November 17, 2008

Christmas message

Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

Baptism at Army Training Center on October 18, 2008.

When K.J. and I look back at this year, we are grateful to God for all God’s love and caring. And we appreciate all the sincere prayers and support for our ministry and our family that people have sent. God’s blessing was overwhelming for the women’s ministry.

When I came to Korea as a mission co-worker assigned to work with the Women Ministers Association (WMA) in 2000, there were more than 100 ordained clergywomen. Now there are about 900, and they who serve God at many different work sites that the Presbyterian Church of Korea has opened since women began to be ordained.

I’d like to share with you briefly what has happened in the year 2008. Currently, WMA is focusing on developing the role of leadership for women clergy in the church community in order that they may have an equal opportunity to serve God in justice and peace. In addition, WMA is still helping retired women ministers, runaway juveniles, and the survivors of domestic violence.

This year, WMA welcomed K.J. with the opportunity to serve for women in ministry. He participated in the PC(USA)’s orientation and in ecumenical orientation from July 7 to 25 and returned to Korea to serve with me. I am so grateful to God that we can serve Him together in “team ministry.”

We hosted her in Korea a mission personnel retreat for all PC(USA) mission workers in Asia from February 19 to 25, and I served as a chair of the committee that organized the retreat. I thank God that we shared not only God’s love but also our personal stories and the ministries we carry out in different countries in Asia.

In August, K.J. and I participated in the YeJi Church’s summer retreat. K.J. was a guest speaker, and he shared his story of working with runaway juveniles and young adults from the shelter.

September was busy for us due to the General Assembly meeting and the mission convention for the 80th anniversary of National Korean Presbyterian Women.

After the ordination of the Reverend Kyung Mee Kim.

Many presbyteries of the PCK held their General Assemblies this fall, and we attended the one at Pyung Yang Presbytery. The meeting was very special for me and WMA. YeJi Church was established as a Women’s Ordination Memorial Church, and during this meeting we were blessed to have the first ordained woman minister from YeJi Church. The Reverend Kyung Mee Kim was ordained by Pyung Yang Presbytery after being called by God and serving and training at YeJi Church for two years as part of her ordination process. YeJi Church members and I (most church members are from the two shelters) are grateful to God for Rev. Kim's ordination. She will continue to serve YeJi Church, and we wish God’s blessing upon her.

Syracuse PW staff visited WMA.

Members from the Pyung Yang’s partner presbytery in the PC(USA), Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery, visited Pyung Yang Presbytery with couple of Korean War Veterans and a family that has adopted Korean children. Presbyterian Women staff from Cayuga-Syracuse visited the shelters and discussed current issues of social ministry in Korea.

Louisville staff visited NKPW on October 24, 2008.

The Reverend Insik Kim retired as area coordinator for Asia at the end of October. We appreciate his hard work in supporting our ministry and that of other mission co-workers. We pray that he and his family have a healthy retirement. The new coordinator, the Reverend David Hudson, visited Korea with Insik in October, and KJ and I had the chance to share our ministry with David Hudson.

2008 is also a blessed year for our family. Our oldest son Samuel is doing fine as a medical doctor at Pennington, New Jersey, and he and his wife Jade are busy with their four children; Sofia, Christian, Reyna, and Ronin and are very active at their church. Members of their church, the Praise English Ministry congregation, are mostly second generation Korean young adults.

Our second son, David, an architect, and his wife Janine have two children: Gus and Adelaide (Korean name: Hee Soo). Adelaide was born November 3 this year, our tenth grandchild!

Our youngest son, Joseph, works for the financial industry and is quite busy during this global crisis. Joe and Janice have four children: Owen, Daniel, and twins Sarah and James. Janice is a writer and she will publish her first book, a novel, The Piano Teacher. We are exciting and proud of her. The novel will be in bookstores on January 12 next year, which is her husband Joe’s birthday!

God’s blessing is overflowing throughout our lives. We ask your continuing prayers and support. We would like to share God’s love and grace with others.

We wish you have a wonderful Christmas and happy New Year!

May God bless you.

Peace and Joy,

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 101