Holy Drama

The play <Abba> was put on stage. Over the course of its run from May 23 to 31, it was performed a total of 10 times, drawing an audience of 3,500. The play was performed at <Ellim> theater, run by the Presbyterian Church, located at Daehangno. The play was a sellout every time, and some people even watched it twice or three times. For the first viewing, the audience was primary Christians, but those coming back for more invited others that didn’t go to church.     

It is a modern version of the play <Job>, which shows that Christians’ self-centered belief in God just in the hope of getting his blessings should be repented. From Job, who never questions his belief in God despite all the pain and suffering he goes through, we see what it means to be a true Christian. The scale of this performance was huge, costing in the neighborhood of 100 million won. Somang Cosmetics, one of the biggest companies in South Korea, was the main sponsor. It was jointly hosted by KFHI and Korea Lutheran Hour. Somang Cosmetics and KFHI are both huge organizations. Working with Somang Cosmetics and KFHI, KLH gained huge publicity. The proceeds from the play were given to KFHI to help in their effort to aid children in Africa. Lutheran Hour served as the bridge between the people who wanted to become Christians after seeing the play and the church. In addition, many Christians registered as supporters and volunteer workers of Korea Lutheran Hour.

Everything OK

Mrs. Kim Jong yeo (37), teacher

She is a junior high school teacher. She leads a very hectic life. She is very devoted to the church and has a happy marriage with her husband.

People around her all praised her and envied her.

She looked like she had it all. But she was very tired from the so-called perfect life.

She had all the things she wanted but there was still something missing in her heart.

She hated herself for always having to compete to keep the perfect life going.

Others didn’t know, but she suffered from insomnia and couldn’t fall asleep without the help of a sleeping pill.

 By chance, she participated in a play at a church. It was none other than <Hantijae Haven>, the play performed this Easter.

With her aggressive personality, she didn’t like to fall behind others, and so she was the first to sign up for the play.

The practice sessions were very hard on her, as she was already tired from her hectic schedule.

She just wanted to give up, but for fear what others might think, she endured it for 2 months. 

She played the role of the girl with leprosy. She decided to take the role because she seemed like the protagonist, with her many lines and all.

 But as she practiced the role, she started to imagine that she herself really suffered from leprosy.

She looked back on her life and repented on many things she had done.   

After the performance was over, she wrote a letter to the director Dr. Lee Ban. 

In her letter, she said that she looked back on her life and repented many things.

She said she wanted to take down the façade of the perfect life and live the life that she really wanted.

She confessed that she realized that’s the life God intended only after having to be a leprosy patient.

She said after the change in her life values, she could smile at everything – family, school, church, and all people around her. 

This is the gift of small happiness that <Hantijae Heaven> brought her.

Wonderful Holy Drama

A play celebrating Easter was performed in Geoseong, Gangwon province. 20 church members of Obong Church, who have collaborated with us last year, along with the Chairman of KLH, Dr. Lee Ban, arranged this event. We invited youth and the elderly to this event. It was kicked off at 2 o’clock on April 4th, with 80 people attending. However, Obong Church, where the performance was held, was too small to accommodate everyone. As a result, 30 church members and their families had to watch the performance through a window from the outside. Although it was an all-amateur play, it was a touching performance where we shared the joy of resurrection and love. Most of the people who attended registered as volunteer worker for Lutheran Hour. The play, , is a work by Mr. Go, a very famous fairytale writer in Korea. The director of KLH, Dr. Lee Ban, made a script for a play out of it. The story takes place 100 years ago in the Joseon Dynasty period. It is about the lives of the people of a small village, who live with hope and love despite severe hardship and adversity. The play touched a lot of people. We plan to go on a tour around the country with this play.

changing life

Mr. Insun Lee (26 years old) is a very cynical college student.  He participated with his friends in a seminar course involving students of Soongsil University.  He always raised critical questions there, however, saying that he could not believe the existence of God.  Especially, he had a strong antipathy against church.  He said he was participating just because he could study with his close friends in the seminar class.  And during the class he wanted to have discussions with a critical viewpoint about Christianity.  With sincerity the director and students there discussed with him about his viewpoint for a long time, to provide necessary education.  In this way he completed the course in the semester.

