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Newsletter

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Fusan, Korea

January, 19^0 (mailed late)

Dear Friends in Christj

Another year has rolled arouncL once again

and it's about that long since we last sent a Newsletter. We've been in Korea

two year now and we hope a bit wiser in our knowledge of the peoples language, and
how to best reach the people with the won
to family news.

derful message of Christ. Since Joe will be telling you about our work, I'll stick
"Back "rows Bonnie Jo" (l3) s'Tom (llg)) Ed

(lO). Front row? Maxine, Joe, and Mark {6j)

of

Regarding education this year, we are cooperating with three other American f^ilxes

in fsSLl which has the total of TEN children in all! Our Mark is in the first grade, Ed in the fourth, Tom in the sixth, and Bonnie in the seventh. The mothers the ckldren share in the teaching and I am teaching the to and 5th f present time. Hone of us are trained teachers so we really have our jobs cut out
for us.

The 'Orchestra' we mentioned in our previous letter has somewhat 'fallen through'!

Bonnie is continuing her study on the piano, Ed occasion^ly gives his horn a toot, and Tom 'fiddles' around on his violin, but neither of the boys are taking iust now. Like most boys, their interests have turned more toward baseball, baskettall, model oars, etc. Mark is doing quite well with the record player though.'!

We had every intention of sending greeting to you at Christmas time but as 7^ well know, we didn't get the job done. So we'll slip in a much belated Seasons Greetings and also a big thanks to so many of you who sent card, letters, and gifts which .made our holiday season such a happy one. It's nice to be remembered any time, but especi ally during that period when we would like to be with our family and loved ones. In reviewing my notes over the events of the past year, I recall that in February Flora Maye Guernsey returned to the States and began her work at Mission Services. Also Joe shared his hot water for a bath with a couple of small rats. He had stepped out of the room for a few minutes to find on his return that two rats had fallen i and were trying desperately to get out, so he had to drown them and bathe in cold water.'...In April a big bus plowed into our poor little beat up Chevy and tore of the night and turned him over to a charity hospital the next morning. ^This is some

a fender which was very ably repaired by some Korean mechanics by using some old oil drums for material....One night in May our door bell rang and when we went to the gate we found an abandoned baby on our doorstep. He was real sweet and we kept hira during

sent home (a Japanese style house) thanks to the many who sent gifts enabling to _ secure it for 'key money' which will be returned to us when we move (a way of renting peculiar to the Orient)....In July we had a team of basketball boys from the States stay with us. They were called the 'Ventures for Victory team which was composed of ChSsSan .yo;ng men from various colleges in the States who toured the Orient pla^ng basketball and preaching, singing, and handing out tracts during the half.... gust we went on our first vacation which was a real treat We went to Kangnung on a Korean freighter and spent about ten days with the Lash family " ' In September,""of coufse, the children and I started to school... .About October Ty-

thing you usually just read about, but it doesn't really happen to you......In June our interpreter, who has worked for us since our arrival in Korea, was baptized. He is proving to be a very useful servant of the Lord....Also in June we rented our pre

phoon Vera' hit Pusan and did a lot of damage. Also in October, Mr. Koe the business manager of KBM accepted Christ and was baptized. This was another great time of rejoicing. This seemed to be a month of many events because Bonnie, Mark, and I all landed in the hospital with a 'disentary bug.' We were really sick for several days.

Thanksgiving and the Taylor family also joined us on that day with the Ellises, and we had a good old fashioned 'feed' and fellowship. Another big event during November wL t's little accident in football. He was holding the ball, his buddy kicked.

In November the Don Burney family from Japan came to ^sit, J^ey were

The only problem was that he kicked Tom's thumb instead of the ball and Tom sported

a LTL a broken thumb for about four weeks....December of course meant Christmas

to sing a Christmas carol over the radio and Bonnie delivered a short message on the

and vacation from school for mother and children. The children had an opportumty true meaning of Christmas. Also the Lashes spent several days with us and helped to usher in the New Year....January ushered in a teen ager for us, because our little Bonnie became 13 and VERY proud of it as most teen agers are. (By the way, we are

preUy proud of such a fine young lady tool)

(continued over)

Page.2

That very briefly takes you through the past year \rith the Seggelke family. Of course, many other things happenedj too, but neither space nor time will permit us telling about it here, Joe has some very important things to tell you about our work now, so I will close asking that you remember us in prayer that the Lord will

'

give us wisdom, patience, and understanding in working for Him here in Korea.
Maxine

'

Dear Friends in Christ, Helloi Or as the Koreans say, "Are you in peace?" It's been a long while since
some of you last heard from us, We have been in Korea for two years now, I want to bring you up to date on recent developments in our work and explain our plans for
the near future.

As you know, we began broadcasting the Gospel over HLKU on April 15, 1959.

During

the first six months, we were on the air twice daily but due to a shortage of funds we had to cut down our air time to one 10 minute program every evening. We are quite

pleased that this program is now on at a very good time, 9J^0 to 9*50 each evening. With nearly a year's experience in sending forth the Gospel by radio in Korea, we are now better prepared to know how to plan for the future. One of the first things
we learned about radio in Korea is that the Korean people are not much inclined to

write letters in answer to radio programs. This meant that we had to find several other ways along with the broadcasts to contact the people. In September of last year we rented a meeting hall in downtown Pusan in which we could hold services. We have been announcing these services, a Bible lesson at 10:00 A.M. and a worship ser vice at 11:00 A,M,, on our nightly "New Life" program. The response has been very encouraging. Attendance has been averaging 50 and has been as high as 70, We have had 10 baptisms since we began these services. We mail mimeographed copies of the Bible lesson each week. Some people who cannot attend our classes every week still are able to keep up with the lessons in this way. The mailing list now numbers nearly
200. Most of these have attended our classes at one time or another, but others have

heard our radio program and have written in for the lessons.

