The Humphrey Herald
September 2013
It will have been nearly five years since our last furlough when we return to the U.S. and
begin visiting our supporting churches in January 2014. John and I are excited and looking
forward to our furlough ministry. It is always a time of encouragement and blessing for us
and we pray that it will be a time of encouragement and blessing to those we visit.
Several factors are involved in the timing of our upcoming furlough ministry, not the least of
which is some particularly personal good news; our daughter Lauren is pregnant! She and
her husband John expect their baby to be born sometime in late February or early March of
2014. If I remember my genealogy right, that will make us grandparents.
We would ask that you please pray for Lauren as her workload is heavy and she is
experiencing some back pain associated with her pregnancy. Additionally, we would ask
that you please pray that the Lord would provide her with a healthy pregnancy, a healthy
baby and an ‘easy’ delivery (is there such a thing?).
As you can imagine, there is always a long list of things that must be cared for in preparation
for a furlough ministry. Please pray that we will be able get all those things done in a timely
manner. As always is the case, one prayer request we have is that the Lord would provide a
vehicle for us during our furlough ministry. If you have a vehicle that you would be willing
to loan or sell to us please contact us at your earliest convenience via the email address below.
Another thing which must be cared for is that of informing the folks here of our planned
absence. We covet your prayers for this. This has always proven to be a difficult time, for us
and for those to whom we minister.
After a brief recess for the summer holidays, we resumed our ladies English/Bible class today.
I had eleven ladies in attendance and understand that there will be two or three more joining
us next week. We had two first time visitors attend today. They seemed to enjoy their first
time with the class. Ashley returned to our class. She had moved away from our area last
year and stopped coming. She is the unsaved lady who showed an interest in spiritual things
last year. I shared the gospel with her last year, but she said that she was not ready. She said
that she missed our class and is very happy to be back. I didn’t have a chance to speak with
her personally today, but I was glad to see her back.
A couple of weeks ago, during our Saturday evening adult Bible study, John was sharing
about the various strains of ‘theology’ including ‘contemporary theology’ aka contemptible
theology. Included in this brief discussion was the subject of dominion/kingdom theology.
Part of this ‘theology’ involves the idea of bringing in the kingdom of God on earth by taking
control of areas (neighborhoods, cites, etc.) which are thought to be under the control of
demons. The demonic control is wrested away from the demons in various ways; one of
which is the casting out of demons.
When teaching the class that the Bible gives no direct instruction concerning how to
recognize demon possession or cast out demons and that the practice of doing so was most
likely part of the gift of healing which the Holy Spirit distributed to select individuals during
the initial and foundational period of the early church, John got an unexpected response from
one lady. She said that as far as she knew, no Christian in Korea would want to hear what I
just said. She said that she knows many pastors who practice spiritual exorcism and believe
it to be a valid and spiritually productive practice. Needless to say, we were very
disappointed to hear that. Though not really too surprised. There is much work yet to do
here in Korea.
On a much lighter but equally important note, we would like to begin scheduling times to
visit with our supporting churches during our upcoming 2014 furlough ministry. If you
would like to schedule a time for us to come visit and share about what the Lord has done
though us over the past years, please contact us at the email address below.
We look forward to hearing from you.
We continue to praise the Lord for allowing us to serve Him as we do and we are always
grateful to all those who provide us with prayer and financial support in this ministry.
With grateful hearts,
John and Mihyon Humphrey
Serving the Lord in South Korea
wvhumphrey@gmail.com
Baptist World Missionary Outreach Ministries, Inc. P.O. Box 3303 Chattanooga, TN 37404