January 8, 2007

Dear Friends,

If two letters in one month were ever appropriate, then two letters are appropriate this month. We leave for Korea on January 15, and are expecting the story of our lives in the second half of the month to be quite different from the first. So we’ve decided to share our hopes and prayers before we depart.

Tomorrow, Kevin and Sariah will exchange their vows in a very small wedding ceremony here in New York. The celebration will continue in Dallas with more family members and friends. We thank God for the opportunity to be able to participate fully in this event. Simon is going to share a charge to the new couple on behalf of all four parents and to give a parental pledge of love and support. We leave for Korea directly from Dallas.

As we share our plans to move to Korea, friends often ask why would Korea need missionaries from the United States these days. After all, Korea has had a phenomenal growth in Christianity and sends more missionaries overseas than any country other than the United States. True, in all the countries we have visited in our travels on behalf of the church, we have met more Korean Presbyterian missionaries than PC(USA) missionaries. Yet, companionship is not only for the weak. The love and presence of aging parents makes life complete, even for someone at the peak of life’s success and full of vitality. It helps one to appreciate the care received when young and the humility of finite human life before the God of infinite grace and power. We would like to share what it means to commit to mission with our “hearts” while at the same time we carefully and deliberately walk the path with our “heads.” So often, we approach mission with compassion and zeal, but do not have the knowledge and discipline to lift up and enrich the lives of the people we work with.

Simon’s work in Niger for famine relief taught him a few things. To provide $1,000,000 worth of food sounds like a big project. But if the goal is for food security for this country of 14 million people, then it has no impact. The emergency distribution is to keep the people alive and keep the families and villages together while longer-term solutions are implemented. This is where we must evaluate our “competitive advantages” and determine where and how we can contribute to the entire process. Even a casual analysis suggests that there are three major components: food production, distribution, and consumption.

Securing improved seeds and improving soil conservation and farming methods is usually beyond the expertise of faith-based organizations, at least for PC(USA). It would make more sense for the Rockefeller Foundation and Gates Foundation, working with agricultural research centers, to take on such a task. Even if they were to succeed producing more grains, then in order to achieve food security, they’d still have to find an equitable and efficient distribution system. Is this our area of expertise? Haejung and I believe the church should advocate equitable policies and help citizens to demand responsible government, but the church has a limited ability to impact political decisions. Properly storing grains to minimize spoilage and loss to pests, proper planning for the entire growing cycle, and nutritional preparation of the available food stuff are all important issues at the village level. We believe this last area is where those who maintain long-term relationships with local communities can contribute the most, working in cooperation with local religious, governmental, and civic institutions. We need to have competence in nutrition, community organizing, and non-traditional education, or we need to work with partners who do. When the church chooses mission projects, what our hearts want to do must be supported by clear and capable heads.

Do this explanation sound too technical, without heart and spirit? In fact, it has been suggested that we have a “corporate mentality” and are engaged in development activities that do not require the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the gold test of Christian mission.

We do not question the sincerity of our friends in mission. We share here only what we learned in Congo during the period when we were the only PC(USA) mission co-workers in the country. As neophytes, we were really struggling with work, daily living, and keeping our spirits up. We prayed in earnest, and complained to God at times. We were ready to give up. Had we been in a place where exodus was easy, we would have. Then one morning it seemed that we heard God’s voice. The message was clear. God said, “Simon and Haejung, the command I give you and the work assignment are not for you, but for my son who abides in you. Your responsibility is to obey and let my son to do my will.” Friends, that was the moment of assurance and great relief. We serve with heart and mind, but we know in all we do the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and our life in him is the necessary foundation of our work.

God has given us a gift of the passion for mission and the ability for financial stewardship, which is sometimes sorely lacking in faith communities. With Christ in our hearts, we believe that applying these gifts at the highest level of competence is our calling. As we go to work in and from Korea, we do not know what specific tasks await us, but we believe in God, whose grace is sufficient for all of our needs. We pray for his compassion (heart) and his wisdom (head) and the humility of Christ in us. Pray for us.

In our next letter we will share the stories of Kevin’s wedding, our long plane ride, and the settling-in experience in Korea.

God bless,

Haejung and Simon

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, 259