Hi Everyone,

This is an example of Jesus working. This has nothing to do with the 
Purpose Driven Ministry.

Please read below my name.

Loving you all,
Pat Ferguson

Purpose-driven pastor in kingdom of the blind.

By Araceli Lorayes
Inquirer
INQ7.net - Philippines
08/17/2007.

MANILA, Philippines -- What is the meaning of suffering? What is its
purpose?

 >From the dawn of mankind, this question has resonated in the anguished
hearts of philosophers, princes and peasants alike. No one is spared, and
each one must work out the answer to this question alone.

Lucky are those with an ethical and spiritual framework that supports the
search for meaning, but desolate are those who exist in a system that views
their suffering as justified punishment or condemns them as outcasts.

Kim Sun-tae, 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Public Service, has known the
desolation of rejection and despair as well as the transcendence of hope and
redemption.

 >From the crucible of adversity, he forged not just a will to live but a
mission to extend himself in selfless, Christian service to the visually
disabled.

Born in 1940, Kim was an only son who basked in the love, attention and
material comforts of a prosperous family. But at the age of 10, in one
horror-filled day, his sunny existence collapsed.

In the pre-dawn darkness of Sunday, June 25, 1950, North Korean People's
Army (NKPA) troops numbering over 100,000 and backed by tanks and aircraft
crossed the 38th parallel, the border between North and South Korea. Its
destination -- Seoul, the capital of South Korea, only about 50 km south of
the 38th parallel. Within three days, Seoul fell.

Ten days after the surprise attack, Kim went out of his parents' home after
breakfast to play. When he returned a short while later, he found his home
completely destroyed by bombs, and his parents missing. In the twinkling of
an eye, he was transformed from a carefree child in a loving and comfortable
home to a terrified, homeless orphan in a war zone. His descent into a
living hell had started.

Blinded by explosion

With no close relatives in Seoul, he joined seven other orphans, begging and
scavenging for food in the ravaged city. Foraging for fruit in a field one
day, they chanced upon a mortar shell. While examining it, the shell
exploded, immediately killing his companions and blinding Kim.

Blind and near starving, Kim nevertheless was able to make his way, despite
many obstacles, to an aunt's house in the city of Yang-Ju. His arrival was
most unwelcome. His relatives were very superstitious; they considered him a
bringer of bad luck and, throughout the five months that he stayed with
them, he was subjected to verbal abuse, harsh beatings and hard manual
labor. As a result of one beating, his eardrum was damaged. He was hidden
from neighbors and given little food.

A beggar in Seoul

Throughout his ordeal, Kim was sustained by his Christian faith that he
learned in the Sunday School he had attended. Twice he attempted to take his
own life, and twice a strange voice commanded him to endure, assuring him
that he would survive.

Finally, in December of 1950, he overheard his relatives plotting to kill
him. Falling on his knees, he prayed to God, promising that if God allowed
him to live, he would be a great person and live his life for those who,
like him, were blind. He escaped from his relatives' home and made his way
to Seoul, where he became a beggar.

Acts of kindness

His existence was brightened by acts of kindness from compassionate Koreans
and American soldiers, and recalling these kindly acts would revive his
lagging spirit. Despite the horrors of being a child beggar during wartime,
his faith never wavered; he would bring other child beggars to church,
bribing them with food.

More than two years of his life were spent in this existence, during which
he endured rotten food, illness and lacquer poisoning. Eventually the
government started to round up child beggars and Kim was placed in an
orphanage.

Determined to get an education, he chose an orphanage which would allow him
to study and to attend church services. Although he was treated with
kindness by some teachers, he still endured bullying by other students and
other teachers. He learned Korean Braille, but having felt the calling to be
a Christian pastor, he knew that he would have to attend regular schools to
attain his goal.

Kim was accepted by the Soongsil High School, where he was the only blind
pupil among three thousand students. Since there were no Braille textbooks,
he relied on the help of kind classmates who read the books to him as well
as what was on the blackboard.

By the time of his senior year, a military junta had taken over the
government. Under the revised educational system of this administration,
disabled persons were no longer allowed to enter college.

Heroic knife attack

Undaunted by his initial rejection by the Department of Education, Kim
applied 32 times to enter college. On his 33rd attempt, he felt desperate,
brought a knife to the Department of Education and charged at the head of
the department. The ensuing newspaper attention made him a hero, and he was
finally allowed to take the entrance exam at Soongsil University.

