September 8, 2009

Dear Friends,

After spending six weeks working at PC(USA)’s national offices in Louisville, we came to Stony Point Center to spend a week with Young Adult Volunteers preparing to leave for their one-year service to the church in various places.

Young Adult Volunteers and the orientation facilitators at Stony Point Center. Notice the stretched arms make “hearts,” which signals their love for one another and for all God’s children..

Most of them are fresh out of college and are asking the proverbial question, “What am I going to do with my life?” Rather than giving an answer, our church provides an opportunity for them to extend the boundaries of their lives by serving in a volunteer position for one year, and touch other lives in the process. It is a risky endeavor; they may not find what they are looking for after giving a year of their young lives. They will be sharing lives with people who have little in common with them, and they may even face some harsh living conditions. Why do they do it? And why does the church spend resources to encourage our young people to take these risks?

A short and clear answer in my mind is that “mission is risk taking.”

Since 9/11 and the global financial melt down in 2008, the word risk has become a disease to avoid at all costs. True, many of us take foolish risks due to ignorance, a sense of our own invincibility, blind faith, and even because of the love of adventure. Through training, supervision, and close communication with people who have more experience, we try to minimize the avoidable risks. This, however, does not mean we will let the risk assessments dictate whether we engage in mission or not.

Mission is offering our lives into the lives of others. There is always the risk of rejection, misunderstanding others, being misunderstood, and many other consequences we did not anticipate or want. But that is the very nature of reaching out.

We are blessed to be a part of the efforts to help our young people step out of their comfort zone and explore the unknown. Sixty-seven 20-somethings with idealism, hope, and resolve (mixed with anxiety and trepidation) are going out to change the world. The world may not change much, but surely 67 lives will be changed, along with the lives of their families. May God’s blessings and peace go with them.

You can learn more about this best kept secret in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at the Young Adult Volunteer Web site. May we ask for your prayer support as well as financial support of this wonderful program of the church?

Another reason for us to be here is that the World Mission chose Korea as a new site for the YAV program, and Haejung will be the site coordinator, supervisor, and mother to the YAVs. It also means that we will be based in Korea for three more years, until the end of 2012. This is the first time we return to the same place of service for another three-year term. Our first term in Korea has been a period of learning and growth, building mutual respect and trust with the partners. We will be relying on the partners to open doors and opportunities for our young adults to serve God’s children together with the Korean young adults. If you want to know more about this opportunity to serve in Korea, please let us know.

We will be posting information about the YAV site in Korea on PC(USA)’s Mission Service Recruitment Web site soon. For the first year, we hope to find four young servants. We hope to have a mix of men and women, Korean-Americans and those with no Korean connection, but all with huge hearts for God and His children. We believe we will be able to find and design good work assignments, respond to individual needs, and work out teething problems. We do not know how exactly things will work out, we just trust that they will.

Simon continues to travel on church business, combining his heart for mission with his gifts for organizational and funds management. Twelve years ago, when Simon answered the call to mission, he was deeply ambivalent about leaving the profession of accounting and education.  Little did we know that God uses every bit of our skills and fortifies us with a vision for mission at the same time. It is tiring, emotionally taxing, and sometimes discouraging work. But the occasional success is enough to reenergize and to remember why we are in this business. Risk of failure is much bigger than batter in a baseball game, but the rewards of experiencing God’s word coming true sustain us. Seeing young people committing their lives gives us strength, although watching and participating in 14-hour-a-day programs for a week leaves us exhausted.

We return to Korea during the first week of September, Haejung to continue her studies in Christian counseling and Simon to continue his travels to work with colleagues in many countries. We promise to share the news of preparation for YAV service, which will start in 2010.

During our short two-month stay in the States, Simon worked in the national office assisting the finance and the Asia office, and Haejung was able to participate in the missionary sharing conference for mission workers on home assignment during the summer. We managed to fit in short visits to the churches that have adopted us as their missionaries for many years. It was good to see old friends and to affirm our common ministries.

John and Laurie have settled back in Boston after their wedding reception in Tampa, Florida, reception photos are available.  Kevin and Sariah have completed the manufacturing of their fall 2009 collection, and are working hard to get buyers interested in their spring 2010 line. Sariah’s beautiful clothes are shown at Sariah's Web site.

Simon is returning to Japan in mid-September to work with our partners there, then goes on to Louisville for an important item of action at the upcoming General Assembly Mission Council meeting. More on this in our next letter.

May you enjoy the abundance of harvest season and experience the joy of sharing the abundance with our neighbors.

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, 120