A letter from Daniel and Carol Chou Adams in South Korea
Summer 2010
“Re-tire’ment : A withdrawing from office, active service, etc.”
Dear Friends and Colleagues in Mission,
Daniel and Carol Chou Adams recognized at retirement ceremony at Hanil University and Presbyterian Seminary.
On March 23, 2010, we formally retired as professors at Hanil University and Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Korea. However, in an impressive and moving retirement ceremony, the President of the University named us both as Professors Emeritus and informed us that “you will always be members of our faculty as long as you live.” On June 30, 2010, we will be formally retired as mission co-workers with World Mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and become honorably retired members of John Knox Presbytery. This new status will be given recognition July 7-8 at the General Assembly in Minneapolis. But on July 11 we will board a Korean Air flight for a return to Korea to mentor two graduate international students at Hanil University in July, and then in August we will move up to the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul to serve as volunteer guest professors for the fall semester. On January 1, 2011, we will really retire, sign up for Medicare, and begin to receive our pension from the Board of Pensions. However, if the logistics can be arranged we will travel to Myanmar (Burma) and/or India to serve as visiting professors for a month in January-February. Although we will have retired three times it appears that we will not be “withdrawing from office or active service.” As the president of Columbia Theological Seminary reminded us only a few days ago, “Retirement is not a biblical concept.”
After the retirement ceremony.
Since “retiring” from Hanil University we have officiated at the engagement ceremony of Carol’s niece in Taiwan and visited with former students there, we have visited a seminary classmate in California and checked out Monte Vista Grove Homes, a wonderful retirement community for Presbyterian church workers, and we have engaged in a three-month mission interpretation assignment that has taken us to more than 20 states. We have been warmly received in the churches and everyone has been so helpful in giving us suggestions for retirement. Truly we are members of one Christian family! In preparation for the future we have visited a number of retirement communities, looked at model homes, and begun to consider the various options that are open to us. One thing is certain — if God grants us health we will continue to serve and if possible give lectures abroad in theological seminaries from time to time on a volunteer basis. For the immediate future we will teach theology and Christian education in Seoul and Dan will work on a book on the history of Korean theology.
As we look back on 36 years of mission service with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) we can only give thanks for a life filled with God’s grace and blessing. We are most grateful to all of our supporting churches—both past and present, and to those recently visited and those not so recently visited—for months and years of faithful prayer, financial and personal support. We give thanks for the World Mission staff in Louisville and before that in Atlanta who have worked so hard to make it possible for us to serve first in Taiwan and later in Korea. We have been blessed by our many students around the world from Taiwan, Korea, and nations of Africa and Asia, and from the United States during visiting professorships in Iowa, Virginia and Georgia. Family members have always been there for us even though we have been far away across the seas. Our many friends around the world have generously opened their homes and hearts to us. As we make the transition into retirement we do so with good feelings and a sense of accomplishment. Truly we are blessed!
From July through December our address will be:
Drs. Daniel J. and Carol Chou Adams
Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary
353 Gwangjang Dong, Kwangjin Gu
Seoul 143-756
Korea
From January 2011 our temporary address will be:
Drs. Daniel J. and Carol Chou Adams
235 Inman Drive
Decatur, GA 30030-3834
USA
We hope to keep in touch with as many of you as possible. Please write to us, send us emails (we will keep the same email address, chadhanil777@yahoo.com), and most important, keep us in your prayers and concerns. Truly we are one family in Christ and it is our hope to maintain relationships with as many members of this family as time and occasion allows.
As we bid “farewell” to World Mission we will continue to be involved in the mission of God throughout the world. May God grant all of you grace and blessing!
Faithfully in mission,
Carol Chou and Daniel J. Adams
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138
