Share your Six Word Memoirs

Year of Service - Lifetime of Change

What a great tag line!  The change happens not only to the YAVs, but to the family, supporters, the children they work with, PC(USA) community and to the site coordinators.  We learned a lot during the first year, and we know that we will learn a lot more during the coming year as well.  Now that Becky, Jenny and Katie have left we continue to learn.

After two weeks of empty nester life we welcomed Thomas Loyd, Anna Curl and Anna Shustizky to Korea.  They had spent a very hectic week at Stony Point Center getting ready for the year of service as best as they could.  Their long anticipated departure for Korea was delayed by two days due to Hurricane Irene and the subsequent chaos in air travel out of New York.  Thomas arrived on September 1 and the Annas the following day.  They were all to arrive on the same day, albeit on separate flights, but the flight for Annas were delayed in Chicago causing them to miss the connection in Tokyo further delaying the arrival by additional 15 hours.  But, they got a stamp(Japan) on their passport and got to eat and sleep at a nice hotel in Narita, compliments of the airline.

Each of the YAVs whose rooms this year's YAVs are inheriting left words of wisdom on many subjects.  Advices on using cell phones, public transportation, food preparation and ignoring mosses until they find their way into the ceiling light fixtures as their final resting place.  Those are nuggets, which reminded me of some Six Word Memoirs.

Watch your back, cover your bottom is not only for office life, but also useful for navigating through a foreign culture.

At our age, why smarter YAVs? It is always a challenge to counsel or supervise others who know more than we do.  We will enjoy the first days when the YAVs are like children before they can speak, at least in Korean, but we are prepared for challenging encounters.

Jet lags make young people old. When we say that we get up at four in the morning, all the young folks ask WHY?  During this week, I notice the YAVs logging onto skype at four, five and six in the morning.  Who knows how long that will last?  I hope they just don't oversleep their classes!!

I invite parents, friends, YAV alumni and current YAVs to share your Six Word Memoirs of YAV life with the YAV community.  Leave them as comments, and we will find a suitable place to share.

First day of Korean Language School

Do Christians have monopoly on hospitality?

Haejung and I just returned from a ten-day study trip to Japan with the YAVs, three students and a chaplain at the Hannam University.  It was a action packed trip, you can read them form the YAV blog postings.  I could never match their energy and flair for posting interesting articles.

My gifts are in planning and sometime in reflecting upon how things turn out. My goal was to make the trip interesting, educational, safe and affordable.  Anyone who traveled in Japan knows that the costs can escalate out of control quickly. 

I have to admit right off the errors I made in planning the trip.  I underestimated the small things that can go wrong when traveling with eight relatively inexperienced travelers via public transportation system which functions on two to three minute connections.  Build in too much slack, they complain about the wasted time when things go smoothly.  Too tight a schedule, we missed the appointed event.  All in all, the group was cooperative and adjusted well, although we had some close calls. 

I believed everyone would like some opportunity to interact with counterparts in Japan and share thoughts.  So I planned a series of forums with students at three Christian universities.  Apparently this part of the trip placed a significant burden on some of the members, detracting from the joy of visits.  I still am convinced that the overall value of the trip was enhanced by these encounters for most.  Beyond the formal functions, these forums naturally presented opportunities for our YAVs and Hannam students to meet and socialize with their cohorts in Japan.  Too often institutional exchanges are the events for the leaders and not engage the constituents (students) in any meaningful way.  I learned the young people would take care of the interactions if only given the opportunities.

At Kwansei Gakuin University with students and professors who hosted us.

