The Jesus Abbey Story
by Bunny Torrey
My parents had been teaching at the Anglican seminary
in Seoul for seven years when they decided to pack up and
head to the mountains to build a house where they and
a few others would lead a simple life of prayer and
farming. This small community was to be
an experiment in Christian living, which my parents
had articulated into "the three labs" of the Christian
life; the Christian's personal relationship with God,
the Christian's relationship with other Christians,
and the relationship of Christians (the church) with
the world. It soon became evident that Jesus Abbey
would indeed provide the intensive "laboratory"
experience of living the Christian life in close
community with others, in a rugged physical
environment, and under circumstances that constantly
demanded faith in God's provision. But the manner in
which the Abbey's role unfolded was beyond
expectation.
At the beginning, Mom and Dad didn't expect the
community to exceed about ten members, and little
attempt had been made to recruit volunteers or
advertise the Abbey's founding. Some who had promised
to stay and help left, but many others took their
place, and by the time the building began, there were
fourteen men living in the army tent pitched at the
site deep in a Kangwondo valley. In the winter of
1965, Mom and my sister Yancey were able to join Dad,
my brother Ben, and the men and women at the site and
move into what was completed of the many-tiered stone
building. The life of Jesus Abbey began, and I was
born the next year--one among the first of many
unexpected arrivals!
People came from all different denominations, social
classes, and personal and family situations to become
part of the Abbey household, something unheard of in
the hierarchical and respectively exclusive framework
of Korean society. At the Abbey, the
wealthy businessman and the homeless alcoholic, the
seminarian and the skeptic, the pampered college
student and the factory worker all had to share rooms
and meals, and work and worship together. One guest
once remarked that it was the first time he had
even had a meaningful conversation with someone from
another denomination. At another time, the leaders of
two rival gangs from a southern city met each other at
the Abbey where they had been sent by missionaries and
the police as an alternative to jail. Their mutual
animosity soon exploded in a drunken brawl--curses,
fists, and broken glass flying, but strong hands and
loud, earnest, and lengthy prayers subdued the fight,
and the two men eventually became "brothers".
News spread about the Abbey, this unusual place where
people of divergent backgrounds and personalities
lived and worked together, where people changed, where
overlooked biblical teachings were taught and
practiced, and where the beauty of the
mountains, trees, and streams also communicated God's
love. The number of people who made the long trip out
to the remote valley by train, bus, and--for the final
mile--on foot, grew steadily over the years until the
average number of visitors reached eight- to
ten-thousand per year in the late '80s. Some came out
of curiosity or to enjoy a vacation, but most sought
spiritual encouragement, prayer, and whatever the Lord
might have in store for them. There was also the
occasional drug-addicted teenager or the mentally
unstable person who was sent to the Abbey against his
or her will by a desperate parent, and though outcomes
varied in such cases, life at the Abbey was such that
few left without being touched by hope.
In addition to solitary pilgrims and families, there
were numerous groups that showed up, some of the
earliest being the bands of long-haired American young
people who visited in the early seventies. They came
with their bell-bottoms, guitars, and enthusiasm, as
well as their duffel bags full of American commissary
goods. In contrast to these young Americans, there
were groups of clergy in their collars and serious
faces,seeking retreat and renewal, or crowds of
clean-cut college students intent on learning about
social justice, and trying their hand at manual labor
in between lectures. Many of the individual visitors
and even some of the groups would show up unannounced,
and the Abbey family housed, fed, and ministered to
them through whatever means were available. As the
Abbey blessed these visitors, they in turn blessed the
community, providing practical assistance or spiritual
encouragement to members and to fellow visitors.
God's provision has been the other remarkable thing
about the Abbey. Many visitors assume that the
community is supported by regular funds from a mission
headquarters, or by some other secure source of
income. But as independent missionaries, my parents
have never had the luxury of such support, and from
the
beginning, have trusted God to meet the needs of the
work inspired by his Spirit. It is a policy at the
Abbey that financial needs are never advertised;
instead, they are brought before the Lord in prayer.
Without fail, and by various unexpected means, God has
provided throughout the years. The stories are
numerous: a stranger trudging up the mountain with a
sack of rice for the Abbey soon after the kitchen
cupboards had become barren of food; a mysterious
check from an American university coming just in time
to meet expenses for a wedding, and some months later
being recalled as a mistake, by which time the Abbey
was able to repay the amount; a tithe gift from an
army officer on a few hours visit being the exact
amount needed for an upcoming event--an amount
which had just been determined at a separate planning
meeting moments before the officer's departure; and so
on. God has also provided the right people when they
were most needed, such as the excellent carpenter who
turned up to join the small group of men who were
building the Abbey, or the group of teenagers on a
building mission who labored in the mud during the
monsoon season to construct a badly needed building at
the farm. The Abbey is slowly progressing toward its
long-term goal of becoming completely self-sufficient
financially through farming and the sale of books,
audio tapes, woolen quilts, and crafts, and through
provision of services to the community. But the fact
that a place such as Jesus Abbey is possible at all
will always be a testimony to the power of the
Holy Spirit.
The work of the Abbey has far exceeded my parents'
initial hopes and expectations. Jesus Abbey has
remained true to its original purpose of being a house
of prayer, and the prayers offered from within and
without its solid walls work in mysterious ways for
healing, reconciliation, spiritual awakening and
provision in the lives of many. But God has also
called the Abbey to be a place for the multitudes, and
the thousands and ten-thousands of people who have
participated in the life of the community in some way,
large or small, now quietly influence the life of the
world around them with what they have witnessed of the
love and power of God at Jesus Abbey.
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To Contact:
Jesus Abbey
P.O. Box 17
Taebaek, Kangwondo 235-600
Republic of Korea
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Tel:
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82-33-552-0662
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Fax:
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82-33-552-0633
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More Info
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