St Timothy Presbyterian Church

Vibrant church in Etobicoke, Toronto with roots in the Korean immigrant community.

Greatest Challenges of Faith Today

Reflecting on your own faith and that of those around you, what do you think are some of the greatest challenges for faith today? What are the challenges in going into that “deep soil” level of ourselves?

 

I believe the greatest challenge to faith is exactly what I just confirmed. People do not want to be associated with religion because of the bad rap sheet it has accumulated. People are afraid of the things that religion brings with. There is still a lot of misconceptions about religion. Many people still believe because you are Christian you must behave a certain way. But that is simply not true. Because people do not have all of the information, they create assumptions and these assumptions hurt people. People also run away from religion because they find it “stuffy.” There are so many rules and things you cannot do and how you must uphold a certain image. 

I can’t see any other challenge there is for faith today or maybe because I’m not looking for any more problems. I’m not sure as to which one I fit under.

Going into the “deep soil” is much harder than it seems. To be able to connect with the “deep soil” you must be willing to first open your own wall first. We must be vulnerable with each other so that a true connection between people can prosper. We also cannot simply connect with one another with our own power alone. We need the help of Jesus Christ to help with the emptying process. Through Christ alone, anything is possible. 

– Joshua Chung

I think in today’s society, we have really come to value certainty, facts, and knowledge. We strive to be the best and to do that we need to be able to stand on things that are indisputable, rather than things we just believe to be true. I think also, in order to be the best, we need to show the best sides of ourselves, which is almost always the top soil level of ourselves. We never want to show weakness, because in a lot of ways, that means people will be seeing things that could make them doubt us. We’re very extrinsically motivated, and it’s a sad statement but we look for things that will satisfy us in the short-term. I think also, because we all have a selfish want to be the best, it manifests itself into ugly behaviour which makes it easier for us to hurt other people. We never want to be hurt and we never want to feel like people have the power to hurt us, so we put up walls and hide ourselves as much as possible. Also, in today’s day, religion is used to harm and to hate so much and that’s all that people really see, so it’s no wonder people would rather live a secular life. I think there are so many factors that make faith a challenge, but for me personally the biggest one is just that I can’t be sure of anything, and since I won’t ever know, what’s the point in searching?

– Jocelyn Chung

I think the greatest challenges for faith today is probably doubt. I say this from personal experience, but there have been so many times within my own faith journey where I had so much doubt, whether it be like the actual doubt on if God is actually real and the other doubt where i’m going through something so difficult there’s no way God would put me through something like this if he was real. I don’t actually know if this is the right answer for this question, but thats like how I thought of it when I read the question. I really do think doubt is one of the greatest challenges for faith today, and even during this summer throughout the countless number of group discussions we’ve had, i’m pretty sure doubt came up in majority of the discussions. Like it’s something that I feel people don’t really think of as a challenge until they go through like the whole deep reflection and break down of their own faith. Some challenges in going into the “deep soil” level of ourselves is fear. For myself, I can confidently say that for me it’s fear of what I’m going to have to come across and actually face after I uncover and go into that “deep soil” level of myself. There are so many things to myself that I choose to just ignore and kind of leave buried deep inside of me, and just reassure myself no one will ever find out, nor will i have to come face to face with it if I just leave it down there. But, to actually uncover that “deep soil” level of yourself, you need to get past that fear and really bring out all the deep and maybe even negative things of yourself. It’s easier said than done obviously, that’s why it’s so hard for people to even get to that “deep soil” level, myself included.  

– Monica Park

It is so easy to compartmentalize in today’s world. It’s hard to keep a selfless and empathetic heart in the ‘real world’ because everything is so competitive and harsh. Personally, I’ve always felt that battle between my mind at church and mind outside of church. How are we supposed to be selfless in a selfish world? How are we supposed to have faith if we are selfish? How can we live today if we don’t help ourselves? How can we follow Jesus if we only help ourselves? The outside world conflicts so much with what God says we should do, it makes it hard to keep your faith strong. 

