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28 - Vision of Development for Youth Training Centre
Ben Torrey

Benjamin Archer Torrey (1930–2016). Born on January 6, 1930, in Santa Ana, California, to missionaries R.A. Torrey Jr. and Jane, Ben Torrey was an American pastor, missionary, and founder of Jesus Abbey in South Korea. Growing up in Korea, where his parents served, he was immersed in missionary life from childhood. After studying at Phillips Academy and earning a BA from Dartmouth College in 1953, he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Returning to Korea in 1964 with his wife, Elizabeth, he co-founded Jesus Abbey in 1965 in the Taebaek Mountains, a prayer community dedicated to spiritual renewal and intercession for Korea’s reunification. Ordained in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, he pastored in Connecticut for 26 years while working in computer systems and knowledge management, and served as administrator for The King’s School in Bolton, Connecticut. In 2005, he and Elizabeth established the Three Seas Center at Jesus Abbey, focusing on prayer and training. Torrey was consecrated Missionary Bishop for Korea in 2018, post-humously recognizing his lifelong work, and directed The Fourth River Project, promoting spiritual unity. He authored no major books but contributed to Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries International, dying on April 24, 2016, in Taebaek, survived by Elizabeth and three children. He said, “Prayer is the key to seeing God’s kingdom come in Korea.”
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In this sermon, the speaker shares their vision for the development of the Three Seas Youth Training Center. They discuss their previous vision for Christian education and the Fourth River Project, as well as their desire to prepare for the opening of North Korea and eventual reunification. The speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching young people about North Korea's current situation and history, and instilling in them a concern for their brothers and sisters in the north. They also mention the opportunity for these young people to experience the beauty of nature and the love and care of the community. Overall, the speaker expresses excitement about God's vision for the center and the work being done to bring it about.
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Good evening. This is Ben Torrey, back again with you after all these weeks. It is good to be back on the air myself. However, I am deeply grateful to my good friend Chung Soo Kim for faithfully sharing my words with you while I was away. Our trip to the U.S. was very successful. We conducted North Korea schools in different places, participated in an important North Korean missions conference, and attended to other business. We also had a very restful time away with our family. We come back to Korea full of expectation all that the Lord is doing and will do this summer. We are especially looking forward to the work camp schools that we told you about last week. That will be an exciting time. Tonight, I would like to share with you our vision for development of the Three Seas Youth Training Center. In the past, I have shared about our vision for Christian education and the Jesus Abbey Global School. We have also spoken about the Fourth River Project and our vision to prepare for the opening of North Korea as well as the North Korea schools and work camp schools that we conduct. All of these are or will be carried out at the Three Seas Center. There is one more aspect of our grand plan for the Center. That is for short-term youth training programs as distinguished from the longer-term middle and high school education program. Young people are the future of our country. Today's youth will be the ones who will be involved directly in the process of reunification or reconciliation and healing between North and South Korea. We believe that it is imperative to capture the imagination of this youth generation for North Korea. This does not mean that we want to see every young person committed to going to North Korea or working to rebuild the nation or preach the gospel there. No, we have a broader perspective. These things are very important, but not everyone will be involved in them. Beyond those who do have a specific call in relation to North Korea, we think of all those who live and work in the South. Most of them will be involved in earning their livings and building their families in the cities, towns, and villages of South Korea without any direct involvement with the North. Yet it is precisely these who will play a major role in the future of a united Korea. They will be voters. They will have opinions. They will influence others. Our hope and intent is to impart to the young people living now, who will be these ordinary citizens in the future, a vision for a new Korea. We believe that it is very important for them to understand as much as possible about their brothers and sisters in the North. We also want to instill in them fundamental biblical principles about living and working as men and women, as families, as citizens of a united Korea. We also believe that it is very important to pass on Christian values concerning healthful living, good stewardship of God's creation, living and working with others, and being thoughtful and caring of others. This is certainly a big task. We do not see ourselves as doing the whole job. What we hope is that others will join with us in this work both at the Three Seas and elsewhere across the country. For us, we see our task as touching the lives of as many young people as we can and awakening in them an interest in these matters. Some will be believers, but many who come may have no relation with the