As travel restrictions begin to loosen worldwide and churches start thinking about long- and short-term mission trips, a group of Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission leaders, World Mission staff and mission co-workers joined together on Zoom Wednesday night to talk about how to be thoughtful travelers when visiting global partners in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Years ago, at a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) youth conference in East Texas, Kurt Esslinger felt the Spirit nudging him toward a ministry that reaches out to people who feel they don’t belong because of their differences.
Just this week, North Korea announced it had suspended but not canceled military action against South Korea. That action would have sent armed North Korean soldiers back to the demilitarized zone (DMZ). At the Pyongyang Summit in 2018 South Korea and North Korea agreed to remove armed guards along the border to decrease hostilities.
Bridging the division in Korea through reunification is a dream of many. Another dream has been to compile the history of mission workers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and partner churches in Korea from 1884 to the present. This connection of past and present mission workers in Korea by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and partner churches in Korea has become reality in the publication of the first “Korean-English Dictionary of Presbyterian Missionaries in Korea 1884-2020,” published March 27 in Korean.
The United States leads the world in COVID-19 numbers, with 852,610 cases and 48,295 deaths. South Korea, once a hot spot, has 10,702 cases and 240 deaths. Hong Kong has 1,036 cases and 4 deaths and Taiwan has 427 cases and 6 deaths.
Living in intentional Christian community looks different this year for Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) in South Korea. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s two Korea YAVs — Susannah Stubbs and Amanda Kirkscey — are living in a school dormitory and a church guest house instead of the previous site model where they lived together, next door to the YAV site coordinator.
저와 아내 이혜영이 한국에서 사역을 시작한 직후, 카유가 시라큐스Cayuga-Syracuse 노회 장로인 린다 러셀이 그녀의 노회가 10년 넘게 한국과의 파트너십 팀을 유지하고 있다고 말하였습니다. 린다는 이 팀이 미국장로교 청년 봉사단 (YAV) 프로그램의 현장 코디네이터로서 우리의 사업에 관심이 있을 것이라고 제안했습니다. 우리는 앞으로 이어질 상호교류에 대한 우리의 흥분을 느꼈습니다. 그것은 Cayuga-Syracuse 노회와 오래되고 유익한 협력 관계를 유지하기 시작했습니다.
Soon after my wife, Hyeyoung Lee, and I began our mission co-worker assignment in South Korea, a Presbyterian elder from Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery, Linda Russell, called to tell us that her presbytery has been maintaining a Korean Partnership Team for over a decade. Linda suggested this team might be interested in our work as site coordinators of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program. We felt our excitement for the work ahead reciprocated. That began what has been a long and fruitful partnership with Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery.
Hannam University in Daejeon, South Korea—consistently recognized as one of Asia’s best Christian universities—is the first school outside the U.S. and Puerto Rico to join the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities (APCU) as a full voting member.
