Gospel seeds planted in Korean hearts are bearing new fruit in Wales

SaRang Community Church

South Koreans are investing in Wales out of a deep sense of gratitude to the Welsh missionary Robert Jermain Thomas who shared the Gospel with them nearly 150 years ago and paid the price with his life.

In 2012, the 60,000 strong SaRang Community Church in Seoul, South Korea forged a partnership with the Wales Evangelical School of Theology (WEST) in Bridgend. Until last year, SaRang had missionary bases all over the world, except in Europe. WEST is now its gateway and operations base for outreach into this continent. This investment will result in substantial scholarships to students and also a fund to develop church planting in the valleys of South Wales. This initiative, called Valleys Commandos, will create new expressions for the gospel in some of the most socially and spiritually deprived areas in Europe.

The reason cited for this generous donation is rooted in the Korean conviction that they owe their Christian heritage to the courage and devotion of a young missionary from Monmouthshire named Robert Jermain Thomas. Decades later, in 1907, Korean Christians were profoundly influenced by the Welsh Revival of 1904/5 too. Read more