Korean Young People Meet at First Unification Vision Camp

The Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) and the Korean Union Conference’s (KUC) North Korean Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church recently held a special youth camp. It was the first-ever nationwide gathering for youth, from middle school to young adult. It was designed to raise the awareness of future generations for the eventual evangelization of the Korean peninsula in a prospective era of a unified Korea. The event also sought to help the youth, who will grow up to be the leaders in society, to learn about the situation in South Korea, North Korea, and the Korean peninsula, and to understand the importance of unification.  

The camp was held at the Center for Unified Korean Future in Yeoncheon, South Korea. The center is a specialized reunification training center operated under the Ministry of Unification of the South Korean government. Opened in November 2014, it is located in Yeoncheon County, Gyeonggi-do, on the border between North and South Korea, where the 38th parallel—the latitude line that was established as the dividing line between North and South Korea after World War II—symbolizes the division and the confluence of the Hantan and Imjin rivers. Participants came from all five KUC conferences.

The center provided small-group sessions to introduce the importance of unification through games and interactive lectures. The visit to the Center for Unified Korean Future also involved a virtual reality experience of riding the KTX train and driving through the Asian highway that connects Korea from Busan to Paris.

Tim Ellis, an Adventist professor at a Korean university who had previously visited North Korea, attended and joined the camp. A regular attendee of the weekly prayer meetings of the BukBukBuk (Buk meaning “North” in Korean), he shared his reflections on the program. “I was impressed with the creative and innovative ways the camp involved the students in the instruction using games and technology. The students had fun and learned much about Korean history and the advantages of reunifying the Korean peninsula.” He added, “It successfully stimulated their imaginations to think outside the box about possibilities for the future and to instill hope in their young minds about the potential of a better future for us all.”

On the second day, the campers were taken to the Odusan Unification Observatory Deck, where they looked into the North Korean land over the Imjin River and also spent some time trying to find a cross in the paintings the dislocated North Korean people drew of their hometowns. Surprisingly, there were quite a few church buildings in those paintings, and in the prayer meeting held later, the youth prayed for the reestablishment of the previous 108 Adventist churches in North Korea and that they would be ready when the doors to North Korea open.  

“Students who had come from all four corners of Korea have mentioned they have gained more knowledge about both North Korea and the need for the unification,” said Janice Kim, project assistant of the NSD’s North Korean Mission. They have also gained “the motivation to join in the prayer movement for the North Korean Mission,” she added.

This summer a follow-up second camp is planned to see the North more closely, pray for peace on the Korean peninsula, and learn about North Korean missions. Leading up to the summer program, a “Ring the Golden Bell” quiz contest, which is a Korean-related knowledge quiz competition, will take place at each Korean conference to raise awareness of the importance of both the unification and the North Korean Mission, with the winner receiving financial support to join the camp.

The original version of this story was posted on the Northern Asia-Pacific Division news site.