Sunset International Studies Division

The first congregation of the Church of Christ in Korea, as far as is known, had its beginning in 1930 when Brother S.K. Dong broke ice on a Korean river and baptized 20 Koreans.

In 1954 the Korean Christian College was founded under the leadership of Haskell Chesshir. Begun as a Bible teaching institution, it now has achieved University status and offers training in Bible, Social Welfare, Management Information Technology, and Music.

In 1964 an American missionary named Bill Ramsay started the Bible Correspondence Center (BCC) in the basement of his Korean home. He continues to head the organization and makes periodic trips to Korea, but the daily operation of the ministry has been handed off into the capable hands of Brother Sang Yang.

Brother Yang is a self-educated business man who earned a high school and college degree without the luxury of attending either institution. Brother Ramsay's assessment of this man has been validated time after time as he has moved the BCC from a paper/mail operation to a high tech program and maximizes every new avenue of communication for the glory of God.

Today the BCC occupies the top floor of a building on the Northwest side of Seoul. Sang has two full-time employees and 20 volunteers who call him a slave driver and love him dearly.

The core of the BCC is made up of 3 sets of courses with 30 lessons each that have been adapted from the Studies in the Bible written by Monroe Hawley. There is a basic course, an advanced course, and a course on the Book of Acts. The courses are still offered on paper through the mail, primarily for prisoners and people in remote locations. The vast majority of students take the courses interactively over the Internet. Seventy percent of the houses in Seoul are wired for DSL.

As of October, 2004, there have been 162,170 students enroll for some part of the course. 59,121 have completed the basic course, 13,526 have completed the advanced course, and 7,211 have completed the Book of Acts. At present there are 4,000 students enrolled. Even though the Internet courses are automated, every one receives the personal attention of one of the volunteers and goes back to the student with a personal message attached.

As of the above date, 5, 741 baptisms can be accredited directly to the Bible Correspondence Course program. These are the ones that are known; only God knows the full extent of the fruit these studies have produced. At least 41 of the 105 churches of Christ in Korea have been started by graduates of this program.

The BCC maintains two dedicated Internet servers with 100 gigabytes of storage. In addition to the Bible Correspondence Courses, the web site hosts the entire Power For Today booklet updated in Korean each month, a locally developed scripture and thought for the day, 500 favorite Gospel songs with both a copy of the sheet music and a performance by an a cappella group, and many articles, booklets, and books on Bible subjects. In addition, the Sunset teachers are making audio recordings of their lessons and incorporating their PowerPoint material using Microsoft Producer, and this is being added to the web site.

Traffic to the web site has now reached the maximum allowed by the Internet Service Provider at 40,000 visits per day.

Visit the BCC Web Site

Another major ministry of the BCC is taking several high quality television programs that are produced by churches of Christ in the United States and adding Korean captioning for broadcast on the two major Christian cable stations in Korea. Amazing Grace Bible Study with Dr. Steve Flatt and Hope For Life's Journey with Randy Becton are two of the programs being used. Together, the Christian Broadcasting System (CBS) and the Christian Television System (CTS) broadcast 6 hours of church of Christ programming each week. In addition to the many, many responses that come in from across Korea, BCC recently received a call from China from someone who had just seen one of the broadcasts.

In 1968 Brother Ramsay started a special two week intensive training session for BCC students that he called Winter School. This special program usually enrolls about 40 students and is usually taught by visiting teachers from the States. To date 2,252 students have attended this concentrated training program.

It is the partnership with this tremendous program that holds such great promise to Sunset International Studies. By seeking out the best candidates from this great body of students and providing college level training in Sunset's curriculum in their own country and in their own language, we have the opportunity to train many able spokesmen to even more effectively proclaim God's eternal message to the 48 million people of Korea.


The top floor of front building is home to BCC Kim, Jun-Joo, webmaster for BCC Ha, Mi-Na Office Assistant for BCC Kim family (father and son) in SIBI class Lunch break on a class day at the BCC	The first congregation of the Church of Christ in Korea, as far as is known, had its beginning in 1930 when Brother S.K. Dong broke ice on a Korean river and baptized 20 Koreans. In 1954 the Korean Christian College was founded under the leadership of Haskell Chesshir. Begun as a Bible teaching institution, it now has achieved University status and offers training in Bible, Social Welfare, Management Information Technology, and Music. In 1964 an American missionary named Bill Ramsay started the Bible Correspondence Center (BCC) in the basement of his Korean home. He continues to head the organization and makes periodic trips to Korea, but the daily operation of the ministry has been handed off into the capable hands of Brother Sang Yang. Brother Yang is a self-educated business man who earned a high school and college degree without the luxury of attending either institution. Brother Ramsay's assessment of this man has been validated time after time as he has moved the BCC from a paper/mail operation to a high tech program and maximizes every new avenue of communication for the glory of God. Today the BCC occupies the top floor of a building on the Northwest side of Seoul. Sang has two full-time employees and 20 volunteers who call him a slave driver and love him dearly. The core of the BCC is made up of 3 sets of courses with 30 lessons each that have been adapted from the Studies in the Bible written by Monroe Hawley. There is a basic course, an advanced course, and a course on the Book of Acts. The courses are still offered on paper through the mail, primarily for prisoners and people in remote locations. The vast majority of students take the courses interactively over the Internet. Seventy percent of the houses in Seoul are wired for DSL. As of October, 2004, there have been 162,170 students enroll for some part of the course. 59,121 have completed the basic course, 13,526 have completed the advanced course, and 7,211 have completed the Book of Acts. At present there are 4,000 students enrolled. Even though the Internet courses are automated, every one receives the personal attention of one of the volunteers and goes back to the student with a personal message attached. As of the above date, 5, 741 baptisms can be accredited directly to the Bible Correspondence Course program. These are the ones that are known; only God knows the full extent of the fruit these studies have produced. At least 41 of the 105 churches of Christ in Korea have been started by graduates of this program. The BCC maintains two dedicated Internet servers with 100 gigabytes of storage. In addition to the Bible Correspondence Courses, the web site hosts the entire Power For Today booklet updated in Korean each month, a locally developed scripture and thought for the day, 500 favorite Gospel songs with both a copy of the sheet music and a performance by an a cappella group, and many articles, booklets, and books on Bible subjects. In addition, the Sunset teachers are making audio recordings of their lessons and incorporating their PowerPoint material using Microsoft Producer, and this is being added to the web site. Traffic to the web site has now reached the maximum allowed by the Internet Service Provider at 40,000 visits per day. Visit the BCC Web Site Another major ministry of the BCC is taking several high quality television programs that are produced by churches of Christ in the United States and adding Korean captioning for broadcast on the two major Christian cable stations in Korea. Amazing Grace Bible Study with Dr. Steve Flatt and Hope For Life's Journey with Randy Becton are two of the programs being used. Together, the Christian Broadcasting System (CBS) and the Christian Television System (CTS) broadcast 6 hours of church of Christ programming each week. In addition to the many, many responses that come in from across Korea, BCC recently received a call from China from someone who had just seen one of the broadcasts. In 1968 Brother Ramsay started a special two week intensive training session for BCC students that he called Winter School. This special program usually enrolls about 40 students and is usually taught by visiting teachers from the States. To date 2,252 students have attended this concentrated training program. It is the partnership with this tremendous program that holds such great promise to Sunset International Studies. By seeking out the best candidates from this great body of students and providing college level training in Sunset's curriculum in their own country and in their own language, we have the opportunity to train many able spokesmen to even more effectively proclaim God's eternal message to the 48 million people of Korea.
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