At the Table in the Wilderness: The Story of Jesus Abbey

Copyright © 2005 by Jane Grey Torrey.

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Contents

CHAPTER ONE

GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS

CHAPTER TWO

PREPARATION

CHAPTER THREE

PITCHING THE TENT

CHAPTER FOUR

CELEBRATION

CHAPTER FIVE

A YEAR OF TESTING

CHAPTER SIX

SPRING COMES

CHAPTER SEVEN

BLESSINGS

CHAPTER EIGHT

TROUBLE

CHAPTER NINE

THE HOLY SPIRIT LEADS

CHAPTER TEN

HELP COMES

CHAPTER ELEVEN

GUERRILLAS

CHAPTER TWELVE

REPRIMAND

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE BIG SNOW

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

A TIME OF HEALING

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

UNDERSTANDING

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

RETURNING HOME

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

FIRE

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

SHARING THE POWER

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A ROLLER COASTER

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS (1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS (2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

PROPHECY

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THE PRIORY

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

GUESTS (1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

GUESTS (2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

APPRECIATION

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

THE LAND

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE WATERSHED GRANGE

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

EXPANDING

CHAPTER THIRTY

GOD PREPARES THE TABLE

EPILOGUE

MY STORY

CHAPTER ONE

GOING INTO THE WILDERNESS

They said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?

Psalm 78:19

One has to travel many miles over a winding mountain road and then up a steep path to find, nestled in a wooded cove, in the mountains of Korea, unusual Jesus Abbey. How did it come into being?

Archer and I had been at the seminary in Seoul almost seven years, and one day we both came to the same conclusion. We thought, There must be a better way to teach theology than just out of books. He was at a meeting in Canada and I was in Korea. We were each unaware of the others’ thoughts but the Lord was speaking to both of us.

The curriculum, for which he had won a prize in England, had not fired the imagination of the students. The curriculum was called The Three Laboratories of the Christian Life. The three laboratories were, first, the Christian’s relationship to God, second, the Christian’s relationship to his fellow Christians, and third, the Christian’s relationship to the world. These three labs were taught through books and practical application: receiving the Holy Spirit, living in Christian community, and sharing God’s treasures with the non-Christian world. Finally we realized the students had other goals than ours, and we were trying in vain.

What should our new work be? I thought we should go to a small village where there had never been a church and start from scratch to develop a church, building on all we had learned from our experience at the seminary and from starting a church in the village where the seminary was located. Archer’s idea was more imaginative and inspired and I realized that God was talking to him. We should go out into the wilderness, far from the cities, and develop a farm and a community of Christians and have the laboratory we had only talked about at the seminary.

Why should we go ‘way out in the wilderness where we have never been before? I asked. His answer came quickly. Our friends in the cities will need a place where they can get away from the noise and the heat and enjoy the cool of the mountains. The mountain land is cheap and if we can terrace and make productive a little of the steep area the farmers will be encouraged to use the unused hillside, too. And if it is hard to get to, people will come with real purpose and they will have to stay awhile. Besides where else could you find such beautiful scenery to paint?

Who on earth would ever come to such a remote place, I asked. Archer responded, God will send the people we need to help us and the people we can help. We can depend on the Holy Spirit to send the right people and to send away the ones who do not belong. We should accept all who come if they are willing to help with the work and keep the rules.

First I was concerned that no one would come. Then I was concerned that there might be too many. Why should we live in community? I asked, musing within how I like to be alone to think, and paint, and pray. He answered, If we live together with people of like mind, sharing our work, our goods, and our prayers, we can make a great big fire for the Lord. Our prayers for peace in the world, for the church in Korea, for personal needs for ourselves and for others are more likely to be heard and answered as we make a bigger channel for God to come through. And, besides, you will need people to help you with the housework, so you can paint.

