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The new president-elect of South Korea, Lee Myungbak, is a committed Christian. As mayor of Seoul in 2004, Myungbak declared: "Ideclare that the City of Seoul is a holy place governed by God; the citizens in Seoul are God's people; the churches and Christians in Seoul are spiritual guards that protect the city...I now dedicate Seoul to the Lord."
Myungbak was born into a devout Christian family and later became an elder in his church. His unconcealed Christian faith could have undermined his presidential candidacy because South Korea historically has a huge Buddhist population, in spite of the very aggressive evangelism outreach of Christians, seen in its recent history.
Koreans generally have a positive image of Christianity, particularly after the Korean War in the 1950s when American church groups and missionaries helped the poverty-stricken nation by providing food, setting up hospitals and schools. During the dictatorship period under President Park Chung-hee, church leaders fought for the nation's democracy. And many Christians volunteered to hand in their gold and other jewellery in a mass effort to bail out the bankrupt nation during the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98."
The president-elect attends the Somang Presbyterian church. Some non-Christian detractors are already complaining, saying that the new government should be called the "Somang government" after the name of the church, but ironically, the word somang means "hope" in Korean. Pray that this new president will allow God to use him to achieve His purposes.
Used by Permission Australian Prayer Network http://www.ausprayernet.org.au/ / Source: Asia Times
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