A letter from Sook Hee Bae in Korea
November 2010
With PW moderator at Syracuse Presby, PW meeting.
Greetings to you, our sisters and brothers in Jesus Christ.
It is the middle of November already and Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming soon. The ginkgo trees in our yard are turning bright yellow and other trees are all wearing the beautiful colors that God created.
This is Sook Hee’s 10th year serving God and the PC(USA) as a mission co-worker here in Korea. When we look back over these 10 years, we are so grateful to God for the way He leads us to serve Him and His people. We are especially grateful for the way the Women Ministers Association (WMA) organized the Clergywomen Leadership Development Center and held its “Basic Steps Seminars" this January and February in addition to an “Advanced Steps Seminar" in March.
These seminars have been very successful in developing clergywomen’s leadership and empowering their role among Korean churches. In April the president of New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) visited Korea, and we shared about women's ministry here in Korea. Also we discussed the possibility of creating a continuing education program for clergywomen at NYTS next year.
Our interpretation assignment started on April 22. KJ and I arrived at Stony Point Center, a PC(USA) conference facility outside New York City, and stayed there until September 26. During our time in the United States we visited many churches in the New York and New Jersey area. During May we traveled to the Syracuse area with 28 members of PyungYang Presbytery Women's Choir. Syracuse Presbytery provided a home stay for all the choir members, including us. It was a memorable experience! KJ and I helped organize logistics for the choir tour, provided translation, and organized visits to historic sites around Syracuse.
Another memorable event was our family gathering in Italy during June. Joe, our youngest son, invited the whole family, including his in-laws, to Italy for a family reunion, and 28 people got together in Tuscany, Italy. Thirteen grandchildren were there from both sides of the family. Taking care of all these kids was a lot of work, but we had lots of fun. From July 2 to July 10 we attended the PC(USA) General Assembly in Minneapolis as Mission Advisory Delegates. This was a wonderful experience for both of us and we learned many things about the General Assembly Mission Council. Also, we attended the Sharing Conference for mission co-workers on August 18. We shared our ministry with other mission colleagues. Many of them have a challenging spirit to serve God and His people. During the Sharing Conference KJ and I met with our colleagues from Presbyterian World Mission staff to make plans for our next term of service. We are so grateful to God that He gave us another term to serve Him.
Family Gathering at Tuscany, Italy.
While we stayed at Stony Point, KJ and I worked as volunteers. I helped in the kitchen, teaching staff how to prepare Korean dishes; KJ helped with yard work. Also we attended meetings on Peacemaking and Inter-Religious Dialogue whenever time allowed. It was a really meaningful time for us. We really appreciate Rick and Kitty Ufford-Chase and the other staff and all the volunteers who welcomed us as part of the Stony Point community while we stayed there.
We visited 24 churches and shared our ministry with local church members and church leaders during our itineration assignment.
We are really thankful to all of you who support our ministry and pray for us. WMA is growing in terms of the number of ordained clergywomen and our ability to strengthen the leadership role of clergywomen in the Korean church. We are asking for your continuing prayer and support.
We wish all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Love in Christ,
Sook Hee and KJ
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138