Lord. Yet even they will be able to learn and grasp the principles and information that we want to impart. So what will we do? We are building a youth training center with the capacity to take several hundred young people for short courses. These will last one, two or three days. The participants will be middle and high school groups who will come to our center for the training that we offer. The Three Seas Center is being built in a lovely mountain location in Quebec. The air is clean and the views are beautiful. On a clear day you can see the East Sea. Sometimes we look out our window and see the clouds below us with the mountaintops showing like islands in a white sea. I have rarely seen prettier places. We also have a cattle ranch with about thirty head of cattle at this time. We are continuing to build the herd with plans to have about one hundred altogether. We are surrounded by national forests with the Pektu Trail skirting the property. This is a ridge top trail that runs from Chiri San in the south to Pektu San on the Chinese border. All in all, the Three Seas is a wonderful place to enjoy fresh air, beautiful scenery and healthy exercise while learning about the value of hard physical work on the ranch as well as hiking and camping. Our programs will take advantage of all these benefits to bring to our young people exciting new experiences. We stress a number of values. Such things as caring for the creation that God has given us as we learn to be good stewards of his earth. We also believe very strongly in the importance of service to others, care and prayer for others, the value of manual labor and community and of course we teach about upright living. We also want to pass along a concern to seek and fulfill one's purpose in life. In other words, to discern God's calling. All these things we will teach and model through the life of our Three Seas community, Jesus Abbey, our mother community and the program of the center. In addition, there is one more thing that we will bring to all this. That is an awareness of North Korea and a vision to prepare for when it is open and eventually for reunification. We will draw on the resources and knowledge of the Fourth River Project, providing special lectures and educational programs about North Korea as it is now and the history of how the nation became divided. We will also teach about how to prepare for a future that is coming, that these young people will be involved with. We will seek to instill in them a concern for their brothers and sisters in the North and get them thinking about this future, what their role in it will be. Perhaps some of these young people will return later on to participate in more advanced educational programs about North Korea. Perhaps some will catch the vision to prepare themselves for an active and leading role in the process of healing, reconciliation and reunification. At the least, our hope and prayer is for each one to go back home with a new awareness of this situation and a thoughtfulness about their future and the future of all Korea. If we do no more than awaken such an awareness in each young person, we will consider ourselves to have succeeded. What is particularly exciting to us is the natural way that all these things can and will be integrated to provide a rich and rewarding learning experience. We think that the young people who come, who will be separated from their cell phones, MP3 players and electronic games, who will work with their hands on the ranch, play with our dogs, hike on the land, spend time camping, who will have time to see the beauty of the heavens at night, unaffected by the lights of the city, who will eat healthy food and experience the love and care of the community. These young people will go back to their schools, back to the city and their homes, remembering a special place, a special experience and a new vision. This is our vision for the Three Seas Youth Training Center. We believe it is God's vision and are excited at what He is doing to bring it about. As I said at the start of this evening's program, it is good to be back and working on bringing all this about. Of course, I am not alone in this. Next week I will share with you about our greatest asset for this work, our people. Until then, good night.
28 - Vision of Development for Youth Training Centre
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Benjamin Archer Torrey (1930–2016). Born on January 6, 1930, in Santa Ana, California, to missionaries R.A. Torrey Jr. and Jane, Ben Torrey was an American pastor, missionary, and founder of Jesus Abbey in South Korea. Growing up in Korea, where his parents served, he was immersed in missionary life from childhood. After studying at Phillips Academy and earning a BA from Dartmouth College in 1953, he served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. Returning to Korea in 1964 with his wife, Elizabeth, he co-founded Jesus Abbey in 1965 in the Taebaek Mountains, a prayer community dedicated to spiritual renewal and intercession for Korea’s reunification. Ordained in the Syro-Chaldean Church of North America, he pastored in Connecticut for 26 years while working in computer systems and knowledge management, and served as administrator for The King’s School in Bolton, Connecticut. In 2005, he and Elizabeth established the Three Seas Center at Jesus Abbey, focusing on prayer and training. Torrey was consecrated Missionary Bishop for Korea in 2018, post-humously recognizing his lifelong work, and directed The Fourth River Project, promoting spiritual unity. He authored no major books but contributed to Presbyterian-Reformed Ministries International, dying on April 24, 2016, in Taebaek, survived by Elizabeth and three children. He said, “Prayer is the key to seeing God’s kingdom come in Korea.”