Bert Ellis and I also

hold'weekly Bible classes in our homes. So you can see we are building a foundation for a well balanced ministry. We are reaching thousands of souls daily by radio, we have the beginning of a new congregation, we are teaching several hours a week in
_Qur. Bible classes. and we are getting a start toward a ministry in publishing.

It is not easy to plan a well balanced mission program, but it has been even more difficult to keep our budget balanced. We are getting more deeply in debt every

month. We are at a place in our church program where we must move ahead in order to conserve the gains we have made recently. We have just rented a new hall for our
church services. mission offices. This new location is large enough for church services and our We now have the facilities with which we can extend our church

program to include a Sunday evening service, raid-week prayer service, and everything

that goes with a complete church program, All this, however, calls for money. We desperately need money. Within the next 30 days we, along with the Ellises, must raise an extra $2,000.00 to catch up on our radio air time costs and to make the *key money* deposit on the building we have rented. We have been using the 'key
money' plan for quite some time now in renting our homes and we find it is very
satisfactory.

If some of you who are on our general mailing list would like to hear from us more

often, please write us about it and we will put you on the list for our monthly report letters. Our financial report for 1959 is ready. If you would like a copy,
please let us know. Please._r,emernber_us and the work of. KBM in your prayers, _

Sincerely in His name, Joe, Maxine, and family

KILOCYCLES is a quarterly publication of the Korean Broadcasting Mission and is

published in January, April, July, and October by Mission Services, 509 West Jeffer son, Joliet, Illinois, Entered as Second Class Matter at the Post Office at Joliet,
Illinois, Printed in the U, S, A,

VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1
Please send funds to:

Joe and Maxine Seggelke

Lincoln, Illinois

Box 252

c/o A. L. and Enid Kiser

Florence D^^laB
Illinois

_ j_..

...

E, North -^venue

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02.^ BIBLE COLLECT
Joplin. Mo
Dear Friends in Christ,

1.IBR AR'*'

Pusan, Korea

April, i960 (mailed late).

Greetings from "The Land of the Morning Calm,"

If you

have been keeping up on the news, you know things are not at all calm here in Korea. I'm sure many of you have been thinking of us and praying for us during these disturbances. Thanks be to God, all of us came through safely. It has

been an experience we shall not soon forget.

The district

and mobs of people. accomplish, they learned that the resignations of the high officials were being sub mitted, and we realized the mob was joyously celebrating their victory. We are sad
over the lives that were lost, but we believe this will mark the beginning of a new era in the history of this young republic. Since our last news letter, we have moved into the new church and office which

police office two blocks from our house was smashed, and the police fled for their lives. Also near us are the provincial government buildings. These were placed under military guard soon after the trouble started. It was like waking up one morning to find you were in the middle of a civil war. The streets were filled with tanks, weapons carriers, soldiers, Almost before we realized what the demonstrators hoped to

we rented. These new facilities have been a big help in our work. We are having additions regularly. The work is growing, slowly but surely. On April l6th we began our second year of broadcasting over radio station HLKU here in Pusan. Now concerning plans for the future: We have been asked to direct the Taylor's work in Seoul in order that they might be able to take a year's furlough. We plan to move to Seoul about June 1st, Then next June, upon the Taylor's return we hope to begin our furlough. During our absence, the Ellis family will remain here in Pusan to carry on the work of KBM until our return in the spring of 1962, They then plan to take their furlough when we return.
During our stay in Seoul, we will have the responsibility of three orphanages,
the construction of the nevj seminary buildings, and conducting weekly Bible classes,
We will still be able to share a little in the work of KBM while we are in Seoul,

Most important of all is the fact that the funds needed for the work of KBM will continue, and we are counting on our friends to remember the needs here in Pusan even though we will be located in Seoul,
We intend to take a summer recess on our broadcast schedule. This will serve

to lighten the load here in Pusan for a while and make it possible for us to build up a reserve of programs for the fall broadcasting schedule,
Joe

I've heard it said that missionaries find themselves packing and moving the
rest of their lives and we're beginning to realize the meaning of that statement. Since arriving here in Pusan in February, 1958, we've lived in three different
houses and now we're about to make another move. This time from Pusan to Seouli

This means packing again, of course, but this time it's a matter of farming out our furniture and storing away personal things as we'll be using the Taylor's furnishings while in Seoul, Perhaps the most appealing thing to the children and me about going to Seoul is the fact that there is a school for foreign children
with trained teachers. This means a better education for the children and no

teaching for motherJ

Mrs, Taylor has asked me to handle the orphanage v/ork for her

which sounds like much work, but enjoyable as I especially like working with child ren, It's very easy to love these Korean orphans. As a matter of fact, you have to fight off the desire to take a number of them home with you as your very own.
Just now we are about to draw our school to a close here in Pusan, It will

close officially on May I3, We will have one 8th grader graduating out of the ten children in the school. We're trying to make it a big occasion vTith all the child

ren participating in the ceremonies. We closed the school for one day during the demonstrations, I don't believe any of us were ever in any great danger, but it
was wise to stay in our homes and out of the crowds, V/e'll not forget the demon strations very soon. It was a terrible thing, and yet it seemed a drastic move was necessary to accomplish the thing that needed to be done. We are praying for a
sounder, more democratic government.