I think that fear is really what stops us from going into that ‘deep soil’. We are afraid of rejection, that others won’t reciprocate, that our struggles or negative traits will be shared among everyone and we will be embarrassed. That fear prevents us from openly sharing all that we are going through including our burdens and what we don’t like about ourselves. Another challenge is creating that environment. Usually, people are reluctant to share and go deeper because it’s harder. It’s easy to have fun and make jokes and show the likeable and acceptable parts of yourself. It’s hard to do the other and go deeper.

– Sarah Choe

I think the greatest challenge is being uneducated. I think my faith has gotten a lot deeper through bible studies, reflections, and mission trips. Before the summer of 2018, my faith was pretty low, mostly because I didn’t know much, my knowledge was small. I was born into a church, went to church every Sunday, but I didn’t have the greatest faith. But after doing all those things, it has helped me to learn more about what it means to have faith of Christ and being in the light. I think that if you don’t do those things, it will be hard to have a deeper faith. Going out to church every Sunday is great, but actually studying the bible, and understanding it is better. You need to have faith before going into the deeper level of ourselves or the higher order. I also think that going away for school is a big factor in your faith. Although I didn’t personally go away, I know that other people have struggled a lot with their faith throughout the school year.

– April Chia

I think that the greatest challenge for faith today, especially among those in their youth is making the decision to fully commit our lives to God and combine our spiritual mind and our regular mind. For a lot of youth, I feel like making that commitment is very scary, and in a world of technology, a lot of us like to see to believe. In addition, I feel like life is very busy these past few generations, and it feels easier to push God aside until we are comfortable, but who knows when we will be comfortable or if we ever will become comfortable. The topic of religion is a difficult one to think about and we as a society have seemed to reward instant gratification more, but that will probably deter many people from religion as it is all about the process, not the outcome.

– Paul Jang

 

I think the greatest challenge for our faith journeys is overcoming the fear we have. We’re insecure, we think too much about what others think of us, and we don’t like being vulnerable.  I think it’s because we’re just not used to it. We don’t do it often enough. We have a tendency to close ourselves off because we’re scared of not being accepted. We create false illusions and hide behind masks to make us more “normal” or “likeable” because we don’t want others to see the flaws we have. We’re ashamed of our flaws, and we’re too scared of showing others our true selves.

Another challenge is feeling okay sharing. Timing might feel awkward, and you might feel out of place sharing your struggles, but that’s what we really need to get to the “deep soil” level of ourselves. It helps us to reflect upon our lives and share how we really feel inside. The “deep soil” interactions can only be done if we get past feeling awkward about sharing. 

I think that we need to work as a community to intentionally create those deeper bonds. We need to break down our walls and take off the masks. In doing so, we can live in solidarity with one another, being of the same mind and the same heart.

– Lauren Lee

Personally, I think the greatest challenges for faith today are the outside world and ignorance. There is too much going on in the outside world and there is so much ignorance towards religion and faith that many people choose to dismiss it too quickly and automatically assume that all Christians are crazy etc. I’d imagine it’s difficult for Hi-C and College around me to have solid faith and belief when everything around them is telling them that what they believe in is hocus. 

The challenges of going into that deep soil level of ourselves are that too many people are afraid, insecure and have their fences up. To each their own, some people have more dark deep soil than others but I feel like people are just too afraid to expose themselves. People are too afraid to be their true selves around others. People are too focused on the selfish, greedy aspects to themselves. Many things that people do is for their own selfish conceit, they’re too engrossed by focusing on themselves that they forget how to interact with others on a deep soil level. The way society is structured and the world tells people to live their lives is creating the greatest challenge for people to share on a deep soil level.

– Joel Chung

I think there are so many challenges for faith today, however something that really stood out to me was just the nature of how society is. We are constantly being overstimulated and are used to instant gratification, so when something so abstract appears and we need to seek and struggle with it and even then we may not get the answer; people don’t want that. Especially with this “YOLO” mentality highly popularized, it’s difficult to convince people otherwise. The thought that this is their only lives and so they have to make it count and enjoy it while it lasts, it can hinder people from further seeking the truth because this “truth” may not be what they want. And who even knows if any of this is true? Would you spend your whole life trying to seek the answer or just accept that you don’t know and live life how you want? Most people would choose and have already chosen the latter of the two, however we as Christians have this faith and belief that there is a God and that we all have a higher purpose from just having fun. I know it seems very enticing to just enjoy life and not think about the consequences yet, however there is still an innate desire in people to find this truth and meaning behind our lives and to determine if there even is one.

