American Home Schoolers to the Rescue in South Korea's Churches
by Natalie Harris
July 24, 2006
(AgapePress) - - A family ministry is encouraging home-school families to take the ultimate fieldtrip and move to South Korea. Family Mission International is looking for families to lead a brand new home-schooling movement in South Korea as part of an effort to save the next generation of Korean Christian leaders. | Home Schooling |
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Family Mission International (FMI) was founded just one year ago in June 2005. But the mission behind it began years ago when FMI founder Brad Voeller was just eight years old, serving with his missionary family in the Philippines. Since that time, Voeller -- who has a passion for foreign missions and for families -- has served in various Asian locations. To minister to families all over the world, he founded Family Mission International. According to its website, FMI "is engaged in mobilizing and equipping churches and families to share the message of biblical family, family discipleship, and home education worldwide." What better way to reach families than through families? FMI decided to send home-schooling families to countries around the world. Step one is South Korea.FMI's North American director Bernie Beall thinks the message of American home schoolers is relevant to South Koreans. "Basically, Brad is finding, really the same kind of problems we see in America," he said. Beall says the South Korean church is taking heavy hits as American media draws its youth away from Christianity, and pastors are turning to home schooling as a solution.
"Pastors are asking for help in how to begin home schooling their own family and families in their churches that would like to do so as well, so the greatest need is to have someone show them [how to do that]," the FMI official said. According to Beall, this contrasts with the birth of home schooling in the United States where individual families choose to home school with or without the support of their churches.
Who Will Go?
Already a few brave American pioneers have moved to South Korea to try to show Koreans how to home school. Voeller, John Willing, Brant Morie, and Randy Sumrall with their families have been leading co-ops, conducting camps, and participating in home-school conferences, as they work with congregations. Even more families are on the way.
Timothy Pent and his wife are going with seven of their nine children to work with 120 families interested in home schooling out of a congregation of 10,000. Being one of the only home schoolers in the country is northing new to Pent. His parents began home schooling their children 30 years before the American home-school movement started. The story of Pent and his seven siblings is recorded in the book Ten P's in a Pod. Pent is now taking his family to South Korea, hoping the experience will bless his own family as well as many others.
"My hope is that, Lord willing, we would be the path that would see many families like us head to this area where we feel like the Lord is creating a desire and the Spirit of God is moving so that many mentor families could actually get the vision of being faithful in their own family worship at home, but with the view of raising up their own opportunity to be actually mentors themselves with families that are ready on the other side of the world," Pent said.
Family Mission International is hoping that South Korea will be a path for home schooling and family discipleship on the other side of the world. After the home-schooling movement is strong in South Korea, FMI hopes to use it as a base to reach Japan, North Korea, China, Taiwan, Russia, Uzbek, and Mongolia. From there, FMI hopes to reach "all the nations of the earth" to spur families on in serving God together.
Foreign mission work is only one part of FMI's three-part ministry effort. The group is looking for American families who are willing to coach South Koreans about home schooling over the Internet and for families who would be willing to host South Koreans in the U.S.
Natalie Harris, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is an intern/news reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