This time of the year is really beautiful here in Korea, The fields are putting on their various shades of green and it looks like a huge patchwork quilt laid out on the mountain side. Many strange looking plants, foreign to the American eye, are

bursting out in bloom, and trees are donning their magnificant greens. This is such a welcome change to the drab gray that prevails throughout the winter months. It
gives one a new outlook on life and a hope for new life for many precious souls throughout this vast land of people. There are many disappointments which match the

gray of the winter, but we feel that as the spring is blossoming out in Korea, so
is the work for Christ, The work here in Pusan which the Elliees and us share

through the radio broadcasts, church, and Bible classes is beginning to bear fruits for Christ. Brother Taylor has worked out many of the problems in the Seoul area and is now beginning the construction of the seminary buildings. Do you see the

parallel with the bursting of spring? Now, let us all pray that as the spring
advances into autumn with fruits from this new life that there will also be some visible fruits for the Lord in His work here,
- Maxine

Please note the new addresses effective June 1st,

Sincerely in Christ,

The Seggelkes
For Airmail Letters:

Packages and Second Class Mail:

Joe Seggelke Korean Christian Mission

Funds to:
Joe Seggelke

Joe Seggelke
Korean Christian I^lission

c/o A, L, Kiser
Box 352 Lincoln, Illinois

A, P. 0. #301
San Francisco, California

Kwang Hwa Moon

P. 0. Box 122

Seoul, Korea

Tom on the mountains near Pusan.

A family picnic on a mountain near our home

i "Pul-kogi" or fire-meat.
beef, Korean style.

Charcoal

The Seggelke children and John Ellis,

Taken in our back yard.

t
The entrance to this college campus is just 50 feet from our front gate.

During the last year we co-sponsored with HLKU the appearance of an American allstar basketball team in Pusan, These boys
are all Christians from various American

colleges. They played Korean teams and gave Christian witness at halftime. We and the Seggelke^ kept them in our homes for two days, Wonderful experienceJ

Dancing, typical spring activity; women dance together, men dance together.

Washing, typical scene, can be seen

almost anywhere.

Mrs, Choi, Choi Soon

Good and Ko, Choi is now at Lincoln Bible Institute,

Early arrivals at Sunday morning

church service.

Marge, a Korean friend,

,and Maxine in Korean ;dress.

Two neighborsJ

Bert vrLth some of our Christmas

Cftrds.s

Thanks to_all_of ;vouJ

Mothers* Day, I96O. We ' j^st_liked_thi^ picture.

All funds to:

Loraine Lindsey Cabool State Bank Caboolj Missouri

letters only (airmail) to:

Bert Ellis Korean Broadcasting Mission A. P. 0. #59 San Francisco, California

Packages and second class mail:

Bert Ellis

Korean Broadcasting Mission

Box 1^1

Pusan, Korea

Cable Address: Jomax, Pusan, Korea

Our sponsoring church: Christian Church Cabool, Missouri

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Pusan, Korea

April, i960 (mailed late)

Dear Friends, Co-Workers in Christ, Greetings again from "The Lan^i of the
Morning CalmJ" We have celebrated two anni versaries recently and we want to share with you the news of the latest victories for the Lord' April 15 we began our second year of

daily Gospel broadcasts over radio station HLKU in Pusan, Korea, and May 5 we began our third
year of work in Korea. In the last few months
we feel that our broadcasts have become better

both in content and production. There is an increasingly large audience listening to our broadcasts and the station management is highly complimentary. Hardly a day passes without someone telling us that they listen to our broadcasts. New people areconstantly being brought to our Sunday services and Bible classes by the radio program,
STAFF CHANGES

Beginning with April 15 we have made some changes in our mission staff, Mr, Rhee Shin, who was doing
our broadcasting, resigned to take the pastorate of a church in Seoul. Mr. Ko Jae Chun, our faithful man of marQT abilities, has been doing the_actual broad

casting since that time, Mr, Ko does the script for the Sunday night program, Bert is doing Tuesday and Wednesday's and a few extra from time to time, and for the present Mr. Seggelke is doing Saturday's, The others are being done by a new member of the staff, Mr, Ahn Kwang Nam. Mr. Ahn is a former Methodist preacher, a graduate of Peking University and Left to right; Bert, Mr, Ahn, the Korean Methodist Seminary. At present he is Mr. Ko, Joe, Mr, Rhee, Kneelhead professor in the liberal arts department of a ingi Mr. Kim. Mr. Pak. new college in Pusan. He is working only part time with the mission, preparing radio scripts and preach ing from time to time. We have also added a fulltime worker to the staff, Mr, Rhee Chan Soo, a former Presbjrterian minister who was recently converted to the New Test.?psnt position, Mr, Rhee is acting as pastor of the congregation we are establish ing and will do pastoral work and evangelistic calling. We believe that these changes in the staff T>jill be of great benefit to the work and already things seem to be going much more smoothly, Mr, Ko Jae Chun continues as our business manager, head trans lator, radio voice, and general right hand man, Mr, Kim Duk Sung assists with

translation, radio production, mailing and printing.

BIBLE CLASSES -

Pak Sung II, a high school boy

who attends night school, is our janitor, errand boy, and general assistant,
NEW LOCATION

As some of you know, we recently moved'to a downtown building where we have all of the third floor of the building and half of the second floor. Our offices are located on the second floor and a chapel which will seat as many as 150 on tatami

mats on the floor, on the third floor.