I feel like one of the challenges in going into that “deep soil” level of ourselves is that we need to then come to terms with and face our “deep soil” level selves, which is very difficult to do. I feel like no one really wants to admit that their weak or flawed and sometimes we have thoughts and feelings that we may not be proud of and so we hide these deep down within ourselves. I know a lot of my doubts were kept within my subconscious and whenever it started to make an appearance I would push it back because I almost felt ashamed of having these thoughts. We are often so pressured to achieve this ideal, perfect image, however this may not be who we truly are. It’s important to come to terms with this as what we are is beautiful and perfect in our own ways. If there are things that we are not happy with, pushing it down and ignoring it isn’t the way that it gets resolved. Accepting it for what it is and progressing from there is when we can begin to unravel our “deeper soil” selves.

– Elisabeth Jong

I think the greatest challenge for faith today for most people is having faith all the time. For example, people can lose faith when they start to live a too depressed/content life. If you’re too content, sometimes you start to forget your blessings and start to become spoiled when trouble comes, you come back to begging for forgiveness. As well as when you start to see your life less valuable or get angry because life isn’t fair, you start to blame others and lose faith in God. I think maintaining an unwavering mind like St Paul is something many people will have trouble achieving. I think a challenge that may stop us from going into the “deep soil” is ourselves. We get too caught up with what we think we need to do like the prerequisites and forget why we wanted to achieve the “deep soil” in the first place. 

– Joie Kim

Saskatoon Post-Mission Reflection

INTRODUCTION

This summer, we were blessed with the opportunity to go on mission to Saskatchewan. It was a tough yet enriching experience where we were able to learn more about the history of residential schools and the ramifications that persist today. Working directly alongside individuals who are part of this history gave us some insight into the lives of those who are still, to this day affected by discrimination and marginalization. We are extremely grateful for the opportunity that God has blessed us with, so that we may continue to bless others. Here is a compiled e-book of some of our reflections that we would like to share from our time in Saskatoon. Enjoy!

-Elisabeth, Monica, Doyeon, Torrance, Paul and Joel

REFLECTION

EMOTIONAL AND PROCESSING REFLECTION

After a full two weeks of sensory, emotional and mental stimulation, what are some feelings and emotions you are sensing within you in relation to the mission trip? Why do you think you have such feelings and emotions?

Among the many feelings and emotions we are sensing within ourselves, one that stood out was the feeling of gratefulness. Feeling grateful, not for our lives, but really grateful that we had the opportunity to do this, and meet all those campers and counsellors. Just meeting people from a different province gives you a whole new perspective on life and made us realize that this world is so vast. We didn’t leave Canada, yet it felt like we were meeting people that lived such different lives. We are grateful that God has allowed us to meet and interact and share our stories with one another.

We’re also filled with a feeling of sadness that we probably won’t see many of these kids or counsellors ever again. Truly they were all such good people at heart and we regret having reservations or judgements when we first met. The recurring feeling of guilt is present as we felt like we could’ve gone into everything with a more positive mindset and purer heart and intention. Our only hope is that through feeling such guilt towards all the things that we have done, it will stick with us more that way we may learn from these all and grow together as a community and people of this church.

THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION

He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

How do you think the Lord “send[ing] our laborers into his harvest” relates to the mission trip you just experienced?

The Lord “send[ing] our laborers into his harvest” relates to the mission trip I just experienced because the mission trip was basically me being sent to go serve another community outside of mine. In a sense I guess you could say it was all part of the calling from God and our journey of seeking signs . Being called towards something in your life through God, is basically what happened for this whole mission trip. Being apart of this internship was one calling, and then the mission trip being apart of the internship and us actually going to serve is another calling we all received. The Lord is sending his people out into missions to go and serve and spread the love and word of God, that’s what this whole Saskatchewan mission was all about.

