24 - God's Provision for the Three C's School — Ben Torrey

Hello, this is Changsu Kim back again to share with you Ben Torrey's story of God's provision for the Three Seas Center. It's a wonderful story of the way that God works things out when we least expect it.

God's Provision and the Timing of the Land

Ben continues. Last week I shared how God had provided the land for the Three Seas Ranch, called the Watershed Grains, for many years. It was a story of both provision and timing. God provided the funds through a good friend in the U .S. and worked the timing so that my father inquired about the land on the one day that it was available.

He offered to buy the lease permit and the leaseholder agreed to sell, neither knowing that the next day someone would come and offer twice as much. For over 30 years now, Jesus Abbey has been leasing this beautiful piece of land from the forestry department and using it for raising cattle, sheep, and other livestock.

Securing Approval for the Youth Training Center

I also mentioned how a new law came into effect a few years ago that would provide for the forestry department to release certain of its land for private development to enhance the economy in the Tebek region.

Jesus Abbey was very interested in building a youth training center at the Watershed Grange but was not sure how to go about getting permission to do so. As they looked into this, they learned that the project had to fit into the overall development plan for the city of Tebek.

This was not too difficult since the city was interested in having a youth training center and no one else was offering to build one. It was also important to get permission from the province of Kangwondo.

However, the most important, perhaps the most difficult hurdle to get over was to get the buy-in from the forestry department. Unless they approved the project, they would never release the land. So the first step was to get approval from the forestry department for the overall concept.

God's Preparation Through Reuben Archer Torrey Jr.

No one was sure how to go about doing this effectively. This is where the Lord stepped in. Before going forward with the story, we need to go backward quite a ways. My grandfather Reuben Archer Torrey Jr. had been a missionary in China for many years.

My father was born and raised in China. When World War II broke out, my grandparents and one uncle were placed under house arrest by the Japanese for a number of months. Eventually, they were repatriated to the United States.

My grandfather went to work for the mission board in the U .S. Some time later, a request went out for U .S. citizens, who were fluent in Chinese and English, to serve as liaison officers between the U .S. Army and the Nationalist Chinese forces under Chang Kei-suk in the war with Japan.

My grandfather was one of the handful of men who volunteered. He went back to China. While riding in a jeep, he was in an accident that cost him his right arm. There is another story there of how God worked wonderfully and graciously, but it's not our story.

That one will have to wait for another time. The point here is that he lost his arm. Sent back to the States to recover, he learned how to use an artificial arm and hook. He became quite proficient in using them.

The Korean War Amputee Rehabilitation Ministry

The next chapter in this story came during the final days of the Korean War. As a result of the war, there were many people of all ages who had lost arms and or legs. Church World Service tried to set up an amputee rehabilitation center, but was having a difficult time getting it off the ground.

The people involved just did not understand what it meant to have lost an arm or a leg, or how to help such people overcome the disability. Someone suggested inviting my grandfather to come out of retirement and run the center.

He agreed and came to Korea in 1953 to start the program in Daejeon. He understood what it was like to be an amputee since he was one himself, and he knew how to help amputees become fully functioning members of society.

He gave them hope and helped them to realize that hope. Later he would remark that the work in Daejeon was the most important in his whole life and he could not have done it if he had not lost his own arm.

Becoming an amputee was God's way of preparing him for this great work. He was glad that he had lost his arm. Now back to our main story. At the time that my father and the members of Jesus Abbey were trying to find out how to gain the confidence of the forestry department, trying to find some way to make a connection there, the minister of forests and my father met for the first time.

A Providential Connection With the Minister of Forests

The minister had never heard of my father, Jesus Abbey, or the watershed Grange. He did know my grandfather, however. Indeed he was an amputee himself. He had lost his leg in an explosion as a young boy.

My grandfather took him into the rehabilitation center, gave him a new leg, taught him how to use it, helped him with his education, and instilled confidence in him. Now some 40 years later, he was introduced to the son of the man who had done all that for him, my father.

Not only that, he discovered that he was in a position to help my father in a vitally important way, to return the favor, so to speak. He listened to my father's proposal for a youth training and conference center at the watershed Grange and cleared the way for the Abbey to apply for permission.

Not long after that, the concept was approved, the first big hurdle in the process of getting permission to actually build the center. God had prepared the way all those years before. What is particularly remarkable about this is that the land we are talking about runs along the Paektu Trail that runs from Chirisan in the south to Paektusan on the Chinese border.

Preserving the Paektu Trail and the Surrounding Land

The trail is now a national preserve. There is a special buffer zone on either side of the trail running its whole length. If not for the intervention of the Minister of Forests at that critical time, it is probable that permission would never have been given for this project so close to the trail.

Of course, we do not want to encroach on the trail itself. It has great meaning for us as well, representing as it does the fourth river, the river of life flowing to North Korea. So while we have permission to build near the trail, we will take great pains to preserve the area so that it does not suffer from the blight that development so often brings.

Confidence in God's Continued Provision

Even after the initial permission was granted, and while we were seeking final approval of our detailed plan, there were those in very high positions who told us that the Forestry Department would never agree to such a project so close to the trail.

We were confident that if this project was God's will, He would see it through, and He has. Our detailed plan was approved a year ago. Since then, we have been seeking partners to work with us, conducting surveys, finalizing the architectural plans, and getting building permits.

There are a lot of steps in the process and many hurdles still to get over, but we have supreme confidence that God is behind this project. After all, He has taken care of everything to now. We know that He will continue to take care of all things needed.

Give thanks with us for God's wonderful provision for His work. Good night.