David Tai Woong Lee (MDiv '81, DMis '83) TEDS 2002 Alumnus of the Year

The TEDS Alumni Board, on behalf of the Trinity Alumni Association, salutes David Tai Woong Lee’s life of service to the Lord and enthusiastically and gratefully extends to him the Alumnus of the Year Award for 2002.

The Miracle of Barley Loaves
by Joshua Westerholm (BA ’01)

When God found David Tai Woong Lee he was “drifting,” David says. A 22-year-old college sophomore, Lee felt lost: he lacked purpose, direction, and could barely muster the energy to study. One day, a friend from high school suggested that he come to a meeting at JOY mission, an indigenous college-age Bible study founded four years earlier by three Korean college students.

A number of students there began to pray for his salvation, and during an all-night prayer meeting on February 25, 1962, David accepted Christ as his Savior and Lord.

His life would never be the same. Within a few years, he was a leader in the JOY mission, and when he was not at work as an electrical engineer, he was preaching and leading prayer meetings. “We were burning with a desire for doing missionary work around the world,” he says.

The Lord was blessing the JOY mission, and during the late 60s the number of students involved doubled each year, and the group changed its name to JOY mission to reflect its growing outreach opportunities.

Like David, the other members of the mission worked during the day at other jobs. With their meetings expanding so rapidly, it became clear that at least one of the staff needed to lead the mission full time.

David was convinced he was not the one.

Married only one year to his wife, Hun-Bock Song, and mindful of his present struggle to make a living, he knew he needed what financial security he had. Despite his inhibition, every day he prayed, and one day he prayed, “Lord, I cannot give this up by my own will. You have to literally remove me from my present job.” As soon as he finished praying, his company building literally caught fire.

David realized this was a clear sign, and, in 1972, David Lee gave up his life as an engineer to become the first director of the JOY mission. By the time he came to Trinity in 1979, he had served Korean students for 17 years.

“At TEDS, I had to sort out everything that I was learning. I had a number of years of ministry experience behind me but had so many questions that I was not able to answer during my ministry. I was hungry for real Truth. So for me TEDS was an ideal place. I was able to drink deep everything that was being taught—without questioning the motives or the validity of the teaching. I was so excited about learning I literally ran from one place to another to save time. I felt that my eyes were opened through studying missiology and other theological subjects. TEDS prepared me academically and devotionally. In fact, at TEDS, I learned not to divide these.”

It became evident to him that he should concentrate on preparing a teaching ministry that would train missionaries in Korea, a ministry that few churches engaged in at the time.

In 1983, the Lees completed their time at Trinity. At the time, South Korea was under military rule, and as David thought about taking his two boys back to that situation, he was deeply troubled. Again, he had to place even this worry into Jesus’ hands. He resolved to return no matter what the political situation. Other temptations arose including an invitation to pastor in Silicon Valley, but they did return and David founded the Global Missionary Training Center in Seoul, Korea.

The shortest conversation with David shows him to be a man of resolute conviction in his ministry. “I have never doubted returning to my country or my call to train people. I have never had regrets even when things got tough. In fact, we have been most happy even in times of difficulty, because we know we are in the center of the will of God for us.”

The story of David’s ministry shows God’s provision. Korea now sends nearly 8,000 missionaries by one estimate last year (one of the largest missionary-sending countries of the Two-Thirds World), and the Global Missionary Training Center has trained about seven percent of all Korean cross-cultural missionaries. They are also in the process of creating an extension study program for its graduates and other missionaries in partnership with the Korea Research Institute for Missions.

In addition to the Center, David serves as associate pastor at Yoido Baptist Church, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Global Missionary Fellowship, and Chairman of the World Evangelical Fellowship Missions Commission. He is author of Korean Missions: Theory and Practice and Training Disciples This Way, and has also contributed by writing dozens of articles and publishing books both nationally and internationally. His wife teaches with him at GMTC, particularly in the field of Family Life Ministries.

“Why I am who I am is utterly by the grace of God,” says David. “I feel like I am merely ‘barley loaves’ that a boy had. Yet when they are presented to the Lord, He performs a miracle, and marvelous things take place. As I look back I can feel the hand of God on my life. I would have trodden a completely different road, had my plans been fulfilled. Most likely, I would not have been involved in training missionaries, and in the process, I would have missed the best way for my life’s journey.”