This has helped to stabilize our attendance#

V/e are averaging over 50 in our Sunday morning Bible class and vjorship service, 1520 on Sunday evening and about 15 in each of our classes on Thursday and Friday evenings, Bert teaches the Bible class Sunday morning, Joe preaches, and Mr. Ahn or Mr. Rhee preaches Sunday evening, Bert teaches the Friday class and Joe the Thursday class. Bert prepares special study materials for the Sunday class which are mailed out to almost 200 people each week. We have just finished studying a series of I3 lessons on the theme, "God, the Father and His Son" and are now in the midst of a second series, "God, His Son and the Spirit," Each lesson consists of three single-spaced mimeographed pages, Bert has ^so completed two series of ten lessons each for the weekday classes and is working on the third. The first is

"God's Plan for your Salvation;" the second, "The Church?" and the third, "The
Christian Life." These have been prepared especially with the Koreans in mind from

Part of the Sunday morning Bible class.

Bert preparing" lesson materials.

our experience of the past two years of teaching them in Bible classes. At present we have these mimeographed in Korean and English and as funds are available we will have them printed in booklet form. These lessons are being used in all our classes. It is our aim now to arrange the class schedule so that each student will finish these courses consecutively. This means that we must organize more classes and we are working on this at present. As the students advance, new courses will be pre
pared as needed,
CORRESPONDENCE BIBLE STUDY

Recently Harold Taylor, our missionary at Seoul, began printing a lesson each month from our first series in his monthly paper, "One Way" and in the last few week
we have had 30 people enroll for correspondence study from many different places in

Korea.

Ue will mail them the lessons one at a time and as they complete the exam

ination which follows each lesson and mail it back to us for grading, we will send the next lesson to them. By receiving and grading the examinations we can keep track of the student's progress. If there is sufficient interest we will offer to

visit their area with a view to establishing a Bible class group and eventually hope a New Testament congregation can be established,
MARGE MB JOHN

John is busy at work with his schooling. He is in his first year of high school and is taking correspondence work with the Extension Division of the University of Nebraska. He has been doing ver; well and unless his last two exams, which grades we have not received yet, are below average he wil' be on the honor roll. This school has about 2,000
students in 80 different countries. Several times

recently when Bert has been ill, John has taught

the Sunday morning Bible class, about 50 students,

using material Bert had prepared, and has done ver,

well.

We have been quite proud of him.

Marge has

kept herself busy taking care of the household

activities, marketing, and supervising John's study. Bert says that it means a great deal to have a comfortable, well-ordered home to come to after the hectic activities of the day. Now that John is in high school he does not require as much help in his school work as before, and Marge is planning to spend some time at the

office helping with the office routine.

We are also planning now to spend at least

two periods a week studying the Korean language,

SEGGELKES MOVE TEMPORARILY

As you may have heard, the Seggelke family will be moving to Seoul June 1 to take over for Harold Taylor so that he and his family can go to the States on fur

lough. This seemed to be the best way for Harold to get away and as the Seggelkes wanted to go, we consented. We are hopeful that it vdll not be harmful to the pro

gress of the work in Pusan, but it does leave cnite a burden for Bert to handle.

As soon as Taylors return from the States (June, I96I) the Seggelkes will go on
furlough, so this means we will be responsible for all the work in Pusan for the next two years. This means that Bert viill be handling the routine business affairs

(which can take a large amount of the time), preparing radio programs, teaching
classes, preparing teaching materials, preaching, doing publicOrelations work, personal counseling, personal evangelism, and any other tasks which come to hand.
REVOLUTION IN KOREA

You have probably been reading about the revolution which took place a few weeks ago here in Korea, Although we escaped all the violence, we were not far
from it and there were a number of days when Bert went to the office downtown that

he wondered just what he might run into.

Any reports you may have read were not

exaggerated. It was really bad. Hundreds of people were killed or wounded. It was a spontaneous uprising of the people against a corrupt government. We sincerely hope that those who died in the riots did not die in vain. From all appearances^the
"care-taker" government now in power is doing its best to correct the bad situations and new elections have been promised soon, Bert was asked by one of the leading^ newspapers to prepare an article giving an American's view concerning the situation
took in the situation, H L K U PLANS EXPANSION

and it was well received by the Korean people. We cannot help but be sympathetic with the rioters. We were certainly proud of the strong position our own government

V?e are happy to report that station HLKU, the first and to this time only
commercial radio station in Korea, is planning to expand. will increase their listening area.
since its beginning.
FimCES

They have already re

ceived government permission to raise their power to 10,000 watts which greatly
In addition, they are planning for three or

four more stations which, when on the air, will practically blanket all of Korea. We are proud to have been connected with this station as official advisors ever

Our last financial appeal helped to get the Ellis family out of its personal

financial problems, but the mission still owes around $5,000 to $6,000, About half
of this is being paid off monthly on a long term scale and is no particular problem but the rest of it, about $3,000, should be paid off as soon as possible. This is
one of the greatest problems we face. We had hoped that at least part of this could
It is these fin be taken care of before Joe went to Seoul, but it has not been.

ancial vjories that keep us awake nights.

Although Joe shares the responsibility,

Bert will be the one faced with it daily and it is not calming to one's nerves to wonder where this money is coming from.
HELP?

In our opinion, in order to properly develop the opportunities that exist, at least another worker is needed here. Preparation of teaching materials, publishing small tracts and books, the development of the correspondence teaching program, further work with college students, ra(^o production, general evangelism; each of_

these might be developed into a full-time i-nork.

spreads our efforts mighty thin.

