A letter from Sook Hee Bae in Korea
October 13, 2009
Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
The weather of October in Korea is just beautiful, with a high blue sky. Korea just celebrated three days of the “Chuseok.” It is one of the most enjoyable holidays in Korea, along with the August full moon. Chuseok is equivalent to Thanksgiving in the United States. People visit their hometown and show respect to their ancestors and parents.
Yeji church youth group at summer retreat on Daechun Beach.
For the last couple of months, K.J. and I have been engaged in various kinds of mission work with our partnership church. During of August, the Yeji church youth group had their summer retreat at the Daechun beach retreat center, where mission co-workers often go on retreat. Daechun is approximately 100 miles south of Seoul. Eighteen young adults got together for two days. They opened their hearts and minds and shared with each other about their faith journeys. K.J. and I hosted the retreat and really enjoyed the fellowship with young people. Most of them are from the runaway girls shelter (“Another Home”) of the Women Ministers Association (WMA). They are now young adults and are helping the teenagers at the shelter as Sunday school teachers and mentors at Yeji church (also of the WMA).
With retired women ministers at the retirement home of the Presbyterian Women Ministers Association, Ansik Kwan.
The National Korean Presbyterian Women (NKPW) held their General Assembly on the first week of September. The moderator of NKPW’s counterpart in the PC(USA), Elder In Soon Ji, was here to participate. During her stay in Korea she visited two shelters of the WMA and met WMA staff and the directors of the shelter for victims of domestic violence runaway girls. We discussed the future directions of the Women Ministers Leadership Team and how we can support them. She also visited the retirement home (“Ansik Kwan”) of the WMA. Elder Ji and I spent a meaningful time with the retired ministers and worked for them as volunteers on their farm for two days.
The General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church was held September 21 through 25 at Somang church in Seoul. Both K.J. and I and other mission co-workers in Korea were invited to the ecumenical worship service. Over 1,500 delegates from 63 presbyteries attended. Currently, the PCK has ordained over 1,000 women as ministers, but the 63 presbyteries commissioned only 13 women delegates (3 clergywomen and 10 elders). I felt so sorry for this unbalanced numbers of delegates. Modern Korean society is open in most areas, but I realize now that the Korean church community has still not opened the door all the way for equal opportunity for clergywomen. I ask your continuing prayers to improve the situation of clergywomen in the Korean church.
K.J. works with me in women ministry. He provides most of the transportation when I need to travel to outside Seoul, and he helps my ministry in many other ways. But since he was appointed treasurer of the IPMO in Seoul, he is concentrating more on his new assignment. This is a challenging work for K.J. K.J. and I are grateful to God that K.J. has a chance to help needy people here in Korea. We ask your continuing prayer and encouragement for our ministry.
K.J. and I are planning to stay in the United States for six months for our home assignment from April to September next year. We will stay at Stony Point Center in New York. We would like to visit many churches and want to share our ministry with you during the first three months (April, May and June) of our home assignment. We will send more information in our next newsletter. May God bless you all.
Peace and Grace,
Sook Hee and K.J. Bae
The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 120
