A letter from Simon Park in Korea
August 2012
Friends,
We are in transition. So, what’s new? Transition has been the story of our life for the past 15 years since we transitioned from academic life into mission service. Unlike many missionaries, we received new assignments every three years. Now we are transitioning into a yet another phase of our lives, RETIREMENT. On August 21 we will be leaving Daejeon, Korea, for southern Indiana to begin our “private life.” It is not completely true as we will be on our interpretation assignment until the end of 2012, but Simon’s frequent trips to airports will stop, or at least slow down significantly.
We purchased a house in Nashville, Indiana (55 Pine Hills Drive, POB 2013, Nashville, IN 47448-2013), to enjoy serenity and the beautiful surroundings of Brown County! We have been looking forward to this transition, but there will be moments of awkwardness for a while. We are blessed to be able to choose the time and place of retirement on our own terms.
As always, we leave many things unfinished, trusting that God and his servants will bring them to good closure and also take them way beyond what we could have done. We left Nepal at the end of 2004 and returned for the first time in January this year with the Young Adult Volunteers who served in Korea. Simon had worked with several projects of the United Mission to Nepal (UMN). When UMN went into Nepal, they planned to turn over all projects (hospitals, schools and community service programs) to the Nepali nationals and their organizations. It was Simon’s main duty to prepare them for leadership, including external communications and fund raising. Experience has shown that many, if not most, NGOs are very poor in outcome evaluation and accountability reporting compared to their ability to prepare good-sounding proposals. Simon worked hard and was quite demanding that the NGOs go beyond articulating the needs and demonstrate their ability to be effective and accountable implementers in partnership with foreign supporters. This was new and difficult to those who mainly followed what missionaries asked.
One particular NGO in Pokhara, Nepal, proved to be quite a challenge as they enjoyed more than ten years of generous support from an overseas church and they were not as demanding as Simon. They went through a restructuring and leadership change before we left in 2004. When we visited the UMN headquarters in Kathmandu in January 2012, our old friends could not wait to tell us what a success story the Pokhara NGO turned out to be. The new leadership had decided to take Simon's suggestions and worked hard to make it their own. When other international NGOs came to Nepal seeking to find capable and trustworthy local partners, this NGO stood out and within five years they were partnering with six international institutions and grew beyond anyone’s imagination. Since we were scheduled to visit Pokhara six days hence, we were all very excited to visit them and share the joy.
As we were traveling through Lumbini (Buddha’s birth place) and Tansen (hospital whose tag line is We Serve and Jesus Heals) it seemed as if God was speaking to us: “Simon, I am glad that my Nepali children are running the NGO well to serve my children in need and I know that was your goal when you worked with them. Be happy and be thankful. How would your visit help them do their work better? I am happy to leave them to write their own story.” We realized that we don’t have to be a part of every story being written. We only need to rejoice in the stories of God’s love in their new lives. The main purpose of our service has been to help others write new life stories, and we need not play a speaking part in them.
Many friends ask what we plan to do after leaving the field. We honestly don’t know, but Haejung is clear about her role. She wants to be a gracious host to the visitors to our home and share God’s grace and peace. Her role model is the innkeeper in the story of the Good Samaritan. The innkeeper did not go out and find the victim in need, but when he was brought to the inn, she gladly gave her best to care for the person in need. The innkeeper did not have a speaking part, but the story would not end well without her. Haejung wants to “be” the innkeeper.
We will be visiting churches after we get settled in our new home. Our official itineration period ends at the end of this year, but we would probably continue as long as there is demand and our health holds up. Let us know if you want us to visit; we will come whenever we can.
Friends, our 15 years as PC(USA) mission co-workers have given us life experiences no other life path would have given, and we got to experience God in most intimate ways. We know God will be with us in our retirement life as well. Thank you for your prayers and your support all these years. We will write again when we are settled in Indiana and ready to come visit you, and when we are ready to play the innkeeper. Come see us—we will leave the porch light on.
Grace and peace,
Haejung & Simon
The 2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 196
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