Missionaries don’t send themselves, missionaries don’t get sent by people, missionaries get sent by God. God sent the 6 of us to do work and serve in Saskatchewan in various areas. Every single day it felt like we were doing work to help others or to be a positive presence for others. The first week was VBS, every single day we did VBS where we helped out Martha and hung out with the kids. We also did the inner-city mission where we helped serve food to the locals in the area. The second week we provided helping hands at Camp Christopher by being counsellors. All three of those things required all of us to be there, present and engaged. I think we were able to touch the lives of a handful of campers and VBS kids, it may not have felt like it in the moment, but looking back it’s easier for me to see that we actually did do a lot of good for a lot of the kids. If they were the harvest, we were sent to them to harvest joy and love out of them and provide it for them at the same time.

Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.” (Luke 10:3)

What resonances do you find from this verse with your mission experience?

We are so sheltered, like lambs, we are always under the watch of someone who can protect us. We are given everything and are kept safe. Like many of us who went on the mission trip, we have been blessed with a life where we don’t need to worry about things other than material, and social needs. We don’t need to worry about where we are going to live, our parents, or what tomorrow might bring. We worry about our own future in the sense of friends, and job security. It’s hard for us to put our shoes in the place of people who worry about what to eat, or what dangers come in the future.

The scripture resonates with our mission trip, as we are the lambs, however I don’t see wolves as just the people we were going to be meeting on the mission trip, rather I saw it as the mission trip as a whole. We were travelling alone, we needed to do everything for ourselves, we for the first time thought what we needed to eat, what troubles may come from working for the people who were in need, the dangers- it was all very scary and new to many of us. The sheltered life we have been provided doesn’t really prepare us for these kinds of things, the wolf is something a lamb is not experienced with, and when your put face to face with it, you’re unsure what to do. You can teach and teach what to do in new situations that we will come to experience, however there is no better teacher than experiencing it live and in person.

I think this verse really reminded me of our time at Camp Christopher. When we first arrived, we really had no idea what was going on. It felt like we were thrown out into the wilderness with no help. The other counsellors at the time were upset at us at the time and talking negatively about us behind our backs, and it seemed like a hopeless situation because we didn’t know what to do and we couldn’t ask them for help because it felt like they hated us. It honestly felt like we were under attack and there was a night where I’m pretty sure all of us felt like giving up.

Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ 6 And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you.” (Luke 10:5)

What were some moments where your peace was shared? How did that feel, and how would you describe this “peace”?

I think the biggest moments where my peace was shared was during the first week of my mission trip. When helping out with the VBS at St. Andrews church it was amazing how receptive and loving the kids were. It felt like every day when we would “peace to this house” they would happily share in it and our peace truly rested on them in the way that I would find peace in them and the interactions between us.

It definitely felt like a more rewarding and enjoyable experience as this “peace” felt more like appreciation, acceptance and in a way affirmed that the work I was doing truly made a difference. This just generally made working with the kids and alongside my other peers not feel like work. I looked forward to each day I would get to spend with these kids and treasured the moments we would spend together. I didn’t feel like something we were forced into doing, but something that we wanted to do voluntarily with the sole purpose for the kids. I wasn’t drained, unmotivated, I found peace in those kids and in the people around me.

Peace can be anything in my opinion. It could be a simple blessing, grace, or greeting. During our first campfire with all the campers and counsellors of Camp Christopher, we had a prayer circle. I said a prayer, saying thanks to God and wishing for everyone to be safe and have a great time. I had a stronger emotion than what I usually have when I pray. I think this kind of peace can be described as a simple prayer of blessing, just as saying “Peace to this house!”.

PASTORAL REFLECTION

How can you open yourself to experience more of God’s grace?

I did not exactly have the smoothest experience with my faith and my life up until now and having more struggle building on top of that in such a short period of time, I see myself keep trying to push everything down, such as trust and emotions. I think I need to really open up to God first to experience more of his grace, and I think the only thing I need is more time and less walls.