For us to work mth all of them

In our opinion, we need someone with a number of

years experience in the full-time pastorate, with better than average education (goo
background in liberal arts, especially in philosophy, and well-read in a number of

fields), in order to meet the college students on their own ground.

Anyone interested?
GOOD mS OF GOSPEL'S PROGRESS

He should also

have some training or experience in writing, teaching, or radio production, and the ability to be responsible for going ahead in an area of work without direction.

The happiest news is that we have seen l6 people baptized since

we began holding public services.
built around this nucleus.

Our new congregation is being We have been very careful

The last two Sundays there have been

baptisms and we pray it will continue.

about not urging people to be baptized until they have some under standing of what they are doing. Many of them know nothing at all about Christianity and even the more advanced know very little. It is not too difficult to persuade them to be baptized, but we have deliberately held back and let them make their own decision. Our observation has been that one of the problems in the Korean church i that too many of the members have little or no idea of what Christ ianity really means. Our progress may be slow, but we think it will be much more solid and sure this way. The boy pictured is a college student who was baptized May 8. His parents are Buddhists and pro
tested,
PERSONAL POSTSCRIPTS

V7e had hoped to get away for a few days vacation this last month (we have not
had one since we have been in Korea), but it didn't work out that way. It ended up with John going to Seoul to visit with Glen Taylor for about a week. He certainl
enjoyed that.

We believe that these first two years have served to get our feet on the ground There are many things that we do not understand about Korea and probably never will, but we feel that now we can move ahead with some idea of how to meet these people
and with at least some appreciation of their particular problems. Over 20 years in the ministry leads us to believe that people are basically pretty much the same

wherever you find them. The language, customs, and even way of thinking are different here and this complicates our ministry; but underneath it all these people, like us,

are lost sinners who need the grace and power that only Jesus Christ can bring tc their lives. With your help and prayers we are attempting to bring it to them,
t

We will soon have a 30 minute program of colored slides with a tape or script

to go with it available for your use in the churches.

We believe that it will make

an interesting program. If you are interested in having this program, please let us know. Requests will be filled in the order they are received.

Our very best wishes to all of you.

Please continue to remember us in your

prayers.

Your prayers and financial help has meant so much to us.

Faithfully yours,

We do not have

words to express our thankfulness.

Bert, Marge and John Ellis

'f--

TTi

ri jto

i ,ii ! t

Our home and garden, typically Oriental,

Ko at chapel vdndovj, 3rd floor.

Our oldest church attendant,

Sukxyaki restaurant.

W.aitress cooking sukiyaki.

' Marge, in. Korean dress.

John, "The Snapper," snapped,

Korean men retire at 60, This is a typical retirement pastime.

High school, unusual circular building, just above our home on the mountaih.

Taken from our yard. Scenery the same any direction from our home.

THE SEGGELKES -

MISSIONARIES TO

E A

HOW IT ALL STARTED

"Will yoube our high school youth sponsors?"

Little did we know where this simple question
would lead us back in 1950. We were seated in

the living room of our home at 330 17th Street in Lincoln, Illinois. Ed was just a baby then and was crawling behind our sofa as we were visiting with several members from the Lincoln Christian Church. They had come to ask us to accept this respcmsibility. Joe was then a deacon in the Lincoln church. Not only did we have little Ed, but we also had Tom just 18
months older and Bonnie 18 months older than Tom. We said weM think about it.

who were also vitally interested in radio, decided to go to Korea to have a part in this ministry. Joe had served in the Navy during the war and had electrical training and felt that this experi ence along with preaching could be useful to the Lord in this project.
On September 9, 1956, John Becker and Joe Seggelke were curdained to the ministry at
the Lincoln Christian Church. At the close of this service Joe made the announcement that

we would go to Korea as missionaries, the Lord willing. Miss Flora Maye Guernsey, who graduated from LBI the same year as Joe, was
at the service and told us that she, too, would

Our decision to accept eventually led to our being missionaries to Korea because the more we worked with young people, the more
we became interested in the work of the church.

We began to teach the high school Sunday school class, and then one Sunday morning Leon Appel preached a sermon directed to the high school graduates challenging them to
devote their lives to full-time Christian service

be going to Korea. In September of 1957, Flora Maye arrived in Korea. We followed in February of 1958 and the Bert Ellis family arrived in May of 1958. Many disappointments awaited us, as the project was not as had been pictured.
In October of 1958, we on the field as well as

and enter Bible college. Although Joe had been out of high school nine years, he accepted that challenge and the following fall in 1951
entered Lincoln Bible Institute;

others in the States planning to join us, with drew from the project and then we were faced with the question of the future. Flora Maye had
an invitation to join the staff at Mission Services

in Joliet, Illinois and in March of 1959 left

Korea to accept that position. The Ellises and

we decided to launch out into a work of our

Entering school with three small children to support was not easy, but the Lord always provides. Along with His provisions. He sent us an addition to our family. In June of 1953
Mark was bom. A few months before Mark was

added to our family, Joe began to serve his first church. Blooming Grove Christian Church, a rural church near Palmyra, Illinois. We owe
much to the members of this church for their

