A couple of Saturdays ago I (Ryan) attended the wedding of
Andy and Pauline. After the
ceremony I jumped into a taxi and headed to the Daejeon train station. I took a train to Seoul and met my
friend Ryan Dellos at Seoul Station.
From there we headed off to a church in Seoul where Steve Saint was to
be the featured speaker. Steve
Saint is the son of Nate Saint, one of the five missionaries that was speared
to death in South America in 1956.
Yes, I got to hear Steve Saint speak, in person. Here is the story…
It all started a couple of months ago. While I was in Bangkok I read through Steve Saint’s book, Walking His Trail. In the book he mentioned that parts of his father’s plane were found in 1996 and they were on display at the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) Headquarters in Nampa, Idaho. In mid February I went to Nampa, Idaho to speak in the NNU chapel service and I stopped by the MAF headquarters to take a look at the remnants of Nate Saint’s plane. I took some pictures and upon my return to South Korea I posted the story and the pictures on our family blog. See HERE.
A week or so after posting the blog about seeing the remnants
of the plane in Nampa I received a comment on my blog by someone that works
with Steve Saint in the I-TEC ministry.
The person had stumbled across my blog, realized that I was living in
South Korea, and thought I would be interested to know that Steve Saint was
scheduled to be in South Korea during the third week of March.
I sent some emails to the folks at I-TEC inquiring of Steve’s
itinerary in South Korea and a few days later I received a copy of his
itinerary while he was here in South Korea. My secretary (who is Korean) very nicely helped me pinpoint the places
and the times that Steve Saint would be talking and I zeroed in on attending a
5 p.m Saturday service in Seoul.
I was at our sister school, GSIS, on the Thursday before my Saturday trip to Seoul and I mentioned my upcoming trip to my friend Ryan Dellos. Ryan is a Resident Assistant in the dorm at GSIS. He grew up as a missionary kid in South America and attended school in Ecuador. Ryan knew of Steve Saint and said that he wanted to tag along and hear him speak, so I met him at Seoul Station and our adventure began.
Ryan and I made our way in a taxi to a church in Seoul and
we entered a large auditorium that looked to seat about 1800 people. We arrived 20 minutes before the service
was to start and there were only a handful of people in the auditorium. We sat down on the front row--just a
few feet away from where the speaker’s microphone and podium were set up. As we sat there waiting, a gentleman
that looked to be “in charge” came up to me and knelt down and asked if I was
Steve Saint. It was hilarious. I
was wearing a suit because I had just come from a wedding and I do have glasses
and a beard and I do look a bit like Steve Saint. I told him no, I was not Steve Saint, but that I was there
to hear him speak. He told me that
Steve Saint had not shown up yet and they were not exactly sure what he looked
like.
About five minutes later Steve Saint showed up with his Korean escort and translator. It was cool to see him in flesh and blood. I have read so many books by him and about him, and I have seen his movie, “End of the Spear.” Over the twenty minutes that we sat there before the service began the auditorium preceded to nearly fill up. There ended up being about 1500 people present in the gathering and there were only three white, Western faces in the large crowd: Steve Saint, Ryan Dellos and me.
Steve Saint did a great job of sharing. He spoke for over an hour and a half. He went unusually long because of the
uniqueness of the gathering. It
was a University Bible Fellowship (UBF) gathering of college students that were
interested in being involved in missions.
So Steve Saint took the liberty to give them lots of teaching about
missions and he shared many of his own thoughts on missions. It was great.
After the service, Ryan Dellos and I spoke to Mr. Saint. We spoke with him for a long time. It was fun to realize that he and Ryan went to the same high school, Alliance Academy in Ecuador. Steve Saint said that he graduated from there in 1969. I told him of my love for the story of his father and of the other four missionaries. I told him that I had tried to read everything that I could about the story of the five missionaries.
It was so great to talk with Steve Saint, to hear him speak and to get a picture taken with him. He is one of my modern day heroes. If we would have had the time, we were invited to go to dinner with Steve Saint and his host, but both Ryan and I needed to get on the train and the bus headed for our respective homes.
As we left that gathering we were giddy. We both couldn’t get over what a privilege it was to be a part of that experience; to hear Steve Saint, to interact with him the way that we did and to do it all in South Korea.
It was a very cool and memorable event.
What an unbelievable and unforgettable time... I'm so thankful we were able to go. Thank you Ryan for letting me experience this with you!
Posted by: Ryan Dellos | March 28, 2010 at 11:31 PM
I'm jealous.
Posted by: chris j | March 29, 2010 at 12:51 AM
What an experience! So glad you got to be there. Our God is so good, isn't He? It is so true that He will give us the desires of our hearts......in the large AND the small things. Love you, Mom
Posted by: Dad & Mom Roberts | March 29, 2010 at 06:58 AM