I think we are called to listen and empathize. Of course, many of us have not lived through their pain and hardships yet we can still empathize. By listening and empathizing we demonstrate our natural curiosity, interest and care for them and their lives. If they can sense that there are people from around the world who care enough to listen and pay attention, that right there is good reassurance for them. Our goal as Christians is not to listen to what they have to say and

How has in-person interactions given new meaning or insight to what you studied prior to the mission trip?

In person interactions have given so much more meaning than research could ever offer. A lot of the research we did was focused on the history of residential schools and the involvement of the church’s it was a look to the past and there was not much information we could find about present day first nations peoples. I still am grateful that I studied the history of it all because it helped me understand the current context of today and how all the ramifications from the past are still present. I then talked to a handful of individuals who are first nations and it helped me realize that all the research I did was very legit and a lot of the pain from the past still exists today.

The in-person interactions has taught me that no factual learning and understanding of culture can prepare you for the new hurt many of these newer generations feel. You read the basic hurt story of a few and you assume that it’s textbook reconciliation, follow the rules and steps to creating a relationship. Newer generations of hurt are so much more complex than that, certain aspects repel these children- there are a diverse number of things that are happening to them, you can’t treat every child like they are the same problem that needs to be solved. Reconciliation and love is so much more ambiguous than that, you must find what works for each and every individual and hopeful you may reach out to them.

I failed to realize just how much impact these school had on future generations. One specific example is how demanding a handful of the kids were to us. On numerous occasions I would have girls calling me and ordering me to come to them and take them places and at first I did find it quite strange, however when I look back I start to connect a few dots. Of course this is mainly just speculation but this is essentially what I recently thought:

At the residential schools, a lot of the kids were probably ordered around and told what to do and where to go in a very strict manner and once they left these schools they probably took that sort of relationship with them. As a result they could’ve treated their children in the same manner and these kids could’ve adopted this sort of interaction as their norm and not see any problem with it. What we find a bit rude, they might find completely normal.

In general, I think I noticed just how far these schools have affected and how much it has as well, as I haven’t even began to touch upon the drug abuse and physical abuse that the kids attending these camps endure on a day-to-day basis.

From your direct experience, what are some challenges with healing and reconciliation?

I think some challenges with healing and reconciliation is that there’s still not sufficient help or support that is being given to the First Nations community. Though the churches have admitted to their wrongdoings and churches like the pcc and united church worked together to co-run the camp we got to stay at, I feel like there still isn’t even that is being given to help these families and individuals. Hearing so many stories about how half of these children come from families where their parents are either physically abusive or are drug addicts, I’m pretty that started from the trauma their parents received when they were children and so on. Meaning, there isn’t enough early action being done to help these families or even children who are apart of such families.

Schools teach compassion, but they never teach you to understand hurt. Ultimately, sometimes I feel like it’s not something that’s taught, but learned from experience, and like many of us who have been on the mission trip, we see that compassion is harder to understand as we can’t find the same experiences of hurt that these people feel, it feels so foreign. I want to say I understand, but I know I don’t, sometimes I want to tell them I never will understand exactly how they feel, but I understand that they are stronger than I ever will be, but I really want to just make a relationship with them. I want them to truly understand that I come from a place of understanding and true compassion. I don’t want to just make them feel satisfied, I want them to feel what I feel, honestly I don’t even know if I’ll ever learn how to do this, but it’s something that always itches the back of my brain, how can I really show them my true feelings of empathy for them?

I feel like there are so many hardships and obstacles when it comes to healing and reconciliation for something of this extent. For starters, I feel like since it has been going on for so long and we are all still in the process of reconciling, it’s a bit harder for those we are trying to mend the broken ties with to maybe see the intentions or thought process behind reaching out. I don’t know if they all really realize why it is that we are doing what we are doing and I don’t even know if the thought of why even occurred to them. Not only is simply not being aware a challenge, but also since it was such a long time ago, I feel like it’s a bit difficult to sort of bring up the topic of the residential school in an organic and natural way. Also in terms of healing, I feel like it came very easily come across as pretentious if some outsider city kids just waltz in and ask what’s your problems and then try to fix you. I’m sure that there could be some who recognize that our intentions are pure, but a lot of them might even be reluctant to accept our help for their own various, personal reasons. In addition to all of these, I feel like just in general change is hard. Especially because their lives have been established for such a long duration, it just increases the difficulty to break out of that cycle and heal.

