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February, 1977
Dear Christian Friends:

Greetings from Korea!

As I write this, the last

of January,

we are in the midst of the coldest winter we have seen here in many years. It is not as severe as what you are having back in the U. S., but since Christmas the temperatures have seldom been above freezing, and usually about the mid-teen's and low 20's in the night while warming up to around freezing during the day. Coupled
with the winds from the ocean and mountains that surround us here in Pusan i t has

been cold! Our heating bill is high as all fuels are high. We use a combination of electricity, propane gas and kerosene, little unvented heaters in the various rooms and turn them on and off as we come and go. We have no heat on during the night and several mornings it has been just 32 degrees in our bedroom upon awaken ing! We wear long-john's, Marge has some red ones, and sweaters and manage to do

all right.

It is not as cold here in Pusan as it us just a bit farther north and on

up tliG peninsula and we are thankful for that.

We are in the midst of the long winter school vacation, schools close here dur ing January and February as the school buildings are unheated. It is not really a vacation for us as we must use the time to get ready for the new school year in March. We had 52 students taking the exams in December; there were a number of dropouts this year, a sign that our schedule is tough which is unusual in Korean seminaries. There

will be 16 receiving their Master's degree in Pusan and 12 in Seoul; graduation will be held tlve week of Feb. 6 with Dr. Charles Bachman, president of Berean Christian College, Wichita, Kansas, here to confer the degrees. We are also enrolling students
for the new school year. Just now the enrollment is slow in Pusan where we hope to enroll about 15 brining our enrollment there to between 35 and 40. Things are moving

a little faster in Seoul where we expect to enroll about 25, making our enrollment there also between 35 and 40. With this number of students the graduate program pays
practically all of its expenses. We are increasingly pleased with the results we are

having witli this program. We now have a good co-worker from our own church, Dr. Shinn Lee. Dr. Lee graduated from a seminary in Korea, then after a number of years of ser
vice here went to the U. 5. where he earned the A. B. at Nebraska Christian College,

and the M. Div. and Ph. D. at Vanderbilt. He teaches the classes in theology and Bert teaches New Testament, between them accounting for half of the semester hours of the
students.

We are also engaged in a small way in church planting. Dr. Lee persuaded the small country church where he preaches to try to start a new congregation in a nearby county-seat town of about 15,000 population. They began several months ago, calling a young minister whom they provide with a room in which to live and a small pittance

of a salary.

The salary is pitiful but the best the sponsoring church can do at the
The man already has a small group meeting in his
It will be slow there but it

moment and taking into account that the man has 3 children we have been led to supp

lement it ]jy about $60 a month.

home nnd the first Sunday in January had a breakthrough, baptizing a man and hi wife
in an open river in the midst of the cold weather.

looks good. We are so pleased that even one congregation has taken up what we have beo.n preaching about church growth. Also in the same province our churches have baniled together to try to start another new congregation. These churches are few and
smalt, but if they make an effort we would like to assist them also. Funcis are needed for this kind of work. Tt is not our intention to subsidize them but to encourage
them when they make an effort on their own.

We have been interested for some time in finding a way to put into practice some of our ideas about undergraduate education in Korea but have had no outlet. Now that we have the graduate program running pretty well an opportunity has been provid ed for us. One of our graduates in Seoul came to us with the idea of starting a nondenominational undergraduate school. He is pastor of an independent congregation of wliich there are increasing numbers in Korea. Dr. Lee and I talked with him and made some Investigation and agreed to go ahead. He has a fine new church building, 3 stories, and the old church building which can be converted into dormitory space.

