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Esther’s Internship Story in NCCK
Greetings from the NCCK in Seoul, South Korea! I used this greeting in many of my emails while working in NCCK for a year and an half. Yes, I was an intern for the NCCK Department of Reconciliation and Unification, sent by the Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church as a young adult missionary since March, 2014 up to this July in 2015.
I’ve been thinking for a long time that I would like to deal with the issue of reunification on the Korean peninsula anyway. I hoped to address this issue either through work or study, and to do so as a Korean Christian who seeks to work for peace and justice issue under an ecumenical roof. So that is why for me, it was a great joy and privilege to serve with this historical and significant ecumenical body in Korea specially dealing with one of the most important issues in Northeast Asia and the World. So I was full of confidence and pride throughout my work.
2015 U.S. Young Peoples’ Delegation to South Korea listening to explanation about division history of Korean peninsula and history about Korean ecumenical movement focused on NCCK
2015 U.S. Young Peoples’ Delegation to South Korea
Since NCCK is an ecumenical movement organization for God’s peace and justice for God’s world, then we are dealing with various immediate social issues regarding marginalized peoples. This means NCCK provided the perfect environment in which to learn and experience various social issues. Also since NCCK is a council of churches we are issuing and releasing many theological statements and declarations about sensitive issues around the world. So we have issued very important, meaningful, and powerful documents up to this point, and they have influenced me in many ways. The following is most of what I contributed to the NCCK office during my term. I translated and distributed important documents to the world, of which I feel very proud myself. So this was my daily job which included working on documents and administrative tasks.
Significantly since last September I’ve been worked on organizing a 3-week long “Peace March” project for 300 overseas Korean tailored for 2nd generation immigrant youth and young adults to remind our Korean diaspora of the 70th anniversary both liberation and division of the Korean peninsula. Even though there were some changes to the original plan I’ve been working on this project along with many others through this summer. However, unfortunately, recently it was canceled due to the ‘MERS’ virus issue in Korea. One of the more significant jobs that I have done was coordinating the 2015 U.S. Young Peoples’ Delegation to South Korea project. It was a collaborative project of the Peace with Justice Programs of the Mississippi Annual Conference and South Carolina Annual Conference & the United Nations and International Affairs Ministry of the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church. It was a great privilege to complete this job.
Even though I was very sick and had many personal difficulties last year after returning from my international placement site in Africa I really enjoyed working with NCCK. What I have learned and gained from here is human resource networking related to ecumenical bodies in Korea and the world, as well as experience about facing the peace and justice issues around us under the ecumenical roof. Also my knowledge and thought about peace, justice, and ecumenism have been deepened and widened during my work here. And significantly I could see that ecumenicalism, holiness, and the inner spirit can exist together; and I realized this is the true meaning of the ecumenical movement. Last but not least I would like to send my deepest appreciation to NCCK and UMC who allowed me to have this precious opportunity. God is here with us.
with UMC young adult missionaries
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