How do you think we as Christians are called to respond in these in-person encounters?

One of the biggest takeaways I got from all the interviews with the people working in the PCC office was to listen. I think when we are truly interested and receptive to the things that they say, they can sense that and sometimes venting or letting things kept inside of ourselves out can be very healing. So through being that person who is fully engaged and open to listening, maybe that is how we can respond to those in difficult situations. To be there when they are ready to share, all on their own time.

Reciprocate the love we have been given to these children, sometimes kids love to talk about themselves, sometimes the hurt is something they put a barrier over, whatever the kids are talking about, just listen to it with your whole heart. Kids are young, sometimes they don’t pick up things, but one thing kids will always feel is your engagement and honest excitement to listen to them. The elders are harder to reach out to, they’ve lived out their whole lives, some have felt more love than others, some believe that it’s everyone for themselves, no matter what kind of person you deal with, no matter the hostility, offer your peace on to them, they may take what you give, but throw the peace back in your face, that’s fine. I believe that helping those who need it no matter how rude or kind they are all deserve the same respect.

KCWA Summer 2019 Reflections

At KCWA, the interns took part in helping run a program for seniors called Empower Us Project: Increasing Senior Community Participation through Storytelling. We got to work closely with the leader of this project, Christina Hyejin Yoon, as well as the seniors involved. Through several workshops, we learned more about the senior’s lives and experiences as well as practiced for the upcoming interviews. During the interviews, the interns recorded the seniors as they told us their stories from their immigration journey. These videos will be edited and some will be uploaded to Youtube! We are so blessed to be a part of this project as it helps us to connect to our roots and learn more about the generation that paved the way for us.

What We Did

Today was an orientation day. When we arrived, we were each given a specific role. I was given the role of usher, so I had to escort the elders to their seats and make sure each table was filled properly. After everyone was settled, Christina began her presentation. It was quite similar to the presentation she gave a couple days prior, however she gave us opportunities to ask questions and get to know the elders we were sitting with. The elders were asked to bring in photographs from the past that they could explain and talk about. It was a lot of listening, but their stories were very interesting. We also played various team-building activities with the elders, and developed hand signals that we are to use while interviewing to communicate with them. We helped out with cleaning up, and then we were allowed to leave.

 – Jason Jang

Today Jonathan and I went to KCWA from 9:30 to 12:30 and we had a panel meeting with Christina and Mr. Kang Shin Bong. The other panel elder couldn’t make it. We went over and decided the questions that would be asked during the meeting, got to listen to many of Mr. Kang’s stories, and discussed more details about the project like interviews and videos. Most of it was honestly just listening to Mr. Kang – which was a bit harder because Jonathan and I really had to concentrate and understand what was being said – and not much talking. I shared a lot of my ideas near the end when he left with Christina, who was much more open-minded and encouraged us to share our ideas.

 – Kaitlin Lee

Today, we were with the seniors again and went through another presentation with Christina. As everyone was coming in, Joie, Kayla, and I were assigned to give them their name tags, some papers with questions on them, and a nice kcwa pen. After, we began to go over questions that may be asked to them and recorded them on our phones and interviewing them to get an idea of how it would be when we actually do it. It was pretty simple, JRho would ask them a question, they would answer, and I would be holding my phone recording them as they spoke and I did not understand.

 – Matthew Lee 

When we got there, David and I were tasked with organizing the answers to a survey that the interns as well as the seniors did into a spreadsheet. It was a pretty menial task, but most of the surveys were in Korean, and as neither of us speak Korean, we struggled a little there. Afterwards, we went downstairs to set up interview rooms to prepare for our interviews with seniors, and I interviewed one lady.