BERT ELLIS NEWSLETTER - February, 1977 - Page 2

His own congregation will give backing as will some others. We chose a coiranittee to take responsibility for the school; I was allowed to choose half of them. All of
them, with one exception, are from our graduates and the largest single group is from the Church of Christ. Dr. Lee was selected as president and Bert will be advis or and professor of New Testament. One independent congregation has already donated 100 new chairs and desks. The donating pastor is pastor of a large independent church and quite active in independent circles. He is interested in our Restoration position and has had a number of conferences with Dr. Lee and even made the long trip down to Pusan to talk with Bert. His church has 22 branch congregations and a small seminary and there is a possibility that this seminary will merge with the new one in the future. Students are being enrolled now. We have no idea how many students there might be but are hoping and praying for a sufficient number to make it a
worthwhile project. Our little visit to the U. S. last year helped us but Bert's health still troub les him. We did find that his medication was having some side-effects and that has

been adjusted. The fact that we are getting a little older also becomes apparent. Bert celebrated 40 years in Christian service and his 58th birthday Nov. 7, 1976 and Marge had her 5lst birthday on Jan. 7, 1977. We received packages during the holidays from the Christian Church at Clarence, Missouri and from Dr. and Mrs. Bachman of Wichita, and from a new friend, Andy, in Waterloo, New York. The contents are being thoroughly enjoyed! Thanks to all of you who make life a little brighter out here. As we told you, western goods are almost unobtainable out here and what is available is prohibitive in price. We smiled just a little about your coffee scare; coffee here has been $5 a pound for a long time I

This means we have a cup at breakfast and that's iti

good.)

(Please don't send us coffee;

the tax is terrible I We would appreciate any good things you all would like to send along, however; canned meats and dehydrated soups and drink powders are especially
Our finances continue to be enough to pay our bills simply because we hold back on spending and do not expand beyond what we receive. Our policy has always been to put our funds in one treasury, pay the outstanding bills as they become due and then pay our salary if there is enough left. The last 3 years we have received our salary on time! We have salary outstanding though for some 20 months from a period before that. Our salary remains $500 a month, the same as it has been for years. We could advance more quickly if we had additional funds to use in such things as church grow th assistance. We also need funds for a rotating printing fund, to keep several books in print at the same time. We just finished our first book in Korean, 1,000 copies costing $600 of Sweet's "Living Word Series," volume on "redemption in Acts and the Epistles." This is intended for use in church Bible classes, the first thing
our churches have had available of this nature.

Thanks for your continued remembrance of the needs of the work of the Lord here. Continue to send all funds to: Miss Loraine Lindsey, Cabool State Bank, Drawer M, Cabool, Missouri 65689. Thanks once more to Berean Christian College for their help in preparing and mailing these newsletters. For corrections in our mailing list etc.,

address: Bert & Marge Ellis, Publications, Box 2621, Wichita, Kansas 67201.
in our next newsletter to give some information concerning exhibit materials. member all you faithful helpers in our prayers. Faithfully yours.

We hope
We re

For Bert & Marge Ellis,

P. 0. Box 141, Pusan, Korea 600

Jun.o77

/-y
Dear Friends:

^
May, 1977

Greetings again from Korea! We are glad to tell you that the long winter here has come to an end, the longest winter in some 60 years, and we are enjoying beautiful spring weather. The trees and flowers are all blossoming and we are beginning to enjoy the fresh fruits and vegetables that we have been without for so long; what
an evidence of God*s care for us all is the advent of spring adter the cold winter.

Graduate school is going well. After the usual few dropouts at the beginning of the semester, those who didn't realize just how tough we were going to be, we ended up with 40 students in Pusan and 42 in Seoul, just about what we had hoped and planned for. We could have had more, men were still applying even after 3 weeks of the sem ester, but we are strict and do not allow entry after school starts; this is contrary to the practice of most Korean seminaries who admit them even up until the middle of the semester. Each year our student body is just a little better. We have attained a good reputation and only those who are serious about study are applying. We found also that a number of professors at various undergraduate seminaries are now urging their graduates to come to us. We also found that 10 or more of our graduates are now teaching in various undergraduate seminaries which, of course, increases our reach among the Christians here. We have always heard that imitation is a sign of
some success and we have learned that this year there are at least 10 different grad uate programs operating in Seoul whereas when we began there were none of this type.

We now have 73 graduates who have received their Master's degree. If all goes well there will be about 32 more in the next graduating class next February. We are pres ently working on a doctoral program which we hope to announce within the next few months. Most of our graduates want to go on into a doctoral program so we should have no problem enrolling students. We would like to point out again that we are able to charge enough tuition to completely pay the expenses of this program such as rent of buildings, teachers' pay, and clerical help. We do this by keeping expenses
at a minimum through using rented buildings, part-time teachers and part-time cleric

al help.
expenses.

