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.