 – Jocelyn Chung

 

What We Learned

I had a lot of fun today and was able to learn many things about what we are going to do in the future and also about Korean immigrants. I found it very interesting when I learnt about some of the reasons why people immigrated to Canada because some of the reasons that were pointed out to me, I didn’t really think about them. I’m really glad I got this opportunity because this way I can learn a lot more about the Korean culture and actually get an idea about it from someone who knows a lot about Korean culture and have been able to experience it themselves. I am looking forward to the next couple weeks where I can really experience the things we talked about today.

 – Kayla Rho

At first I was a bit nervous about interacting with the seniors because my korean is quite limited to basic conversations. However, I had great teammates like Jonathan, Kaitlin, and Hannah who helped me if I didn’t know something. The “Empower Us Project” seems quite interesting because the theme of this project is fairly relevant to most interns in our program including myself. I think it’ll be interesting listening to the stories from the seniors because I remember my grandmother would always talk about how hard it was to live in the old country in Korea.

 – Joie Kim

Today was a really amazing experience for me. I was able to meet many people that have stories about their immigration process and settling process; all experiences I would never even be able to imagine, something that I can only experience through books or movies. I was also able to meet two seniors that knew my late grandfather. This was really interesting as I was never able to meet my grandpa, and these people who knew about this person that I had never met, was a really weird, yet exciting feeling. It was also super interesting and heart-warming to hear about the seniors immigrant stories, hearing how they accomplished so much during a time when it must have been so hard for immigrants, especially from Korea. I think today was really empowering, and even though it was exhausting having to adjust to what the seniors wanted, their stories really gave me the motivation to work really hard for this project.

 – Hannah Lee

I really wish I could speak Korean. Even with the language barrier, I think I gained a greater appreciation or admiration for what the elders went through. Even though we studied it, hearing those stories from real people made so much more of an impact. They went through so much, and yet they are mostly really happy and thankful people. I look up to them for that. I’m really excited to do the interviews and to keep on talking to the elders and getting to know them better. 

 – Sarah Choe

My thoughts on today was that it was a great experience that really opened my eyes. I never really thought about my identity (Korean or Canadian), I always thought I was Canadian with Korean heritage. But after learning more about how our grandparents and other korean elders immigrated to Canada, I have a new appreciation for their dedication and perseverance. Without them, we wouldn’t be here today and I could only imagine how hard it was to come to a new language with a young family, no understanding of the language, no jobs and no friends or people they know. I feel really thankful and blessed and I really want to do a great job to capture all of these amazing stories. 

 – David Kim

About my participation as a volunteer in the senior meeting with Joie, Hannah and Kaitlin, when I think back to it I remember it as very hectic. The real challenge was being placed in an unfamiliar environment and being tasked to work right away. I was caught off guard and had a little difficulty familiarizing myself with what kind of work I was doing and my surroundings. To top it all off, at least 90% of it was Korean and since both the manager and Christina had expected us to be able to speak and understand Korean, I worked my very best to live up to their expectations of us. All in all, everything went smoothly as all four of us worked efficiently and covered for each other’s weaknesses which makes me proud and grateful for my familiar team. The other notable event was being elected as a Panel with Kaitilin for our team. At least in my eyes, most of the team seemed very unenthusiastic about being the panel as it required extra dedication and having to comprehend and speak Korean fluently in meetings. I didn’t want our Hi-C team to radiate that energy and leave a bad impression on Christina so I pushed myself to prove otherwise. In the end I was nominated to be the Panel in which in a sense excites me. I’m eager to work hard and show what we St. Tims can do! However, it is inconvenient in where I live, and I lose almost the entirety of my Summer, especially when this is the only Summer I’m spending in Canada in my “high school career”. Nonetheless, I’m looking forward for the challenge and happy that I was nominated because I believe the experience and opportunity greatly outweigh the negative inconveniences.

 – Jonathan Rho

 

Click to see more content from the 2019 Summer Interns!

Internship 2019

Saskatoon Post-Mission Reflection eBook

Hi St. Timothy ESM and KSM congregation,

We are the Saskatchewan mission trip team and we compiled an e-book together summarizing our collective post mission trip reflections, hope you enjoy!

Click on the image below to read our eBook!

 

St. Timothy Presbyterian Church, 106 Ravenscrest Dr., Etobicoke, ON M9B 5N3

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