Pray against a new rise in “internet suicides” in South Korea. Police said they will step up efforts to clamp down on on-line cafes used to plan group suicides, following a spate of such deaths in recent weeks raising fears of a social epidemic. Police recently interrupted a suicide attempt at a local hotel room in downtown Seoul involving five people who gathered after meeting through an Internet cafe. The group had devised their plan through e-mails and instant messenger services. The Web site’s manager was booked on suspicion of abetting in the suicide attempt. In the past three weeks, 14 people have been found dead in apparent group suicides, mostly in hotel rooms and in cars parked in secluded areas. The latest incidents follow earlier high profile celebrity suicides stoking fears of copy-cat suicides. Pray against this evil trend and pray for the local churches and believers to know how to reach out to these desperate Koreans who have lost all hope.
Volunteers from a church in Memphis, Tennessee will be ministering in South Korea and a last frontier country in August and September. Pray for wisdom and discernment as plans are being made for strategies in reaching out to the lost in these areas. Ask God to prepare each volunteer for the opportunities to share the good news with hundreds of people and that many will receive Christ. Ask that doors may open for future, on-going ministry after the team leaves.
Pray for South Korean authorities as they develop safety inspection procedures to protect SK from swine flu. Health authorities said they would implement precautionary measures for domestic pork, as people who traveled to the affected regions could possibly have carried the virus home and infected local livestock. The Agriculture Ministry said relevant government ministries were prepared to implement stronger measures in case of an outbreak in Korea. Swine flu is a respiratory disease in pigs caused by type A influenza, which regularly causes outbreaks of influenza among pigs and is transmittable to humans.
Continue to lift up networking plans for two Baptist workers who are mobilizing a key partner church to adopt an unreached people group in a closed country. Two Korean couples are already on the field in a third country preparing to enter their target country by this summer. Other personnel from the partnering church will soon follow them. Pray that this UPG team will be able to secure visas and find appropriate housing and schooling for their children as they begin to minister in this very restrictive nation. Pray that they will quickly establish meaningful contacts with their new people group.
Pray for South Korean churches and believers as they try to reach out and minister to “international couples,” Koreans married to non-Koreans. The divorce rate among these international couples has been growing in recent years. The number of divorces between international couples surged 30 percent to 11,255 last year, accounting for nearly 10 percent of marriage breakups in Korea. Nearly 83 percent of those couples divorced less than five years after their marriage – a sharp increase from 15.9 percent in 2002. Marriages between Korean husbands and foreign wives had a higher divorce rate than those where the husband was foreign, indicating that marriages between Korean men in rural areas and women from other Asian countries are difficult to sustain. The most common reason for divorce was personality differences, followed by economic problems. Adultery, family feuds, and physical or mental abuse were also cited. Pray that this social issue will become an open door of ministry for believers in South Korea.
May Birthday and Anniversary Calendar
17 Joe and Ann L Anniversary
