Gail’s Korea Report
13-04-2007

Thank you so much for your prayer as I was in Korea!  My heart sings as I write to you. I have been overwhelmed with the passion and generosity of my Korean brothers and sisters. Our time was very full.  The Revival Korea team, led by Go Hyung Won, (a well known worship leader and song writer there) arranged meetings, and other opportunities opened as time went on. 

The team cosseted me, buying me fruit, milk and cereals and arranging for a private room in a church guest house. I was chauffeured everywhere. I can't tell you how my heart overflows when I think of them, (not just because they looked after me well!). I am full of wonder that the Lord has planted the same vision and purpose for the Celebration in them as in us. We are normally thousands of miles apart, yet when Hyung Won spoke or led prayer, I felt  such agreement, and he said the same about when I spoke.

Hundreds of young people stood to declare their wish to come to the Celebration. I was under a misapprehension when I went out. I thought that they had already recruited 400 to come. However after a couple of confusing days I discovered that is their goal. I think that they will achieve or exceed it judging from the interest shown, despite the fact that the airfare alone will cost each person the equivalent of £700. 

Many meetings touched me deeply. The worship, the zeal, the intimacy. One group of students calling themselves 7:14 (from 2 Chronicles 7:14) reminded me of a group in Egypt, where the Holy Spirit was moving so wonderfully that it is the nearest I have yet tasted to revival. The same Spirit of love filled the place, and I could not hold back tears of joy. They took an offering for the Celebration. Students gave a substantial gift out of the little they had.

Every Friday the Esther group meets to pray all night for Korea, North and South. I was challenged by their devotion.  The joy of the leader overflowed from his eyes, and I felt honoured when he agreed to pray for me.  Many of these intercessors are interested in coming to Wales. Two of their number are coming in advance to help us.  Hye Won is already with us, and David (who faithfully translated many of my messages) has just had his visa refused.  He is re-applying. We need his help, please pray that he gets it!

There is such a strong ling between Korea and Wales. The first protestant missionary martyr, Robert Jermain Thomas was Welsh.  The Welsh revival of 1904 went to Korea (Pyong Yang, now the capital of North Korea) in 1907. Both lands love to sing, and both know what it is to be invaded by a foreign power. I feel that as the well springs up in Wales it will have an effect in North Korea. North Korea is at present the hardest place on earth for a Christian to live.

I was especially touched when one of the Revival Korea team gave me a gift for the Celebration.  He told me that he and his wife had saved their tithes for a year to support it!

I had my first ever press conference! A bit daunting the day after I arrived, to meet 14 or 15 members of the Christian Press in Korea. I am not sure how well I did, but my Korean friends tell me that word about the Celebration is getting out. I also did an interview with a Christian magazine called New Wine. It was more like a time of fellowship, I felt so at one with the reporters. I have just had an email saying the tape of the time did not come out, and asking me to write answers to all their questions again! Ah well.

As I shared about the Celebration, I found my own heart getting more and more encouraged. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God, even when you are the one who is speaking it out! I want to pass on some of the things that I have felt the Lord say.

'Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past' (Isaiah 43:18). 

For Israel he told them to forget the parting of the Red Sea (v16-17), even though he had instituted the Passover each year to remember it! So he was saying, yes, remember it in its place, but don't let it shape your future. I am doing something new now. You need to be looking to see it. This time it is streams in the desert (v19), not the parting of the Sea. Streams in the toughest places on earth.

To us he says, "Britain, forget 1904, Korea, forget 1907, remember, but don't let it shape your future. I am doing something new."
The Red Sea was parted by one man, Moses, walking with God. To enter the Promised Land they had to cross the Jordan. This did not involve one man, but all the priests (representing every believer) together carrying the Ark (the manifest Presence of God). Jesus declared that streams of living water will flow from the hearts of those who really believe (John 7:38). They will flow in the toughest places, in the impossible places.
I think this new move of God will involve thousands and thousands of individual priests (believers), just ordinary people like you and me, carrying the manifest Presence of God.  Rivers will flow from us as we come into the real place of believing that the Holy Spirit Himself is in us!  The hardest hearts will be softened by life giving water. Even the deserts of Islam will blossom as the water brings new life.

This is not for the future, we can take it now, 'Now it springs up!' (Isaiah 43:19).

Celebration for the Nations is a small part of something wonderful the Holy Spirit is doing at the moment.  Before the Welsh Revival, people spoke of a sound in the air. Before Pentecost there was the sound of a violent wind. In one of the worship meetings led by Revival Korea I felt I could hear the sound of a trumpet in the distance. I spoke it out in the meeting. I felt it was connected with His promise about the Year of His Favour, or in Old Testament terms, the year of Jubilee. Of course since Christ came, every year is the year of his favour and the day of salvation, but somehow the Holy Spirit alerts us in a special way at certain times to what is always on offer. 
That night an intercessor who had not been at the meeting came to my room feeling she had a word for me. She prayed over me that the trumpet was sounding and it was the year of Jubilee!

Jubilee.  It is a time when full inheritance is restored to those who have lost it, and slaves are set free. I long to see those who are still in slavery to this world delivered. I want to live in all the fullness of my salvation, to really know and use everything that Jesus has won for me. As I do that and you do that we write Acts 29.....

Do pray about joining us for the Celebration for the Nations 28th July - 4th August this year. You can find more info on www.celebrationforthenations.org
Interestingly my final meeting (apart from an admin one) was with a small Frontiers team who are training for the Muslim world. It was the only one not directly connected with the Celebration, and yet I felt it was. Here were just a handful of volunteers. Yet, I know that on the day of his power, the troops will be willing (Psalm 110). 

Though Celebration is all about worship, I cannot disconnect it to my life's passion to see Muslim's come to Christ.  My prayer is for the day of His power to breakout so that his ‘young men will come to him like the dew’ (Psalm 110:3). He then will thrust us out into the white harvest fields.

Thanks again so much for your prayer and your love.
Sorry my communication is a little erratic at the moment, I am consumed by the Celebration, yet I believe that everything else will be blessed because of it.
Oh to know Him more!
Love Gail