Bonding with a community

In Korean-American communities in the United States there is a well known saying that the sphere of their immigrant life is determined by who meets them at the airport.  Their economic, social and even faith life is heavily influenced by the person since the newly arrived has no other base or anchor to shape his or her life in the new society/culture.

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.