These forums would not have happened had it not been for the amazing hospitality and efforts of the institutions in Japan.  Kwansei Gakuin University in Osaka, Kwassui Women’s College in Nagasaki,  Hiroshima Jogakuin College in Hiroshima, Yodogawa Christian Hospital in Osaka, and the Japan Mission of the Presbyterian Church in Kobe were the institutions who hosted us in many events.  Of course, institutions do not extend hospitality but the people do.  I do not know why, but they greeted us as if they were greeting the most important people on earth, perhaps Jesus.  I have been always showered with hospitality whenever I traveled to Japan, but this time we met some for the first time who showered with hospitality.  We are not in any position to help them in any tangible way.  Is hospitality inherent in Japanese culture?  Did all of us being Christians influenced their level of hospitality?  I do not know, but we all noticed that the Japanese Christian institutions were more conscientious of upholding their Christian ethos in their daily lives than the ones in Korea.  Japan’s Christian population is only 0.8% of the whole while Korea reports more than 25% self declared Christians.  Is the extreme minority status compelling them to live out their identity to the fullest?  I do not know whether it is the Japanese or Christian being, but I do want to learn and practice greater hospitality with joyful heart.

I also believe we were able to accomplish the educational goal to a large degree.  While we did not come up with profound answers to the questions on environment, discrimination and peace, we did learn that even the  “truth” might be multidimensional when seen through different life circumstances and cultural filters.  

The second educational objective was to challenge the young folks to face the unfamiliar and gain self-confidence.  I tried to cast a safety-net by equipping them with the ability to get back to the home base should anyone get separated from the group, and encouraged them to explore beyond the planned visits.  Within a few days they went from Kobe to Tokyo and each ventured out on their own and they did all get back safely.  They were even ready for the 8:00 a.m. departure for Hiroshima next morning. 

You might wonder how we could afford all the train rides across Japan where train fares are sometimes more expensive than airfares.  We used the JR Rail Pass that allowed unlimited rides on JR rail, bus and ferry system.  This pass is available to short-term visitors and must be purchased overseas.  It is not cheap but we recovered the cost on the first trip to Nagasaki, other trips were bonus.

Will I do this next year?  I do not know.  Let me think about it after I thank those who made it possible first.

Why do we have YAVs in Korea?

2011 just started and the Year of the Rabbits is not even here yet, but we are already busy with planning for the next class of YAVs.  The deadline for submitting articles for 2012 Mission Yearbook comes even before the Lunar New Year for 2011.  I wanted to share the first draft of the article Haejung and I are preparing for submission.   

Before we do the serious stuff...  I bragged to this year's YAVs about the beautiful autumn and mild winter weather in Korea, but we've been having the most extreme wet autumn and cold winter.  One saving grace is that they are not as extreme as they are in the Northeast and Midwest, it is cold nonetheless.  Japan should be better, but I do not want to jink it for our study trip to Japan this week.

2012 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook (first draft)

Presbyterian mission in Korea started in 1884 when the medical missionary H. N. Allen serving in China was reassigned to Korea.  Shortly thereafter many others came to Korea and shared God’s love with the people of the Land of Morning Calm.  In 2010 three young Presbyterians came to dynamic and global Korea as Young Adult Volunteers. 

Korea now sends more Christian missionaries overseas than any country other than the United States.  It is not surprising that both Americans and Koreans ask why we need Presbyterian missionaries in prosperous society like Korea where churches are strong.  That probably was a question our three YAVs had before they arrived here. 

As of this writing the YAVs have been here for less than six months, but we already learned many reasons why God sent them here.  They witness to the sisterhood of all Christians ministering to each other.  YAVs depend on the love and care of Korean brothers and sisters for their daily lives and work they came to do. 

In this competitive and success driven society wealth and power often hides God’s image, even in churches.  We are all made with God’s image and it is our duty to show God in us. Through daily interactions with children from poor families our YAVs regularly show the image of God in them. They do so while working hand in hand with Korean partners, thereby building up the community of faith in this land.  They not only share God’s image in them, but also help others to find God’s image in their own being.

 Just two examples of our YAVs in action.

They also share through their writings building up yet more communities.   The Young Adult Volunteers of our church today are building up the body of Christ the missionaries helped build more than a century ago and laying the foundation for the next century.  Thanks be to God.