His four years at the school were spent not only in pursuing a degree in
philosophy, but also in training himself in spiritual discipline to prepare
for a life of service and material poverty.

While at the seminary, he had determined that his ministry would be to the
blind, and toward this end, started working with various institutions for
the blind. While at the seminary also he met the woman he would eventually
marry, Jung-Ja, who would be his invaluable companion throughout his
ministry.

First church for blind

He graduated from Soongsil University in 1966; he subsequently obtained a
master's degree in Divinity in 1969, and a doctorate in 1982. In 1972,
together with the help of another pastor and a blind person, he established
the United Church for the Blind, the first church to minister to blind
people.

At first, services were held in a room of Chungmu Church, then in a
dilapidated apartment. Eventually a church was built, and as the church and
community grew, Korean Braille Bibles were published and distributed to
churches in orphanages.

Being pastor of a fledgling church entailed many hardships, not only for
Pastor Kim, but also for his wife and two daughters.

Money was lacking. He remembers with a pang his inability to provide them
with warm clothes during winter, or simple pleasures like ice cream. His
wife, however, was unflagging in her support and care, unhesitatingly
quitting her better-paying job at one time to follow him in his pastoral
assignment.

In 1973, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Korea
established the Blind Evangelical Missions within the Evangelical Department
and invited Kim to be the director.

Under Kim's stewardship, not only were Bibles distributed, but scholarships
for the blind were also established, for various disciplines as well as for
those called to the ministry. Jobs were provided for students at
institutions built for the blind.

 >From spiritual to medical

His responsibilities expanded. In 1972, Kim became the social welfare
organization representative for the visually disabled and, from 1972 to
1976, the director of the Blind Evangelical Mission. He also became the
director of the Asia Missions Conference for the Visually Disabled.

In 1977, his work for the blind expanded from spiritual ministry to the
medical mission of restoring sight to the blind. Kim received a donation of
$8,000 from a woman professor who asked that it be spent on an operation for
restoring sight to a blind person. The operation funded by that donation was
a success.

Encouraged, the Mission Association for the Blind embarked on more
activities to enable more eye operations. The success of these operations
generated widespread newspaper attention, and became known as the "Miracle
of Siloam" after the Gospel narrative of the blind man cured by Jesus.

At one fund-raising concert sponsored by the Association of Siloam Mothers,
the audience was moved by the accounts of blind persons whose sight had been
restored by the operations. One of those in the audience was the CEO of a
large corporation, who was inspired to discuss with Pastor Kim the
possibility of setting up an eye hospital.

Donations flowed

Donations started to flow in; and with the help of the business community,
Pastor Kim was able to inaugurate the Siloam hospital in 1986, the 100th
anniversary of the introduction of Christianity to Korea.

 >From 1994 to the first half of 2004, the main hospital has provided more
than 23,000 free consultations and almost 4,000 free operations.

In 1986, the Siloam Mobile Eye Hospital was established to help people
living in the rural areas and remote islands. The mobile hospital has
greatly expanded the scope of assistance of the Siloam hospital; from 1995
to 2005, a total of 119,032 free treatments and operations have been
performed.

Missions to RP, China

The activities of the Siloam Eye Hospital are not limited to Korea. Medical
missions have been sent to Bangladesh, China and the Philippines. In
September 1999 the Siloam Eye Center was opened in Yang Ji, China, to
provide medical care to the ethnic Koreans and native Chinese in that area.

In 1997, Pastor Kim opened Korea's largest rehabilitation and learning
center to help blind and low-vision people cope with life and learn new
skills. He has also been instrumental in the passage of laws requiring safe
public spaces and employment for the disabled.

Pool of Siloam

Pastor Kim's remarkable life has inspired countless individuals. His
fortitude and tenacity in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles
have given hope to the disabled and powerless, while the example of his
untiring, selfless ministry have inspired others to give with generosity of
themselves and their goods.

But ultimately, the meaning of his life and his work can be found in the
narrative of the Pool of Siloam, in Jesus' reply to his disciples'
question -- Who had sinned, the man or his parents, for him to have been
born blind? None of them, Jesus had answered. He was born blind so "that the
works of God might be displayed in him."