The Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) is made up of Bangladesh, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan. Among it’s population, about 8 percent are Christian. The other 92 percent are Buddhists, Shintoists, Muslims, Shamans and Atheists.
Adventist Church-run Sahmyook University in Metropolitan Seoul, South Korea, has more than 5,300 students, making it one of the top five universities in the denomination by enrollment.
Each year, NSD receives the most volunteers of any division. In 2012, it received 538 volunteers, most of them serving at South Korea’s SDA Language Institute.
The Division has several mission initiatives, including:
The 1000 Missionary Movement (1000 MM): Young people are trained and then spend 10 months serving in countries such as Taiwan, China, Russia and the Philippines. As a result of their service, 797 churches have been constructed, and more than 71,000 people have joined the church through their ministry.
Pioneer Missionary Movement (PMM): The project aims to establish new churches within the division. Its goal is to send 100 church pastors to other countries within the NSD territory for cross-cultural missionary work. These pastors will be sent to territories where no Seventh-day Adventist churches exists.
The Golden Angels: A group of music missionaries organized with eight volunteer musicians every year since 2004 supports evangelistic activities of PMM missionaries and strengthens youth ministries in the field.
His Hands Mission Movement (HHMM): The HHMM volunteer missionaries dedicate a minimum of 10 hours a month to share the gospel message with their neighbors.
Church structure began to grow around clinics and hospitals founded by early missionaries. Today this is still the case in many areas in this division. In Nepal, Scheer Memorial Hospital is a major regional healthcare institution in Banepa, just outside of Kathmandu. The country recently adopted a secular constitution, which expanded religious freedom.