Then I asked, How can we support such a project? His answer came, God, who has all the money in the world, will know what we need and He will send it. We can use this principle as a gauge to know His will. If we want to do something, and there is money to do it, we will go ahead. If there is no money, we will back off and seek His will again. However, we shouldn’t expect the people whom God may raise up to get us started to go on indefinitely supporting us just so that we may have the privilege of praying. We should be willing to work for this privilege. We can develop self-support projects such as farming, dairying, canning, light industry, arts and crafts. Your self-support project can be painting. You have always wanted an excuse to paint.

Jane Torrey Painting

Bit by bit I was won over and realized that God who was leading us would see us through. With just a few months until furlough, I busied myself with winding up my responsibilities at St. Michael’s Seminary and preparing for a new venture. Shortly

before this, when I was praying and asking God for spiritual gifts, He surprised me with His answer. Why should I give you spiritual gifts when you haven’t used the natural gifts I have given you? This stopped me in my tracks. It was true. For years I had let everything interfere with painting. My answer was, God show me how to find the time and I will again paint. Suddenly, very strangely, blank, unhurried days stretched out before me and I was able to paint six pictures of Korean scenery to take with me to the States.

Someone had given us a Bible full of Rembrandt illustrations. In it was a portrait of Jesus, the most soul-touching one I had ever seen. I wanted to copy it, not to sell or to give away as I planned with the other pictures but to keep with us as we began our new project depending solely on God for guidance and support. It was not easy to capture Christ’s look of earnestness and compassion and to reproduce the eternal significance I saw in Rembrandt’s painting. Many days I prayed as I painted, Lord, please come through and touch this painting. I cannot make it right. Only you can. It was a struggle but finally I was satisfied, and grateful to God. Would this be our prayer as we went into our new work? Only you, God, can make it right.

Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

Psalm 127:1

Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He will direct thy path.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Rembrandt’s Head of Christ, Copy by Jane Torrey

CHAPTER TWO

PREPARATION

In July of 1964 we said Goodbye to our friends at St.

Michael’s Seminary and went on furlough. With us were our thirteen-year-old son, Ben, and our one year old daughter, Yancey. In America we proclaimed our plans for a new project. Since it would be Christians living together in one house, we called it an Abbey, and because we wanted no question raised about who was the head of this house, we called it Jesus Abbey. Eyebrows were raised. And then questions were raised—similar to my own. But because God had given me the same assurance he had given my husband, I answered the questions boldly with faith, This is how God is leading us!

Our first stop on furlough was St. Luke’s Church, Seattle. There, a dear lady, Aunt Ada, prayed fervently for me that God would allow me to lie down in green pastures while in America. She repeated this, until I began to wonder what it could mean. The wonderful Holy Spirit fellowship there at St. Luke’s was truly green pastures, but I could not expect that among friends in my home church on the other side of the US. Strangely, however, in my home town, where everybody we knew was either Presbyterian or Episcopalian, Archer was invited to speak in a Pentecostal church. We sneaked out of the house that Sunday evening because we didn’t know how my family would feel about our going there, and we had a wonderful time. The lady preacher invited Archer back three

nights in a row and then, to our chagrin, she announced it on the radio and advertised it in the papers!

The Jesus Abbey Signpost

My father was a Presbyterian elder and we didn’t think he would approve. However, to my delight he said he had great respect for that lady preacher, Mrs. Garr. In fact, the Garrs had been a marvelous help to him years before, during the bottom of the Great Depression, when he had been Director of Welfare for the County. Then the phone rang. It was an old friend of Archer’s whom he had not seen or heard of in many years, the wife of another Presbyterian elder. She had heard the announcement on the radio and asked if we would please come to a prayer meeting at her house. She knew that if Archer was ministering at the Garr Tabernacle he must have become one of those way out, lunatic fringe Holy Spirit filled people (like herself) who were appearing all over everywhere.

