Mobile Korean church dedicates building, changes name

December 17, 2006, marked a new beginning for the Korean Baptist Church of Mobile in Mobile Baptist Association.
  
The church’s 80 members and about 140 guests dedicated its new home on Cottage Hill Road in Mobile and its new name, International Baptist Church of Mobile, with worship, a fellowship dinner and testimonies of God’s work.
  
Seung Bin Park, president of the Council of Korean Southern Baptist Churches in America and pastor of Korean Baptist Church in Memphis, Tenn., brought the message, and about 15 Korean students from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary sang. 
  
Pastor Jae Hyun Lee also presented plaques of appreciation to Thomas Wright, director of missions for Mobile Association, and Benny Still, pastor of First Baptist Church, Grand Bay, for their work with the church. 
  
Lee said the 28-year-old church had been renting from Hillcrest Baptist Church, Mobile, and is excited to have its own building. 
  
It is also excited about its new name, which reflects the makeup of its membership and its desire to reach the world for Christ.
  
As well as the Korean community, the church is reaching out to international students at the nearby University of South Alabama and has a vision for global missions, Lee said. The church has baptized eight Japanese students, and two of its members moved to Japan and Korea and are sharing the gospel there. And about 50 percent of the congregation speaks English, Lee noted.
  
“Under one roof, we worship our God together,” he said. (TAB)