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Minute for Mission: Celebrating Young Adult Volunteers

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“It was a very painful but meaningful time to think again about what it means to live as a Christian and as an American in this world.” This was a comment from Dia, one of the Young Adult Volunteers (YAVs) from 2016–17, after we visited No Gun Ri, the site of a massacre of Korean civilians committed by U.S. soldiers at the beginning of the Korean War. Believing the civilians to be communists, the U.S. military killed 250–300 people, mostly women and children, from July 26 to 29 in 1950, attacking them as they sought shelter under a railroad bridge. Visiting this site is always painful for me. As a site coordinator who is also a Korean, learning about my own history that is related to the U.S. along with YAVs is a powerful and meaningful experience. Stories like these are often ignored or well-hidden, even though there are people who are still suffering from the wounds of these incidents to this day. Learning stories like this may lead to discomfort as we come to face a distorted tragedy. Nevertheless, I believe that we must uncover and retell the stories like this. History can teach us not to repeat gruesome mistakes and it can also teach us how we can live our lives more responsibly in our present day.

Tensions heighten on the Korean Peninsula

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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.

Minute for Mission: Season of Prayer and Reflection in the Korean Peninsula

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In the early dawn of Sunday, June 25, 1950, without any warning, the Soviet-backed North Korean armed forces crossed over the 38th parallel (an arbitrary line chosen by the World War II victors in Potsdam) and pressed swiftly southward toward the city of Seoul, defying the orders of the Security Council of the United Nations to cease hostilities and withdraw back to the 38th parallel. So began the Korean War, which was one of the bloodiest and most destructive in modern history, leaving millions dead (including some 36,000 Americans) and roughly 43 percent of industrial capacities and 33 percent of residences of South Korea demolished. An estimated 150,000 Christians were also either killed, missing or taken by the North Korean Red Army against their will because of their faith.

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” — Luke 23:42

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