fathers working long hours and never seeing their spouses or children except briefly on weekends. Sixteen-hour days are not uncommon. Little time spent with the family has resulted in extramarital affairs having almost become the norm. Divorce has escalated to forty percent. Fathers and mothers driven to the extreme for material success have often abandoned children to their grandmothers, nannies, and teachers. These children are left with a feeling of alienation and experience wounded, aching spirits.

These people, who recognize the value of strong families, struggle deeply in their souls as they observe their own hurt and devastation. They are searching for a path to restoration. The idea of a “happy family” has captivated the hearts of many; yet it seems to be an elusive dream for most young people. Instead, a past of aching hearts and broken family life is the reality they must face.

Next to the destruction of the family, educational troubles have brought on a great tragedy—a tragedy that has resulted in wasting creative potential and the normal human development period. Even small children study under the burden of long hours and intensely fierce competition among classmates. In high school the situation worsens, with students spending from seven in the morning till even two o’clock the next morning in study, having only a few hours of sleep each day. From a western perspective, we marvel at such academic focus and wonder what the reason must be for such dedication. At the heart of this is a focus on the national entrance exams, which are the main criteria in determining university entrance. Because of the incredible importance of these exams, education is focused on preparing for them. The result of such a focus is that all too often, students are not equipped to function in a globally competitive arena where creativity and entrepreneurship are critical to success. Even worse, an entire generation has lost its foundation of faith through secular humanist education. Many people have lost their faith and their desire to be used by God for His eternal purposes. It would certainly seem that Korean public education offers a dismal future and little hope for its students and families.

Renewing Hope

With such challenges, is there any hope? Truly, all is not lost if God’s people restore their lives and their families with the truths of His Word. This is the hope offered by the family renewal and homeschooling movement now spreading throughout the nation. Families are discovering God’s way of success. Fathers are taking on the call of leadership within their homes, mothers are learning to love and train their children, and children are learning how to grow in the character of Christ. Furthermore, excellence in education is being achieved as parents rediscover ways of promoting creative learning within the home. Koreans have always exhibited tremendous capacity to study and copy models presented by other nations, in order to achieve better performance. This is being seen even today as dedicated parents are observing home education being modeled for them, adapting it, and improving it in their own homes.

More than just teaching academics, parents are learning how to base their homeschool teaching upon the principles of the Bible. These parents that sense the emptiness and unfulfillment that was the result of their own education have committed themselves to educating their children with a purpose and perspective —a Christian worldview perspective. Truly there is hope in Korea !

The Bridge That Brings Homeschooling to Asia and the World

In order to preach the message of renewal and discipleship in the family, we must have the right bridge to bring the message to the world. Today many of the same reasons that are driving global business concerns to view Korea as a hub for Asian expansion would also make it a good base for ministry. But there are much greater reasons why Korea is an effective bridge. Let us consider further how the Koreans are in a strategic place in history. Since 1980 Korea has been one of the largest missionary-sending nations in the world, and today is second only to the US. This existing missionary network and emphasis on missions holds exciting potential. If this emphasis was refocused to the needs of the family, what a powerful ministry would result. Many Korean families have been discouraged through the division that has come into their family directly through involvement in missions. These families would be reenergized to explore a new way of homeschooling on the mission field and to serve together as they minister to others.

Koreans are outwardly focused and have a “get-it-done” mentality. Large nations often become monolithic and inwardly focused on their own needs—which might also be the case with Japan, China, or the US. Korea is truly becoming the internationalist of nations. Being overshadowed by many other countries requires it to strategically reach out to the world. The prayer of Korean Christians is that their nation would reach out in such a way to become a channel of blessing to the world.

An analysis of Korea’s recent development presents an unbelievable story. Whereas other nations have industrialized and developed their economies over the course of several generations, Korea has telescoped this development into the span of a working lifetime. Koreans are an energetic people who want to get everything done yesterday. Their habits of hard work and industriousness have earned them a reputation around the world. When the Koreans gain sight of a vision, there is little that gets in their way or blocks them from completing the task.

As a people group, God has been training and equipping them through hardship, sorrow, and humbling with the perfect traits needed for being his messengers to the nations. They are adaptable to new circumstances, enduring in the midst of tribulation, and enthusiastic in pursuing Kingdom-building enterprises. They are eager to share their renewed vision for the family and home education with the world.

Vision for a New Korea, a New Asia, and a New World

As I consider God’s preparation of the Korean people over the past thousands of years, a vision of their restoration and usefulness for God’s Kingdom rises up in my mind. How can we help but anticipate that God will greatly use this special people. In spite of staggering opposition—lack of mentors, educational models, curriculum, and programs—a core of dedicated families has formed which have committed themselves to the goals of family discipleship and home education. These parents have embraced the vision of family victory. They are enthusiastically pursuing it in their homes and are now powerfully communicating it to others.

How I long to better assist these brothers and sisters in Christ in developing excellent models for their home education. Certainly, with tender guidance and loving encouragement, they will mature and bear much fruit.

In time, this fruit will surely attract the attention of tens of thousands of others who will enthusiastically join in this movement of family restoration. The result will be a profound beauty and healing to a nation that in the recent past lay in the clutches of ruin and despair—a transformation that will be most dramatic as well as glorifying to our Lord. The missionary zeal that is so much a part of the Korean character will naturally lead the Korean homeschool movement to expand into other parts of Asia. As these groups spread and develop into other regions, it will be only a matter of time before the homeschooling movement grows and spreads to the Middle East, to Africa , and to the ends of the Earth!

The message of family discipleship is not a local phenomenon or an isolated cultural development. Rather, it is the Heavenly Father’s design for the whole world. The Korean people are His chosen servants and bearers of this truth to the nations. I pray that we will be found faithful to recognize this opportunity and move with God’s Spirit in equipping and mobilizing these precious people for such a tremendous calling ! May we be the witnesses of a new Korea, a new Asia, and a new world, made up of families who represent the beauty of family discipleship and Christ-honoring relationships taking place within their homes !

—Bradley Voeller

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