While major mission boards are retrenching in the Far East, the hand-clapping, hallelujah-shouting Pentecostals are enthusiastically expanding their missionary activity. Two hundred missionaries and pastors from thirteen East Asian countries impressively demonstrated their growing strength at the third Far Eastern Fellowship Conference of the Assemblies of God, held in Seoul, Korea, last month.
Declining a state reception proposed by the Korean government—which is interested in South Pacific fishing rights—Iroji “king” Manene Colanry, 39, of the Marshall Islands captured the attention of the Korean press at the conference when he said: “I have come as a private Christian, not a ruler.” He is one of twelve Micronesian “kings” in United States protectorate territory, eight of whom are said to be converted Pentecostals.
The Assemblies’ largest field in the Far East is the Philippines, but the Korean Assemblies are among the fastest growing. Seoul’s Full Gospel Central Church—founded only eight years ago but now the city’s second-largest Protestant congregation with almost 8,000 members—hosted the event, proudly picking up the $15,000 hotel bill for the 120 foreign delegates.
