We are supposed to be bi-cultural, bi-lingual and omni-generational. We were both born and raised in Korea at least through high-school. We call United States our home and have children in their thirties residing in Boston and New York. We lived in six countries in three continents and traveled in over twenty countries. We can even carry on basic conversations in a few more languages. Now that should make us good at communicating, right? We thought so, but...
Working as coordinators for the YAV program, we are learning the basics of communication all over again, making the mistakes all over again, and making others frustrated all over again. Then again, even God has difficulty getting his messages understood at times.
One source of difficulty is our competing objectives. As we work with our partners we have two objectives; to share the love of Christ with the children and to help our YAVs grow in their faith and their capacity to embrace a larger world. Our partners have he common goal of caring for the children, but also the need to demonstrate the value of the programs in tangible ways. While I am aware that the Korean culture does not state their wishes directly or openly, I do not always succeed in decoding the the true message in the signals I receive. If it were just us, we can adjust as the gaps in understanding and expectations appear on the surface, but YAVs are relying on us to get it right as we plan their work assignments and approaches. Each of the YAVs work with multiple partners which makes the situation a bit more complicated.
But look at the bright side, once they get through the first several months they would have more cross cultural and generational communications experience than any other YAVs. Haejung and I seek wisdom and patience to intervene only when necessary and let the YAVs tackle the communications issues. Another protective instinct we must control is the assumption that the YAVs' knowledge of Korean customs and culture is limited to what we shared. They have already explored and learned a lot on their own and they are capable of much more. We just hope that they would trust us enough to ask for help when they need it.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Bonding with a community
It is also true for missionaries entering into a new culture and new communities. In case of our YAVs there are several potential groups they would meet at the "airport" as they begin their first weeks in Korea. How and who they bond with will affect their experiences here in Korea and beyond. We learned this firsthand as we entered many new communities during my academic and missionary career. We are aware of the importance of bonding with correct communities for proper work attitudes, spiritual and physical health and the potential growth, but we do not want to limit their options and encounters. How do we raise geese that would be friendly without losing their true nature, their ability to survive in the wild?
Haejung and I try to encourage the YAVs to meet and try different communities while their energy level is high. They have been remarkably good at trying unfamiliar food, attending functions they cannot participate fully, learning situations where they would not be in the high achievement group and foregoing some groups and activities with which they are comfortable. We also know that there comes a period when they would yearn for things that are natural and comfortable to them. We would be more agreeable to our YAVs spending more time and having fellowship with North American communities to help overcome the homesick period. By then we hope the YAVs would have acquired enough Korean culture, language and friends to function in multi-cultural settings.
The Korean society has changed so much since the arrival of early missionaries, now the older Korean generation would find the food and digital culture of the young Koreans more foreign than the YAVs would. Older folks hand over business cards while the young register their cell phone numbers in others' phones. Unlike many American young folks venturing in Korea and elsewhere, our YAVs need to work with different age groups and migrant (different culture) population. Also, we are not running our own programs, we are assisting in others' programs enhancing the quality and scope of their programs. We need to adjust our activities to fit in others' plans to the best of our ability. Our YAVs must be able to function with both the business card collection and ever increasing entries in their phones.
One major problem we see with the self appointed missionaries is that they are mainly concerned with their own activities rather than the needs of the people they serve and the people are means to ends rather than end objects of God's love we are called to share. Of course there are exceptions but these errors are easy to make when we try to do things quickly in a community we do not understand well. We are encouraging our young missionaries to concentrate on meeting and bonding with Korean communities before responding to offers of help and fellowship from other North Americans. There is need for the interaction, but doing so after they leave the "airport" is wise.
Haejung and I are very thankful for the cooperative spirit of the YAVs this year as we are trying to navigate the path of ministry for the first time. Pray that the energy, wisdom and humility will last us for the whole year.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Energy or lack thereof...
I traveled well over two hundred thousand miles last year, equivalent to thirty flights between Seoul and Chicago or 420 hours of pure flying time. Sometimes I did the flying without missing one day at the office doing it all on weekends. Add numerous train rides in Korea and Japan to that. I even taught a course at Hannam University on the side. It's not a bad energy level for a sixty something, wouldn't you agree?
But compared to the YAVs, I am ready to be put out of commission. I don't believe I aged so quickly in the last few months, I just ran into a energy level that I have not met during the past thirteen years. Haejung tells me that God sent angels to bring the message to act my age. I am ready to admit that I no longer have the energy of the youth, instead I pray for some wisdom of the age to share.
YAVs are eager to serve and get into action, immediately. I fully understand as they have been preparing for this time at least for a year and since March they knew that they are assigned to Korea. The wait has been longer than Haejung and my engagement period. Also, the word "immediately" is used often in the Gospels according to Mark and Luke, and perhaps YAVs are only being biblical.
