Pastor Jairyong Lee

President, Northern Asia-Pacific Division

  The book of Acts is about the global mission ministry of the early church.  The church was filled with life because the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Christ and took the gospel from Jerusalem to the end of the world.  Acts has touching stories of how the Holy Spirit used the apostles—unheralded and mostly uneducated—to preach the gospel to the world.  The miraculous mission story of 3,000 people being converted and becoming Christians in one day foretells the even greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will take place in the last days.

 The book of Acts, composed of 28 chapters, is the history of global mission that remains unfinished.  It will continue until the second coming of Christ.  More and more mission stories will be added to it as time goes by.

 Among the never-ending stories of global mission are the ones written here by PMM missionaries.  Indeed, they are telling us about the wonderful history of the work of the Holy Spirit, who successfully leads global mission despite hard conditions. These missionaries are continuing the miraculous history of global mission, having inherited the mission spirit of sacrifice and dedication from the apostles of the early church.

 We will encounter the powerful mission stories of 41 PMM missionaries and their families, who are working hard in foreign mission fields.  They are not professional writers.  But their rich experiences as pioneer foreign missionaries are much more powerful than what is expressed in this book.

 The path of a missionary is not always a romantic one filled with joy and happiness.  It is often thorny, often studded with prayers, tears and suffering.  But they tread it with joy and courage because it is the one Christ walked when He came to this world to save humanity.  It can’t be trodden without the same selfless love for others that Christ manifested.  It can never be trodden if greed and selfishness are in the heart.  It is trodden with infinite perseverance.  Those that tread it put up with all kinds of difficulties, misunderstandings and inconveniences to save souls, just as Christ did.  Therefore, the path of a missionary is the holiest and noblest one in life.  What other path can be compared with it?

 Missionaries are great only if they have the God-given spirit of self-sacrifice.  They must give everything they have for the souls they encounter in the mission field.  By this standard, Jesus Christ was the greatest missionary in the history of this world, and PMM missionaries are writing the second part of the book of Acts today as they quietly follow His way on the front lines of their mission fields.

 Being in the rear, we are to pray for them and support them as much as we can.  Whether we are in foreign mission fields or in our home country, we must work together in the same spirit if we want to bring the whole world to Christ and hasten His coming.

 Maranatha!  Our Lord will surely come again soon.