patience with us in our early days in the minis try and for their advice and help. We closed a two and one half year ministry there and during the remaining three years in LBI, Joe supplied in various churches when they called the school asking for a supply preacher. We came to know and love many Christians and little did we know then that some of these very Chris tians were to have a part with us in spreading the Gospel in Korea. We heard of a radio project to be started in Pusan, Korea. Joe, along with two close friends
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own. We organized Korean Broadcasting Mis sion and, after becoming acquainted with the president of Korea's first commercial station, HLKU, we made plans to broadcast the Gospel by purchasing air time on this station. HLKU went on the air on April 15, 1959 and we, too, began that first day with a daily radio broad cast. Along with the broadcasting, we started a correspondence course.
In our earlier days in Korea we had begim
Bible classes in our homes as had the Ellis

family and Flora Maye. When Flora Maye re

turned to the States, we took over her classes

cdong with ours. We, along with the Ellises

soon found we had a nucleus for a church and

for a time rented a marriage hall in downtown Pusan. (Most weddings in Korea are held in so-called marriage halls and not in the church as is our custom.) This was not too satisfactory as we were sometimes rushed through our

services so a ceremony could be performed! We began to look for a building. It now serves as our evangelistic center. Each week we are able to hold Sunday services without the inter ruption of a wedding. Sunday school classes are held for little folks up to and including the older folks. During the week our Bible classes
are held at the center as well as activities for

work there while his family returned to the States for a furlough. With the consent of our Elders in Lincoln and a mutual agreement
between the Ellises and us, we moved to Seoul

in June of 1960. There we had the privilege of overseeing the three orphanages connected with
the work of Korean Christian Mission. Joe

young people. Of course, we could not do this

alone. It is done with the assistance of our

taught Bible classes in the mission center and ministered to the Sung Wul Dong church on

Sunday evenings, leaving our Sunday mornings

free to visit other churches in the area. Our

Korean staff, the prayers and financial help of

our fellow Christian workers in America, and

the Lord's guidance and blessings. Our first term was not all spent entirely in
the Pusan area, however. After two and one

half years in Pusan, Brother Harold Taylor

asked that we move to Seoul to care for the

year passed all too quickly and on June 10, 1961, we returned to the States for a year's furlough. To give you a better insight into our life in Korea, let's read some excerpts from news letters written during that time.

LOOKING BACK
February, 1958 "Our first month has been spent getting settled in our rented Japanese-style house. Setting up housekeeping in an Oriental home, in a strange land, with four children, is much different than setting up housekeeping when we were first married nearly 13 years ago. I am learning to cook with an ml range, to boil all of our drinking water all of our water must be carried. I'm striving to re store a nearly lost art baking my own bread and rolls. All vegetables and fruits must be scrubbed first with Dial soap and then peeled. . . . We often use candlelight at night because the power lines are overloaded and the electric ity frequently goes off." April, 1958 - "On April 12th, Harold Tay lor from Seoul, spent the night with us and early Sunday morning Joe, Harold, Mr. Kim,
our translator, and Maxine headed out for

everyone sits on the floor. I made the mistake

of wearing a sheath dress, and no matter how

you try to sit on the floor in a sheath, it can't

lie done gracefully! The services had just begun when we arrived and we wanted to cause

as little disturbance as possible which is hard to do being an American. Everyone has to stop and stare at you; but to make matters worse,
not being familiar with Kc^ean customs, Joe
sat on the women's side of the church. . . . We

are beginning to see some unusual sights. As the temperature goes up, the clothing goes off,
so it's not at all uncommon to see children

running around in the nude. . . . One very

thrilling experience for me (Joe) was to assist

Brother S. M. Chang, pastor of the Dai Kyo

Church of Christ in a baptismal service. At the ocean's edge, he read several Scriptures con
cerning the need of repentance and about the
need of an oral confession of faith. Each of the

Ulsan 60 miles away and three and one half hours of time required to travel that distance one way. We visited one of the churches there. Services are conducted a little differently than
back home. The women sit on one side and the men on the other. The men serve the Lord's

candidates gave a suitable answer concerning

repentance from sin and faith in Christ. Then

I had the opportunity of baptizing seven Korean

believers into Christ."

Supper to the men and the women serve the

June, 1958 - "In the middle of the month I (Maxine) was confined to bed with inflamma

WOTien. Of course, you always remove your shoes before entering a house of any kind and the church house is no exception. You aren't bothered about finding a seat either because

tion of the bladder. on my feet again, and was rushed to appendicitis. The

. . . Just whenI was getting I had a severe pain hit me the hospital and found I had doctor operated immediately

-4-

at 12:30 a.m. . . . We are still working with

the Korean language. ... We ore able to follow

along in the Korean hymnal and actually sing in Korean with the people. (Of course we don't understand what we're singing but we can read
it, which in itself is a thrill.)"

we decided to ask the Buddhist priests if we might tell them about Jesus Christ. They
agreed if we would listen about Buddha. It is doubtful that we pierced their hearts with the Gospel, but an attempt was made to plant the seed and needless to say, it was an experience. . . . The need of the Gospel is so evident at every hand. One morning I heard the screams of a young child. A little boy about five years old was standing along the side of the street
with no clothes on and beside him was a small