Still, they need not and should not fill up all available time in the first two weeks. They have not seen all the opportunities we have identified and we certainly have many more opportunities including many of which we are not yet aware.
Korean folks also come up with many on-the-spot ideas to engage our YAVs without thinking through the process. Haejung and I encourage the YAVs to experience variety of encounters, but defer long-term commitments until a later date. We have to take on the load that we can sustain throughout the year, beyond the initial high-energy excitement period. How about the need and opportunity to be good to ourselves? YAV year is the time to grow us through service to others. The tag line on YAV t-shirt is a year of service for a lifetime of change. YAV experience does not end in twelve month but a lifetime, thus our goal for the year is not to complete our mission, but to start a good spark in our hearts to help us live the life worth our calling.
I should be old enough to know our limits. We hope to build trusting relationships with the precious young ladies for them to be comfortable being in the vacuum for a while. It's not really a vacuum but calm and still moments to discern God's plan for us all.
But compared to the YAVs, I am ready to be put out of commission. I don't believe I aged so quickly in the last few months, I just ran into a energy level that I have not met during the past thirteen years. Haejung tells me that God sent angels to bring the message to act my age. I am ready to admit that I no longer have the energy of the youth, instead I pray for some wisdom of the age to share.
YAVs are eager to serve and get into action, immediately. I fully understand as they have been preparing for this time at least for a year and since March they knew that they are assigned to Korea. The wait has been longer than Haejung and my engagement period. Also, the word "immediately" is used often in the Gospels according to Mark and Luke, and perhaps YAVs are only being biblical.
Still, they need not and should not fill up all available time in the first two weeks. They have not seen all the opportunities we have identified and we certainly have many more opportunities including many of which we are not yet aware.
Korean folks also come up with many on-the-spot ideas to engage our YAVs without thinking through the process. Haejung and I encourage the YAVs to experience variety of encounters, but defer long-term commitments until a later date. We have to take on the load that we can sustain throughout the year, beyond the initial high-energy excitement period. How about the need and opportunity to be good to ourselves? YAV year is the time to grow us through service to others. The tag line on YAV t-shirt is a year of service for a lifetime of change. YAV experience does not end in twelve month but a lifetime, thus our goal for the year is not to complete our mission, but to start a good spark in our hearts to help us live the life worth our calling.
I should be old enough to know our limits. We hope to build trusting relationships with the precious young ladies for them to be comfortable being in the vacuum for a while. It's not really a vacuum but calm and still moments to discern God's plan for us all.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Arrival
In my childhood memories of Korea September brings high blue sky and crisp weather . But this year on the last day of August, as we were driving up to Inchon airport to meet three young ladies arriving for their journey as missionaries, the Typhoon Gonpas hit us with heavy rain and strong wind. For Koreans it would have been a safer and saner choice to take interstate bus for travel to the final destination Daejeon from the airport, but we could not traumatize the innocent beings to navigate the huge airport and bus terminal points while maneuvering suitcases filled with life essentials, also some not so essentials, for the next eleven months of their lives, and with no Korean language.
Anticipating the bad weather we left early giving us four hours for the three hour journey. We arrived early enough for dinner at the airport and having failed to gain entry into a lounge we went to the arrival gate, just to learn that the flight arrived one hour ahead of the schedule. Padding a few minutes to the flight time to improve their "on-time arrival" statistics is a common technique, but adding one hour to the three hour flight is too much. We panicked momentarily, but realizing that the YAVs would not be the first one off the plane and their luggages would not be the first on to the carousel, we relaxed and waited.
Before too long, a sixty-one year old lady (Haejung) squealing like a teen ager seeing her heartthrob awoke me from my daydream to see three beautiful young people pulling their luggages.
After loading up the van, and squeezing into the seats, including a jump seat, we set off to Daejeon. I was quietly concerned since I had come back from the Stateside just the night before and did not know whether the jet-lag would hit me without notice. After an hour or so on the highway I asked Katie, who was the only one awake, about the airplane food. When her comments were all on the quantity and not on the quality, I knew she was hungry and we live in different worlds.
It was close to midnight, but we stopped at one of the ubiquitous highway rest areas (a very large travel superstore) for some real food. They all seem to be more animated with new energy.
It was almost 1:00 a.m. when we arrived at their house for the next year. We gave a brief tour of the house and distributed essentials like wifi password and the cell phones we had secured for them.
By then it was five hours past our usual bed time and we crashed after a very brief prayer of thanks, but we did not fail to ask for wisdom, patience and humility.
Seven hours later, they all had to show up for their placement interview at the Korean language school in Hannam University. Haejung and Simon had that long forgotten anxiety of taking children to the first day of school. They also gave us brave smiles, but we knew they had knots in their tummies.