Bert acts as president, dean, registrar, bursar and professor to keep down
He does not bear all these titles but is simply known as "Director." We

have no investment in property to worry about which has caused so many problems in Korea. We have added one new teacher this year in Pusan but Bert and Dr. Shinn Lee of our own church are still teaching half of the classes.
One of the highlights of the spring semester is always the school picnic. This year the Seoul class toured to the east coast using a bus borrowed from one of the churches where a student pastors; that church also prepared lunch for the group. In Pusan the group went to the ancient capitol of Kyongju and the ladies of a Kyongju church where one of our students pastors prepared their lunch. Bert was unable to go on either trip as they were arranged on such a schedule that he was teaching at the opposite city each time. Marge did go with the Pusan group and reports having a good time. Bert is teaching the book of Acts this year in both classes and is enjoying it. As we have told you before these students come from many denominations as well as our own church and they are hearing an entirely new slant on many things in Acts. They ex
press great interest in what Bert points out. It is a tremendous opportunity to em

phasize Restoration teachings. In a 2 hour discussion on baptism in one class a min ister of some 50 years of age confessed he had never seen a person immersed and want
ed to know all about it1

We reported in our last letter that we had published in the Korean language the book "Redemption in Acts and the Epistles," one of the "Living Word" series of adult Bible school texts published by the Sweet Publishing Co., a Church of Christ publisher. We have not yet had time to make a real effort to get this out to the churches but we

BERT ELLIS NEWSLETTER - May, 1977 - Page 2

have distributed it to our graduate students and through them so far we have sold about 250-300 copies. One Methodist church in Pusan bought 100 copies and they are

using it in their adult groups. Bert preached at this church recently also. Sever al Presbyterian churches are also using it. Distribution is the big problem but if we can solve that we will move ahead on publishing the next book on "Galatians," also from the same series. That one is already translated and is ready for the printer
whenever we feel the time is ripe. We would like to report a change in name of our mission. When we began our work here we used the name "Korean Broadcasting Mission," as radio was our main thrust. In

recent years since we have moved to other activities that name did not seem appropri ate so we have renamed the mission, "Berean Christian Mission to Korea." Our graduate centers are known as "Berean Christian Centers," due to the fact that our degrees are awarded through Berean Christian College of Wichita, Kansas for which privilege we are
duly grateful. There is no change in our actiyity just simply a new name which we feel more fitly covers the work. Miss Loraine Lindsey continues as our forwarding

agent as she has ever since we began this work more than 20 years ago. Continue to send all funds to: Miss Loraine Lindsey, Cabool State Bank, Drawer M, Cabool, Missouri 65689. We don't know what we would do without the faithful help of LoraineI We have nothing new to report about the church-planting effort we are engaged in ex cept to tell you the young minister is continuing his efforts. It is a difficult, long-time job to start a new church here. Remember that work especially in your prayers. Nor can we tell you much about the new undergraduate school yet except to say that it got underway in March with some 20-30 first-year students. If they can re cruit this many or more each year for the next few years they will soon have a fair sized student body. We will tell you more about these things in the next letter. We also wish to announce that we finally have a display ready which will tell you more about what we are doing. Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Elzey of Buffalo, Wyoming and the women of the church there have prepared this display. Jerry is pastor of the Christian Church there. They have put in a lot of work and we know it will be a good display. It is available for you to use and we hope you will contact them and book it for your church at an early date. Please use this display! You don*t need to have some special affair to use it; just get it and display it some Sunday and call attention to it so all the folks can see it. Thanks to you for using it and to the folks at Buffalo for

taking care of it.

Address them:

Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Elzey, Christian Church, Box 353,

Buffalo, Wyoming 82834.

If you have any questions about our work or need more information than we give you in the newsletters, or if there is anything you don't understand, please write to us. Recently there have been a couple of misunderstandings which we deeply regret but we could do nothing about them because no one let us know until it was too late. Write to us: Bert Ellis, Box 141, Pusan, KOREA 600. Always write International Airmail I We are always glad to hear from youI You would be surprised how few letters we do get and we are sometimes lonesome. Your continued support is evidence of your concern but
we would like to have a letter, too!