May, 1959 "We are busy producing and broadcasting Gospel programs. The first of these went on the air April 16th. Since that time we have been on the air twice daily. The
morning program is called "Words of Life* and

consists of Scripture reading with organ music in the backgroimd. The evening program "The New Life" is varied from night to night. . . . Many strange things have happened to us here in the Orient, but I believe one of the strangest so far occurred about 10:30 at night on the 29th of April. . . . The door bell rang. Joe went to the gate and immediately dashed back in with, 'Maxine, hurry and see what is on our door steps!' I hurried to his call and what should I
see but a precious bundle. A mother had left

fire. A womancame out from the house carrying a broom, caught the straw on fire and swept it all over the child. Our interpreter told us that the people were Buddhist and they believe that
evil spirits come into the bodies of small

her baby . . . we kept him for the night and regretfully turned him over to a hospital the following morning. He was only six weeks old. . . . Children are abandoned,every day." June, 1959 "I'll (Joe) never forget my first conversation with Kim Duk Sung. It was one of my first chances to converse with a Korean. In

children so they drive out the evil spirits in this way." , October, 1959 - "On September 27th, five young men and women answered the invitation. Brother Rhee Shin, our radio preacher, baptized the new believers. . . . We have produced and aired over 350 programs."
- December, 1959 "The attendance at our

Sunday services averages well over 50 each week. . . . Manythings about Korea are strange. One thing is the way a Christian church mis sionary is often invited to preach in a denominati(Hial church. Such was the case for me a

his broken English he said, 'I want my brother

and sisters believe Jesus' . . . All that took

place more than a year ago. I hired Kim as an interpreter. . . . He had been a denominational Christian for about two years when we arrived in Korea. . . . I had the privilege of burying him with Christ this past month."

few weeks ago. I (Joe) was invited to a village not far from Pusan. I preached Saturday night and at the early morning prayer service (5:00 a.m.). By 7:00 a.m. I was on my way back to
Pusan so as not to miss our own services.

Like many Korean churches, this had no heat

September, 1959 "We cut our programs down to one broadcast daily in the evening. . . . We decided to start a Sunday service in a
rented building in downtown Pusan. The first services were held September 7th and we were pleased with the attendance at both the Bible study and worship services. There were 40 in attendancecounting the two missionary families. . . . We went to Kang Nung to visit the Lash family on the east coast. We went high into the mountains and finally found our way to an old Buddhist temple. We spent the night there sleeping on the undle floors. The next morning

of any kind. Oh, but my feet were cold! . . . Tom was holding a football while his friend kicked . . . only it was Tom's thumb that he kicked! Tom is sporting a cast on his right

May, I960 "The demonstrations you have probably read about kept us on the alert but we were in no danger personally. The many yoimg lives lost in their fight for freedom is heart breaking but they did it willingly that their coimtry could have a truly free government. . . . We made a trip to Seoul to visit with Brother
Taylor about his invitation to come to Seoul

thimib!"

to oversee the work while they are on furlough

in the States."

-5-

June, 1960 "Seoul ~ The one phase of the work here that impressed me (Joe) most is the new Seminary under construction. The first building, the dormitory, is now ready for
the inside finish work. The other buildings will have to wait until Brother Taylor returns next spring. . . . So far we have visited two of the three orphanages conducted with the mis

we had the opportunity of helping in two evan gelistic meetings in the Seoul area. Both of these meetings were held in small struggling
churches. No decisions were made, but we do

hope the members were strengthened and we

know that the seed was sown."

January, 1961 "Last month seven more

were added to the Pusan congregation by bap

tism."

sion. . . . Resident Eisenhower paid a visit

to Korea this month. We saw him and Tom shook his hand!"

August, 1960 "At the church at Sung Wul Dong, we had two baptisms last month our own Eddie and one young Korean man." September, 1960 "Bert Ellis writes from Pusan that there were eight baptisms in July. He has hired a young Korean lady to organize Bible clubs. She has organized four high school Bible clubs consisting of 43 girls and 41 boys and plans to organize one more high school group plus one college group." October, I960 "Dorothy Lash will be staying here in Seoul with us while attending first grade. Her mother is not well and needs rest. . . . Three young men accepted Christ during Sunday evening service." December, 1960 "During the past month

February,1961 "One of the responsibilities of the work here is getting out a publication of a Christian magazine, 'One Way.' Joe prepares most of the articles and, of course, they must
be translated. We often use material from the Christian Standard, the Plea and other Christian

publications. More than 1,500 copies are sent out to the Korean Christians every two months. . . . During this past month, three young
men were buried with their Lord in Christian

baptism." May, 1961 "On May 16th we had another revolution in Korea. This time it was a military overthrow of the government and Korea is now under a military dictatorship." July, 1961 We are once again in 'MeeGiook' which means America or beautiful

country."

THE WORK CONTINUES Bert Ellis reports from Pusan that over 100 college and high school students now meet weekly in the KBM chapel for Bible lessons.
More than 100 are enrolled in the correspondence

people have been baptized since the Tong

Kwang Dong church was begun a little more than two years ago. Mission activities include: radio broadcasting, student Bible clubs, corre spondence Bible study, Bible classes, Sunday school, church planting and publishing religious materials. Bert and his family will return to
the States in the summer of 1962 when the

courses. Sixty have completed the first course.

Bible classes meet each Sunday morning and

Wednesday evening. Sunday school (for the

younger children) enrollment is now 300 with average attendance recently of 200. Over 50

Seggelkes return to Korea.

