SEOUL, South Korea – The world's largest church held a prayer rally in South Korea last week, drawing around 100,000 participants to pray for the country's social stability and spiritual awakening.

|PIC1|Believers from Full Gospel churches all over the country and around 12,000 overseas Christian leaders from some 50 countries attended the "2005 Grand Prayer Rally For World Peace & National Salvation" on Friday, filling up the Sang Am World Cup Stadium with prayers for “world peace,” “evangelism,” “national security,” and “revival of churches and the denomination.” The rally, hosted by Yoido Full Gospel Church (YFGC) in Seoul, started at 9 a.m. with an opening event and continued until 4 p.m.

At the climax of the rally was the impassioned sermon of the Rev. Dr David Yonggi Cho, who delivered a message with the title "Freedom-Giver Jesus."

"Jesus came to the earth to set captives free,” the YFGC founder said. “Now in South Korea there are many who are oppressed and treated with injustice. We should remember that our Lord is the Lord of the poor and powerless."

During the message, Cho asked Korean churches to have deep concern over the problem of human rights infringements in North Korea.

"According to a report conducted in 1999, 300,000 defectors from North Korea are wandering in China and have received all kinds of inhumane treatment, such as human trafficking, rape, and forced labour," he said.

The YFGC head minister also mentioned the result of a poll conducted on North Korea defectors.

|TOP|"Sixty-five percent of defectors from North Korea witnessed people dying from starvation in that country, and twenty-five percent heard of people dying from starvation," Cho said.

He also noted that around three million people have died from starvation in North Korea in past 10 years.

“How could the North Korean government spend all money in making the country a more powerful military nation while people are starving to death? Why has the South Korean government kept silence on this matter so far?

"Human rights should not be trampled down on account of political matters,” Cho exhorted. “Jesus was crucified on the cross to set us free. We should not forget that gospel is good news to set the oppressed free."

The Rev. Cho led the crowd to pray for the authorities of the country, including the president and the chairman of the congress.

In addition, he asked people to pray for the alliance of South Korea and the United States to “continue so that we can have peace and freedom in this country."

The 12,000 overseas believers that participated in the prayer rally were also attendants of "The 21st Church Growth International Conference," held Oct. 12-17 and hosted by Church Growth International.

The purpose of the conference was to teach Cho's leadership to overseas Christian leaders.

[Editor's Note: Dae Won Kim reported from Seoul for this article.]







Dae Won Kim
and Madison Y. Kim
Christian Today Correspondents