Please continue your support and prayers, they mean so much to us. It has been 8 years or more since we have visited most of you folks and we appreciate your continued support even though we have not seen you in person in so long. We might also say here
that there seems little chance of an extended furlough in the foreseeable future. God continue to bless you all as your serve Him!
Faithfully yours.

May

For Bert & Marge Ellis

P. S. Please share this letter with all our friends!

'

N0V17 77

Sell

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October, 1977
Dear Christian Friends:

Greetings again from Koreal Here it is auLumn, the loveliest season of the year in Koreal Our quarterly newsletter is a little delayed this time for various reasons. For one thing, our forwarding agent. Miss Loraine Lindsey, has had a horrible year. She had 6 weeks of illness during the summer when she had to be completely away from the bank and then, just as she recovered, the old family home where she and her sis ter, Mary, live, burned. It was a total loss with practically all its contents. This all delayed her reports to us and when they finally did arrive we were in the midst of several ups and downs. But here it is, if a bit late. Everything here is going well. We finished the graduate program's first seaester of the year in July with 76 degree candidates taking exams, 38 at each center. This means we had several dropouts at each center which is usual at the end of the first semester. Some find out that they have to work, and don't want to, and some find it just too difficult for their poor undergraduate preparation. Most of them get good grades, but, as always, there are a few on the borderline. If they do not do better in the second semester they will either drop out of their own accord or at our request. Unlike most of the Korean seminaries we do not admit unqualified students and when we do find we have made a mistake we try to rectify it. Our standards are high and we are much respected among the preachers. We had enough new students applying at mid-year so that we made up for the dropouts. We try to keep an average of 40 students at each center in order to take care of the finances. We call attention to the fact again that this program practically supports itself without foreign subsidy due to our using part time staff and professors and using rented quarters. If we should be forced to quit at any time there is no huge investment in property to be lost. We are now well along in our 2nd semester and expect to have about 28 qualified
for the Master's degree at the end of this semester.

The undergraduate program, also in cooperation with Berean Christian College of Wich ita, Kansas, and under the leadership of our colleague. Dr. Shinn Lee, got off to a good start in its 1st semester. There are some problems connected with it but it was really better than we had anticipated. There were 28 enrolled, all freshman students, and 24 of them are qualified degree students, being high school graduates. Most Korean seminaries admit a lot of unqualified students but we are trying to keep this to a minimum and if we have our way about it eventually we will eliminate them completely. Dr. Lee says most of the students are good ones. During the 1st semester he baptized 13 of them. They come from all sorts of backgrounds. Finances are a problem here as the enrollment is yet small. However, if they can enroll this many each successive year that will eventually take care of itself. They have a good faculty, all members having at least the Master's degree and 3 of them with doctorates. We doubt that any other seminary in Korea, at least among the independents, can claim this high an academic level. The doctoral program is moving slower than we had anticipated. Right now it depends almost entirely upon Bert in its planning and he is moving slowly. We have received all the texts and research instructions from Berean Christian College and now it is necessary to find corresponding Korean texts for each subject and work out the research requirements for each course. This will take longer than we had anticipated due to our other respons ibilities. There are many who are interested in the course and we will get on with it as
quickly as possible.

BERT ELLIS NEWSLETTER - October, 1977 - Page 2

We had told you previously that we were helping in a new church planting effort at

Kwesan.
nacially.

Our help is supplementary.

The work was begun last July 11, 1976 by the congre
We are supplementing what they are able to do fi-

gation where Dr. Shinn Lee ministers.

At the end of the year Mr. Hong, the preacher, reported 4 adults baptized, 7

adults in attendance and about 15 children in the Bible school. They are meeting in a rented house which is not very adequate, nor attractive to outsiders, and thus are handi capped in their growth. They are dreaming now of a building of their own which will re quire funds of about $6,000. We have mixed feelings about extending this kind of support and would welcome your comments. We call attention to the fact again that we now have a display of the work here ready for your use. We do not know whether or not it has been used since our previous announcement but did have a request just a short time ago directly asking for a display which leads us to believe that some of you might not have caught the announcement last

time.