THE FUTURE
As our plans stand now, we will be return ing to Korea in July, 1962. We will return to Pusan, Korea to relieve the Ellis family so that they will be able to return to the States for a year's furlough. Since there is no Ameri can high school in Pusan, we had planned to send Ihe children away to boarding school. After thinking it over, we all decided that it
would be easier for Bonnie and Tom to be in
-6-

Lincoln near our family and their friends than to be away in a boarding school. Bonnie will be staying with the Dean Sloniger family. Dean
is the associate minister at Lincoln Christian

Qiurch. Tom will be living with the Ray Gk)odman family. Ray is an elder of the Lincoln church. As soon as the school year is over

(May, 1963), they will return to Korea to be

with us. During our year in Pusan, we will be

teaching the two younger ones at home. The following year we will all move to Seoul where
all of the children can be in an American

OUR FORWARDING AGENT

We are happy to

school there. We (Joe and Maxine) will enter language school to study the Korean language in Seoul for two years. We will be engaged in other mission activities while we are studying,
but our main efforts will be directed at the

announce that Mrs.

Betty Sunderland has
consented to be our

Forwarding
derland

Agent S
is __ '

during our next term

language so we can be better prepared to take the Gospel to the people in Korea in their own language. OUR NEEDS
1. Your prayers as we prepare to return to Korea. $1642.00 2. Funds for travel to Korea:

family

making their home

Dr.

in

Lincoln at

Sunderland
Lincoln

where

flPUp

teaches

Christian
medical

College
practice.

3. Additional support needed: (permonth) 500.00 4. Balance due on Volkswagen: 350.00

5. Kerosene cooking stove;
6. For our home in Korea:
7. More missionaries.

100.00
5000.00

Betty is a very busy mother, homemaker and Sunday school teacher. She has been highly recommended for the position of Forwarding Agent and we are grateful for her acceptance.

THE SEGGELKES
Left to right: Eddie {12), Bonnie Jo (15), Joe and Maxine, Tommy (13), Mark (8)
The Seggelkes made their home in Lincoln, Illinois until their departure for Korea December 26, 1957. They are serving under the endorsement and supervision of the Lincoln Christian Church. During their first term of service they served two and one half years in Pusan and one year in Seoul, Korea. They are scheduled to return to Korea

for a second term of service in July, 1962. Mrs. Betty Sunderland will serve as Forwarding
Agent.
Overseas Address U.S. Address

[1^ Airmail letters only) Joe Seggelke Korean Broadcasting Mission

A.P.O. No. 59

(For funds and business)

Joe Seggelke c/o Mrs. Betty Sunderland
Box 351

San Francisco, California

Lincoln, Illinois

PREPARED AND MAILED BY

MISSION
BOX 968

SERVICES
JOLIET, ILLINOIS

509 W. JEFFERSON

i'B Oct.

60

Woodrow Plilllips 2802 Kentucky

Senc/ Form 3547 to Box 968, JoUet, Illinois

Joplin, Missouri

i-'C'
ADOfiess IN us..
^ BOX 352
imCOiN. KL.N01S

Korean Christian Mission

^ Maxine Seggeike
^ p Q 3Q1 jgjj Francisco

associated with:
Korean BROADCASTtNO
BERT & MARGE EUlS

Frop**^ ot
T
Dear Friend in Christ,

ot-rtS

Seoul, Korea November, 19^0

We will soon begin our fourth year away from hoie.

It was December 26th, 1957

Many of our plans have

that we piled into oiir old Chevy panel truck ans struck out for the west coast
to board the California Bear sailing for Pusan, Korea.

be^ changed since then. Because of irregularities, as you will recall, left the work we had originally planned to do. In November of 1958 the and Seggeike families formed a new work of Korean Broadcasting Mission. ginning a new work and raising money for it- while on the mission field, not been an easy matter. Since KBM's beginning, wa have started a daily
numerous Bible clubs and classes.

cast, organized a new church, developed a correspondance course, and established

Due to a lack of funds, the daily broadcasts

we Ellis Be has broad

on the Commercial station HliCU, were discontinued last spring but will be re-

smed this month trusting that our friends at home will respond to our plea for adequate funds to carry on this work. A weekly program over the government sta
tion, HIZB, in pusan will also begin this month.

^e had originally planned a five year term here in Korea. However these plans have been changed also. The Harold Taylor family, working here in Seoul, was past due for their furlou^, and there was no one to relieve them. Since there were 2 families in KBM, Harold asked if it would be possible for us to come to Seoul for a year so they could go home. After consulting our sponsoring church es, we all agreed on this plan; The Taylors would take their furlough this year
while we carried on the work here in Seoul, leaving the Ellis family to carry on

the work in Pusan. Upon the return of the Taylors in the spring of *61, we ex pect to go home for our furlovi^. Upon our return to Pusan, the Ellis family

will be able to take their furlou^.

Hoping to give you a clear picture of our financial problems, here are some
figures which should help you to see what we are facing?
$1,500.00

MONEY NEEDED NOW: Our half of KBM debts

Seggeike travel fund (one way) Seggeike back salary

Other mission debts

1,500.00 1,000.00 $4,300.00

300.00

MONTHLY PLEDGES NEEDED: Seggeike family salary

Total Average Monthly income Additional pledges needed

Our half of KBM monthly expenses 3^-^,

i:r\n'rv\ $200,00

The reason that we have fallen so far behind is that we lack about S200 of ^ving
enough Pledges to meet our monthly budget. We share the KBTJ expenses with the Ell^s<^s. They too have been short on funds, and because of this, the mission has kllen deeper and deeper into debt. We desperately need your help in clearing up the back debts, helping with our furlou^ fund, and most import
ant of all, we need additional monthly pledges.

Before too long, it will be time for us to pack for our furlough. We are look ing forward to seeing many of you this coming year. If you would like to hear
Sincerely in Christ,

from us while we are home, why don't you write to us so that we can inake plans to visit your church? We will be anxiously awaiting a reply from you.

lY

Joe and Mazine