A letter from Haejung Park in Korea
June 2010
Dear friends and family
It’s already the middle of June and very hot and humid here in Daejeon. At Hanman University the spring semester is over. Many students have started to move out from the dormitory for summer vacation. I turned my last paper in and finished the master’s program in Christian Counseling. (I wrote our newsletter in March 2008 when I started the program at Hannam University.) I enjoyed meeting many fellow students and faculty members with life experiences very different from mine. I realize I have changed a lot since I left Korea when I was young. I learned a lot while we studied together. As a Christian and a counselor I need to respect others without judging. I practiced my learned counseling skill on Simon. While I know he must have been very irritated at being a test case, I thank him for his much patience and encouragement. Having finished this program, I pray for more self-confidence and humility.
As you know, we signed up for another three-year term of mission service, starting in January this year. Unlike the first assignment period, I have fewer responsibilities in the chaplain’s office. This semester the most important task for us was the English chapel for the students. There were two sessions, with more than a thousand students in each, which met every week. It’s not that they are extremely religious or the chapel services are so popular &mdash four semesters’ chapel service is required of all students. In order to make the service valuable even to non-Christian students, we pick a theme relevant to all. This semester it was ‘To Be a Global Citizen in the 21st Century.” Chapel service has been the tradition since the Hannam community was founded in 1956 by the Presbyterian Church, and the Christian faith was the requirement for admission at that time. But times have changed and now fewer than 30 percent of the students are Christians. We hope and try to have students touched by the Word as a seed that is planted. We presented the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22 as the personal qualities of a global citizen. We asked the speakers to choose one among the qualities — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control — as their main topic. The favorite, most often chosen, was love. Next semester’s theme will be “Global Citizens in Action”; or “Walk the Talk.”
During our second term in Korea I have the additional responsibility of being the site coordinator for the Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program in Korea. We are looking forward to working with three young ladies — Jenny, Katie and Becky. They will arrive on the 31st of August and stay until the end of July 2011. They will be living in one of the houses on the mission station. As soon as we receive their diplomas and other documents we will start on their religious visas, which will allow them to live and serve in Korea for a full year. Through our chaplain’s office we are trying to recruit many Hannam students to work with these three YAVs as partners. We believe they can learn from each other and help those who are in the shadows of globalization. Korea is growing economically but there are large gaps between haves and have-nots.
Our children are doing fine. John and Laurie are living in Boston. John works as a senior copywriter at Digital Influence Group. Laurie is studying at Boston Architectural College and working as an interior designer. Kevin and Sariah are living in New York. Kevin has many talents, especially in music, and is working as a piano tuner. Sariah is a fashion designer and has her own label, SARIAH. They both are working hard to make the SARIAH business grow and become profitable.
I pray for you to have healthy and happy life in God’s presence and hope. We pray together for all who read this letter.
Haejung
The 2010 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 138
