Today in the Mission Yearbook - Everyday God-Talk features mission co-workers in Korea

Hyeyoung Lee and Kurt Esslinger share about their work for peace and unity

August 12, 2021

The Rev. Kurt Esslinger and Hyeyoung Lee are PC(USA) mission co-workers in Korea. (Contributed photo)

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.

He realized that God loves us for our differences, rather than in spite of them. This call led Esslinger to study at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, and there he met a student from Korea exploring her own call to ministry, Hyeyoung Lee. She helped introduce him to Korean culture, and this friendship led to marriage and eventually to becoming mission co-workers in Korea.

Hyeyoung Lee and the Rev. Kurt Esslinger have lived and worked as PC(USA) mission co-workers in Korea since 2013. They recently shared more about their ministry on Everyday God-Talk, an online resource of the Office of Theology and Worship hosted by So Jung Kim, associate for theology in the Presbyterian Mission Agency.

Lee studied English in the Philippines before seminary, which inspired her to want to introduce others to new cultures. This experience planted a desire within her to serve as the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer site coordinator in Korea. As YAV site coordinator, Lee works with U.S. young adults ages 19–30 who come to Korea for a year of service with agencies such as peace schools, migrant shelters and multicultural ministries. YAVs engage in the world around them alongside Korean partners in peacemaking, justice-seeking and ministries that aim to dismantle poverty.

Kurt works with the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) and its Reconciliation and Reunification Department, which maintain a relationship with PC(USA) partners in North Korea, the Korean Christian Federation (KCF). Kurt is also the coordinator for the Ecumenical Forum for Peace, Reconciliation and Development Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula (EFK), a forum hosted by the World Council of Churches that facilitates face-to-face meetings between the North Korean KCF and the South Korean NCCK, as well as various other international church and organizational partners.

YAVs who serve in Korea benefit from the perspectives Esslinger and Lee bring to the program. Hyeyoung, a South Korea native, is able to interpret Korean society to the YAVs and helps them bridge the cultural divide. As an alum of the YAV program, Kurt knows firsthand the formative influence YAV service can have on young people.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) began working in Korea more than a century ago and has developed strong partnerships with the Presbyterian Church of Korea (PCK) and the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea (PROK).

Since March 2020, Everyday God-Talk episodes have brought theologians, professors, coaches, church leaders and PC(USA) mission co-workers into video conversations in everyday language through everyday perspectives. The goal is to bridge the gap between what’s happening at church and in everyday life in the U.S. and around the world.

Lee and Esslinger’s two-part Everyday God-Talk can be viewed at these links: Part 1 | Part 2. All episodes are archived here.

If you’d like to suggest a topic for a future Everyday God-Talk episode, reach out to So Jung Kim at sojung.kim@pcusa.org. Take the Everyday God-Talk survey here.

The Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program is an ecumenical, faith-based service opportunity of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) at sites throughout the U.S. and around the world. YAVs ages 19-30 accompany local agencies to embody the Matthew 25 vision of dismantling structural racism, eradicating systemic poverty and building congregational vitality. Alongside this work, volunteers explore the meaning of their Christian faith and accountability to their neighbors in the community with peers and mentors. The YAV year is August to August. Applications are being accepted now. Learn more and apply. (March 1 was the deadline to apply to serve at an international YAV site in 2021–22).

 Tammy Warren, Recently Retired Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff

Alicia Samuels, Vice President of eCommerce & Marketing & Flyaway Books Editorial, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Elizabeth Sanders, Customer Service Representative, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation

Let us pray

Generous God, we give thanks for the loaves and fishes that we receive from you. We are in awe of how you multiply them before our eyes. Help us to see with your eyes where we see a little, you see more than enough. We dedicate our offerings to your glory. Amen.

Today in the Mission Yearbook - Connecting Korea’s past and present for the future of mission

‘Korean-English Dictionary of Presbyterian Missionaries in Korea 1884-2020’ highlights the contributions of 1,000 mission workers

September 25, 2020

Yen Hee and Choon Lim celebrate completion of the first “Korean-English Dictionary of Presbyterian Missionaries in Korea,” covering 136 years of mission in Korea from 1884 to 2020. (Contributed photo)

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.

This book chronicles who came to Korea and what they did as Presbyterian missionaries in Korea over the past 136 years. It highlights about 1,000 Presbyterian missionaries, beginning with Dr. Horace Newton Allen and Frances Ann Allen, who arrived in 1884 as Korea’s first Protestant missionaries. It continues through the decades to mission co-workers Kurt Esslinger and Hyeyoung Lee, who are serving today.

There are two main sections in the book. The first lists missionaries’ names alphabetically, along with brief biographical information. The second lists the missionaries according to the year they arrived in Korea.

The idea to produce a historic compilation of mission workers in Korea had been on the mind and heart of the Rev. Choon Lim, World Mission’s regional liaison for East Asia, since he and his wife, Yen Hee Lim, began their third mission appointment in 2012, serving in Seoul, South Korea.

Since their appointment as PC(USA) mission co-workers in 1991, Choon has been the chief relational bridge connecting global partners in South Korea, North Korea, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Taiwan with the PC(USA), while Yen Hee is engaged in ministry through the home.

Over the years, many Korean Presbyterians have wanted to learn more about their Christian ancestors. Until now there was no such official guidebook in Korea.

“The major problem we confronted in completing this project was deciding who to include in this book,” Choon recently wrote in a letter to mission supporters. “Many Presbyterians came to Korea as missionaries. They were sent by local churches or institutions for different reasons. We decided to include only those who were sent by the Presbyterian Church’s General Assembly.”

The merger of northern and southern branches of the church to create the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in 1983 also made it challenging to find out who belonged to which denomination, Choon said.

The Lims asked Young-gun Choi, a professor at Hannam University, to travel to the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia to assist with the necessary research. He spent one week gathering information, but he was unable to complete the task in that amount of time. Finally, the Lims spent a full week at the Presbyterian Historical Society last August to complete the research.

“Before our visit, we emailed them about our purpose for coming. When we arrived and started to read the wealth of stories of former missionaries, our hearts were touched. We saw their dedication and hard work to spread the Good News to Chinese and Korean people by word and deed. Reading these moving stories gave us the energy to continue our research for seven days, beginning at 9 a.m. and staying on until the building closed. Each evening when we left, our eyes were red and our bodies exhausted — yet the next morning we couldn’t wait to read more stories of mission work,” Yen Hee said.

Many times, while gathering information about the former missionaries, Choon couldn’t stop crying, Yen Hee said, “Those who came to Korea in the early years sacrificed their lives to spread the gospels’ Good News to the Korean people, as the living conditions in Korea at that time were very poor,” she said. “They had to face all kinds of diseases and had to learn the difficult Korean language.”

Choon founded the Korean Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, which began in the Lims’ home. Choon became a deacon, elder, pastor and a mission co-worker of PC(USA) to Korea and Taiwan. After serving World Mission for 30 years, he will retire at the end of 2020.

The timing of the publication of the book, during the COVID-19 pandemic, is a reminder of the importance of staying connected, the Lims said.

Tammy Warren, Communications Associate, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us join in prayer for: 

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Lisa Nelson, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Valéry Nodem, Presbyterian Mission Agency

Let us pray:

God of grace, we ask that you would give us creative ways to serve people so that they may one day claim the hope and joy of abundant life in Christ. Amen.