It was a tremendous privilege to be part of this gathering of young people who came together in South Korea with a mandate to pray for the unification of the north and south. Over 37 nations were represented and over 1,000 mainly young people gathered daily in Ilsan Kwanglim Methodist Church just outside Seoul 26 – 29 July. There were 26 attending from the UK; and they were all blessed, challenged and loved interacting with people from the nations. We received an email when we returned from one of the guys from the UK he said, “Personally, this trip was probably one of the most significant moments in my life and ministry. I feel the Lord has reoriented my ministry and destiny.” How amazing is that and such an encouragement.

We were collected each morning at 08.45 and returned most nights at 22.45 so they were long days but we survived! The Methodist Church was an amazing venue with lots of space for people to eat, rest, break-out areas, very large auditorium; we with other leaders were in a VIP lounge where we were looked after and fed lunch-time and evening, not sure what we were eating some of the time but we survived! There were nine worship teams from Philippines, Malaysia, four from South Korea and an International Team; they were all anointed teams and many times during the week, Heaven touched earth through the worship.

We had speakers from Philippines, two from Korea, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia and Dr Michael Brown who is a professor of Bible and Hebrew studies at several seminaries. They were all appreciated by the content they shared. Ian spoke with John Robb and Brian Mills from International Prayer Council at one of the breakout sessions on unity.

One of the sessions on the final evening at the church was praying for all the nations represented individually, praying out all together with bullet prayers. People from each of the nations represented were asked to stand, those close laid hands on them and the rest prayed together – Korean style – it was a real roar of prayer for each nation. Many of the young people said they had never experienced anything like this before – especially the Brits.

The highlight for most people was the visit on the Friday to the DMZ at the border of North and South Korea. We were collected from the Methodist Church on the Friday morning and drove in many coaches for about an hour to the DMZ. We had time to walk around the area where there were coffee shops/restaurants and other amenities as well as information and photographs of the area before the north and south were divided. Much of the journey to get to the DMZ was along the estuary where there were double high fences with barbed wire across the top and century posts at regular intervals looking out for defectors from the north.

We had an amazing miracle on the Friday; the forecast was severe thunder storms and lightening with heavy rain all day. When we woke, in our room on the 17th floor of the hotel, the rain was lashing at the window and severe thunder and lightning; an urgent email was sent out by John Robb to pray-ers across the world to pray that this would stop. God answered prayer! Where the worship event took place was in an uncovered grassed area like a huge amphitheatre with the stage at the front. The prayer and worship commenced at 3 p.m. and continued until 9 p.m. and it was dry for the whole time apart from a short shower when the worship band started singing the song, “Let it rain.”!! The evening concluded with all the lights turned off and all the leadership coming to the front of the stage (us included!) and one candle was lit, this one candle lit another one and so on when all the leadership had lighted candles we then went and continued to light everybody’s candle in the amphitheatre; praying that the light of Jesus would shine brightly into North Korea; a very moving and powerful moment.

The young people did extremely well in leading each day; there was real unity and honour of each other from the different nations. It was special to be able to affirm and encourage them; once or twice Ian wandered over to them when they were a little hesitant as to what to do next and offered a suggestion; they were very grateful for his fatherly input. We also had lots of fun with them in the VIP lounge, so much laughter and we’d never had so many selfies with people in our lives; everywhere we went, “can we have a selfie with you.” What it is to be popular! Much of the gatherings were live streamed and we know of many people around the world who tuned in.

Ian & Pauline Cole