There, sitting on her porch with 20 ladies, all praising the Lord and bubbling over with joy, I thought I was dreaming. Could this be true? These were people I had known in college, even in high school, transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit into new creatures. And they were still Presbyterians, Methodist, and Episcopalians. We shared much, that day, of the riches of God, and this was the beginning of many rich, powerful, and joy- filled prayer meetings stretching out throughout the year that we were in the US, to inspire us, console, us and build us up in the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:3)—Truly, green pastures!

These were the people who understood about Jesus Abbey— why we felt called to the mountains of Korea to be free to proclaim the riches of God. They were the ones who encouraged us on into this work with their prayers and with their gifts. One such person gave us some stock which, when cashed, brought several thousand dollars. Another said she wanted to pay for the land for Jesus Abbey. God was assuring us that He could be our financial source, if we would seek to put his kingdom first.

Archer and Ben returned to Korea in April and began to search out a place for Jesus Abbey. (Yancey and I were to return in midsummer). Archer visited many remote and scenic places from north of Kangnung and Sokcho to Chejudo, with certain requisites in mind. There should be a vigorous stream to supply water, and possibly, electricity, there should be access to a highway but not too close, there should be beauty for painting, and there should be enough flat land for the Abbey.

In America I attended a Camp Farthest Out, which was a prayer conference. One afternoon three of us met in a hotel room to pray together for the needs of the world, because of some great catastrophe that had just occurred. While together, Anne said, Let’s pray for Archer Torrey. He’s in Korea, looking for a place for Jesus Abbey. We prayed for Archer and, as we did, Helen contracted a severe headache. The time was short and we had to break up the meeting and return to the conference program. In the evening, when the conference was over we met again, and this time some of the conference leaders were with us. Helen asked

Tommy, one of the leaders, to pray for her headache. She said it came to her in the afternoon when she was praying for Archer Torrey. Tommy laid hands on her head and prayed for her headache and went on to pray for Archer Torrey. He asked God to make Archer one with the Korean people as Jesus had become one with all humanity. I was amazed. Tommy did not know Archer, nor did he know that the principle of the Incarnation, expressed in his prayer, was one of Archer’s favorite themes. As the meeting closed, a lady came to me and said, While Tommy was praying for Archer, I could see Archer trying to carry a burning cross up a hill. There were dark figures trying to pull it down. Those dark figures are named ‘discouragement.’ But he finally got the cross up on the hill!! How interesting, I thought. Does this mean that Archer had a trial today and has come out victorious? Helen’s headache was gone.

Pathway to the Outdoor Altar

Ten days later, I received a letter saying that on May 10 (the very day we were praying) he found just the right place for Jesus Abbey, but when he and his companion, John, talked to the owner the price was much too much and he had been ready to give up. They returned to Hwangji, discouraged. But because the place seemed so right for Jesus Abbey, John decided to go back one more time. Since there was no bus service, he caught a ride on a lumber truck and talked to the owner again. This time, May 10, the man went down on his price and said, You can go ahead and start using the land and build on it without waiting to clear the title. It didn’t matter that we were so far away as we prayed or that it was such a big need and request. The Lord was pleased to answer. How wonderful are the ways of the lord!

The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is completely His.

2 Chronicles 16:9

CHAPTER THREE

PITCHING THE TENT

The pioneering spirit of my husband, the desire we had to put theory into practice, and the promptings of the Lord to put all our trust in Him culminated. It was time to begin Jesus Abbey.

With the land secured, Archer and Ben put out a call for anyone interested in a six week camp in Kangwon Do to join them. Of the eight young friends we expected to join us only two came. However there were ten others who came. Some of them were interested in the idea of a Christian Community, some thought it was going to be a big development program, and some were just curious. Of this little group one man was a specialist in farming and he helped us plan the terracing of the land and the planting. Another was a construction contractor. How interesting that the Lord should bring just the kinds of people needed to get the work underway.

They camped in a large army tent on the far tip of the land and work began; blazing trails through dense woods, clearing land, chopping wood, shoveling out the side of a mountain, digging sand from the river