Then we accepted new students for the class during the last March, and we found that he again participated in our program.  The director wanted to talk with him personally.  He said that he had given much thought, reflecting on his criticism about Christianity, and that he had decided to study again to really know Jesus Christ.  He wanted to have faith and asked director to introduce to him a church that he can attend comfortably.  And he said he would continuously participate in the Christian education meeting of KLH.  Now he has registered at a church we introduced to him, and been participating in a youth meeting.

Spring publish

The spring issue of has been published as an Easter special issue, and 2000 copies of the issue were printed.
1200 copies of them were distributed to Lutheran churches, 300 copies to book stores, and the rest to other churches.
This is the 8th issue of this journal, and we are having an increasing number of regular subscribers. The expenses for printing the journal are supported by LCK.

Lenten Devotional Book

Lent Devotion blog 2Lent Devotion blog

Lent Devotional Book came to the world which had more than 500 orders before its publication.

As 1,000 copies were not enough to meet its needs, a blog was made to conduct the meditation every day.

The total of 2,300 people paid a visit to the Lutheran Hour blog until now, with 200 visitors a day on average.

We have a plan to make most of the blog.

Project Joel Musical

We performed Godspel, a Project Joel Musical, at Central Lutheran Church on December, 23, 6 pm.

About 120 persons including youths and adults participated in this event.

 The 20 volunteer youths and young adults who participated in this performance successfully performed the musical they had practiced for three months.

Mr. Lee Hee Yeong (25, Student)   He had attended church before following his parents but stopped attending church as graduating from high school.

He didn’t proceed to a school and led a fast life without a job.

He came to go to an institute where people learned acting.

And by chance, there he saw a friend who went to a church with. She is a volunteer of KLH.

She asked him to attend church again, praying for him constantly; however, he didn’t.

In the meantime, he heard that Lutheranhour prepared a musical with young adults.

He came to the office of the KLH with his friend and had a talk with and came to be in charge of the direction of the musical.

He who didn’t like church but like musical naturally came to attend church again.

And last month, he performed Godspel, the musical he had directed

 We decided to perform the musical Lutheranhour’s Project Joel team and he made together again for adults in February.

He promised to confess the changes in his life and the joy of revisiting church there.

Christmas Rally

A Christmas rally was held at a countryside church approximately four hours from Seoul.

The Board Chairman Dr. Lee and two board members participated in this event.

The Board Chairman introduced the Korea Lutheran Hour and distributed the magazines and pamphlets that we published.

In addition to church members, people from the neighborhood were invited for a time to share in songs and witness.

Approximately 70 people participated in this event and most participants promised to become volunteers of Lutheran Hour.

Little Shepherd DVD

The Daejodong Lutheran Church screened a Christmas animation and gave children who were new the church a DVD as presents.

 The church assists KLH activities greatly and promised to work diligently towards BCC and volunteer recruitment to evangelize children

KLH new partener Mrs En-Ah Koh

 Mrs. Eun-Ah Koh is a very famous actress and president of a theater. We came to meet her through Pastor Dong-Jin Kim, who is the KLH Board member. She worked as a movie actress when she was in her 20s and 30s. And currently she is working as a president of a theater. Though she looked as if she had never experienced failure or difficulty in her life, her life was full of distress. She confessed her story through the journal published by Lutheran Hour.
 After having left her position as an actress, she came to meet and marry her husband, who was a movie producer. Her husband faced continuous failure in his business, losing his properties. However, she had enough faith in her husband to cope with the difficulties together. In such a situation, her theater also fell into a very difficult situation. And at this point of time, she decided to devote herself to serving ministry. Then she began to broadcast through CBS Radio and became a talk show hostess reporting stories of many people who have overcome difficulties. If she had resumed movie business, she may have again grasped wealth and fame – nonetheless she has spent 20 years as the radio program hostess. How has their life changed as a result of this connection?
She has made a new leap again as she worked for the radio program, encountering the faith of other people and sharing their lives. She remodeled one floor of the theater she was operating into ‘Beautiful Store,’ to share it with neighbors in difficulty. She is using the income from the store for people in difficulty. Such a story of hers will be introduced in our journal . She promised to have continuous interests in the activities of KLH.