Just address the Christian Church, c/o Mr. & Mrs. Jerry Elzey, Box 353, Buffalo,

Wyoming 82834. Jerry is the minister there and the ladies of the church are taking care of the exhibit. Let us suggest that you have a special Sunday to call attention to this work you support and use the exhibit. It would help for your people to know more about
us and the work.

We also have been able to do no more as regards the distribution of the book we have published in the Korean language and which we have spoken of in previous letters but are hopeful we can do something in the near future. Distribution is the great problem here in all literature work, even for the commercial houses. Until we are able to do some thing about this we do not want to move further with publishing. It is not very good stewardship to print mounds of material and not be able to distribute it. We are enclosing in this letter a financial report for this first 6 months of this year. It is a summary report but includes all the facts and figures necessary to under stand our financial picture. If there are any questions about it, write us. The last few years have been comparitively good years for us financially after the rocky years we had previously. We say frankly that we do not know anyone who gets more done for your dollars than we do. Financial assistance should continue to be sent to our forwarding agent, Miss Loraine Lindsey, Cabool State Bank, Drawer M, Cabool, Missouri 65689. She has served the Lord and us faithfully in this way for more than 20 years. Thanks and Lord bless you real good, LoraineI We always remember all of you gratefully who so faithfully continue your support of this work with finances and prayers. We could not do anything that you hear of in these letters without your help. Some of you have been supporting us regularly for more than 20 years and we treasure this relationship. We always are happy to hear from you. We have mentioned before that the longer we are here the less personal mail we receive. Per sonal ties are strained by 20 years of absence and 10,000 miles of distance. We would like to hear from you. We are sometimes slow but we do try to answer all letters. Our address for personal mail is: Bert Ellis, P. 0. Box 141, Pusan, KOREA 600. Please use
international airmail.

May God continue to bless you in all your efforts for Himl

Faithfully yours.

For Bert & Marge Ellis

BEREAN CHRISTIAN MISSION TO KOREA

FINANCIAL REPORT - JANUARY thru JUNE,

1977
1,062.20

BALANCE, Dec. 31, 1976

RECEIPTS

January, 1977 February, 1977 March, 1977 April, 1977 May, 1977 June, 1977

4,993.92
1,003.10 1,079.65

1,155.63
777.08

1,101.25 10,110.63

TOTAL

TOTAL

RECEIPTS

10,110.63
11,172.83

DISBURSEMENTS

Salary (Ellis)
Salaries (Koreans)
Pension Fund

3,000. 00

1,592. 38
448. 50

Supplies St Maintenance Po stage

Utilities (Mission pays half)

Telephone 6e Telegraph Taxes (Korean) Transportation

Printing (Book)
$

469. 99 75.,59 246.,15 34.,33 15.,91 56.,94 619.,00

6,563.,79

TOTAL
TOTAL EXPENDITURES

6,563.79

BALANCE, June 30, 1977 $

4,609.04

NOTE - With the exception of the month of January the monthly receipts are about average.

January was unusual in that three unusual gifts of $2,000 and of $1,200 and of $500 came in at the year's end. Our expenditures averaged just over $1,000 monthly so without the
unusual month we would have ended up with a small balance as usual. Our expenses would be higher if it were not for the fact that Korean funds from the graduate course pay part
of the bill and that Berean Christian College pays all the expenses of our newsletters
plus doing the workl

Our policy has always been to pay the current bills and then if there are suffic ient funds left pay our own salary. Recently we have received our salary regularly

($500 monthly) but there is a past debt owing to us of 16 months' salary ($8,000)
which we do not show on the report. If circumstances ever warrant we will be paid that back salary. The important thing to us is that we have no other outstanding debt and continue to operate on the basis of current funds without incurring debt. There are a number of things we would like to do if there were funds available but we will not ex
pand unless funds are in hand.

Our thanks to all of you who continue to make this work possible!

Bert Ellis