Magyar Egyház, 1957 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1957-12-01 / 12. szám

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

19

THE STORY OF LITTLE LEE JAE KU

Little Lee Jae Ku was the dirtiest small boy I have ever seen when picked up by the amputee center nurse and brought into my office, writes Dr. Reuben A. Torrey, director of the Korean Amputee Rehabilitation Center in Taejon which receives Church World Service aid and food gifts from CROP.

Clad in an oversized, tattered shirt and mud-caked drawers, his face and body were literally black, apparently unwashed for many, many days. He was found crawling on hands and knees among the indifferent crowds of the market hunting scraps to fill his empty stomach.

Jae Ku once had a comfortable home. His father was successful, plying his trade as a builder. The undersized eight-year-old child remembers a commodious house with a lovely mountain rising behind it. Then the father died. Jae Ku went to live with his grandmother for some time and started attending school. But he longed for his mother and little brother, so returned home only to find they had disappeared and no one could tell him where they had gone.

With a child’s simplicity he set out to find his mother. Drifting from place to place in the vain search, he wandered farther and farther away from home until he found himself adrift in the city of Taejon, just another one of the countless beggar boys of all ages that form one of Korea’s greatest social problems. The winter was cold and Jae Ku slept wherever he could find temporary shelter, shivering from door to door and from garbage can to garbage can intent on only one thing, something to eat.

Then his feet were frozen. He lay moaning in a helpless heap until a policeman found him nearly dead. Depositing him in the overcrowded and underfinanced provincial hospital, it was found that his feet were so far gone they had to be amputated. So the long painful months dragged by as the little fellow lay with scant care other than occasional changing of dressing on his two stumps.

It was spring again but there was no joy or hope in the tiny breast of Jae Ku as he was carried out of the hospital and put down on the side of the street and told to shift for himself. It had rained and the streets were still filled with mud. There was nothing he could do but to crawl laboriously, painfully through the nearby market like a small animal, snatching any bits of food he could.

Two hopeless days dragged by. Then suddenly a sweet faced woman was bending over him asking questions. Soon he was lifted to a nearby truck on which other amputees with artificial limbs were riding. An examination at the amputee clinic, a warm bath, a new suit of clothes, kindness on every hand, food and the promise of new legs with a home among other amputee boys until he can fend for himself have opened a new world of hope to little Lee Jae Ku.

(CROP Newsletter)

(Church World Service is one of the Central Departmens of the National Council of Churches.)

WORLD CIRCULATION OF THE SCRIPTURES NEARS 27 MILLION

Total world circulation of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments and portions of the Scriptures together reached 26,379,142 in December 1956. This and other dramatic facts are documented in a 12-page report issued recently by the Rev. Dr. Frank W. Price, director of the Missionary Research Library, maintained by the National Council of Churches. This is almost one million more than the year before and 3,242,469 more than in 1954.

“At the close of 1956,” Dr. Price reported, “at least one whole book of the Bible had been published in 1,109 languages, which is 17 more than the year before.” He pointed out that the historical list of 1,109 includes many languages now obsolete, such as certain Chinese dialects, but that the number of languages in which some part of the Bible has been circulated in the last 25 years “is probably between 600 and 700.”

Dr. Price’s report continues: “In 1956 the complete Bible was published for the first time in the Bemba language (Northern Rhodesia) Nimbi Ijo (Nigeria) and Morovo (Solomon Islands) and the entire New Testament became available in eight new languages, including the North American Indian Navajo.”

Using American Bible Society and other agency figures, the report shows that the first five countries in the sale of complete Bibles are the United States, Germany, England and Wales, South Africa and Brazil.

The fact that the Bible continues to be published, circulated and studied in Communist China is underlined by the following figures: “Since 1949, 171,278 complete Bibles, 170,493 New Testaments and 3,199,282 portions of the Bible have been distributed and 43 editions printed from old plates already in the country.” In addition, seven Bible Houses are maintained in major Chinese cities, the report shows.

“These are not mere cold statistics but living and inspiring facts,” declared Dr. Price. “Today the Bible has become a truly universal book in a world that still possesses a babel of tongues.” (The Religions Newsweekly.)

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