Then very early the next morning, I took off to Tokyo, Japan for a two day business trip.
Anticipating the bad weather we left early giving us four hours for the three hour journey. We arrived early enough for dinner at the airport and having failed to gain entry into a lounge we went to the arrival gate, just to learn that the flight arrived one hour ahead of the schedule. Padding a few minutes to the flight time to improve their "on-time arrival" statistics is a common technique, but adding one hour to the three hour flight is too much. We panicked momentarily, but realizing that the YAVs would not be the first one off the plane and their luggages would not be the first on to the carousel, we relaxed and waited.
After loading up the van, and squeezing into the seats, including a jump seat, we set off to Daejeon. I was quietly concerned since I had come back from the Stateside just the night before and did not know whether the jet-lag would hit me without notice. After an hour or so on the highway I asked Katie, who was the only one awake, about the airplane food. When her comments were all on the quantity and not on the quality, I knew she was hungry and we live in different worlds.
It was close to midnight, but we stopped at one of the ubiquitous highway rest areas (a very large travel superstore) for some real food. They all seem to be more animated with new energy.
By then it was five hours past our usual bed time and we crashed after a very brief prayer of thanks, but we did not fail to ask for wisdom, patience and humility.
Seven hours later, they all had to show up for their placement interview at the Korean language school in Hannam University. Haejung and Simon had that long forgotten anxiety of taking children to the first day of school. They also gave us brave smiles, but we knew they had knots in their tummies.
Then very early the next morning, I took off to Tokyo, Japan for a two day business trip.
A new journey
In late August, I attended the memorial service for my brother-in-law, Elder Kee Sohn, in Champaign, IL. He was two months younger than me and during the 36 years I have known him we have been very close. Since we left Champaign in 1985 sometimes we have not seen each other for many years. After we entered mission service for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1997 and lived in Africa and Asia, our face to face encounters were few and far in-between, mostly at weddings of our children. Kee passed away at a young age of 64 due to esophageal cancer. He was loved by everyone and hundreds attending the service during a weekday morning was a proof. I was very glad that I made the long trip of twenty four hours to be a part of the farewell party.
As I got on the plane home and I realized that I am starting a new life without Kee, although we did not have many physical contacts during the past several years, he was in my life. Eunhee, my sister, nieces and many friends need to start shaping radically different lives. It is not just continuing their lives with one piece removed, but a new one. When we entered mission service it was a new one rather than a revised life, and each subsequent field assignment proved to be a new life with new community, culture and relationships. This realization was very useful and timely, since we were starting a new life with three Young Adult Volunteers (YAV) staring their year of service in Korea.
The day after I returned to Korea, Haejung and I drove to Inchon Airport three hours north of Daejeon to greet these young missionaries. I am sure they were glad to see us after 19 hours of travel with three hours of additional car ride ahead of them. We made home safely, and started on new lives together.
During the past dozen years, we relied on our letters to family and friends to share our lives in the field which can be found here. This blog is to serve as a communication tool for the YAV experience, providing a parallel view of the new life experiences shared by Jenny, Katie and Becky.
I invite and encourage the parents of these young ladies to read the notes on this space for more complete understanding of your daughters' new life experiences. Hopefully I can provide some useful context and perspectives for richer understanding. I also invite young people who are contemplating a service with the YAV program to read and comment with your questions and concerns. It will take several days for me to catch up with the ladies, but I think that will be the story of our lives during the upcoming year.
As I got on the plane home and I realized that I am starting a new life without Kee, although we did not have many physical contacts during the past several years, he was in my life. Eunhee, my sister, nieces and many friends need to start shaping radically different lives. It is not just continuing their lives with one piece removed, but a new one. When we entered mission service it was a new one rather than a revised life, and each subsequent field assignment proved to be a new life with new community, culture and relationships. This realization was very useful and timely, since we were starting a new life with three Young Adult Volunteers (YAV) staring their year of service in Korea.
The day after I returned to Korea, Haejung and I drove to Inchon Airport three hours north of Daejeon to greet these young missionaries. I am sure they were glad to see us after 19 hours of travel with three hours of additional car ride ahead of them. We made home safely, and started on new lives together.
During the past dozen years, we relied on our letters to family and friends to share our lives in the field which can be found here. This blog is to serve as a communication tool for the YAV experience, providing a parallel view of the new life experiences shared by Jenny, Katie and Becky.
I invite and encourage the parents of these young ladies to read the notes on this space for more complete understanding of your daughters' new life experiences. Hopefully I can provide some useful context and perspectives for richer understanding. I also invite young people who are contemplating a service with the YAV program to read and comment with your questions and concerns. It will take several days for me to catch up with the ladies, but I think that will be the story of our lives during the upcoming year.
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