Skip to main content

Cross-Cultural Friendships

Homeward bound, as our plane crosses the international date line, I am reflecting on cross-cultural friendships, specifically those that developed between Rebecca and me and our hosts during this trip.

I knew Se Hyung Lee from Drew and from his participation in a Nouwen retreat I lead a few years ago for United Methodist ministers in Northern New Jersey. And Rebecca had met him when he visited to Drew to see us and set up this trip. But we had not met his son, Jon, a student at Carnegie Mellon University, who met us at the airport and was fully bi-cultural, bilingual, and a delightful host. We felt very close to him and his father on this trip.

Likewise with Rev. Jongbok Kim, senior pastor of Yeonsoo First Methodist Church, and Mrs. Kim, founder of the Elim House retreat center for people with disabilities, where our pastors’ retreat was conducted. Rev. Kim’s humble spirit, Mrs. Kim’s creativity and contagious love for Henri Nouwen as artist, and together their commitment to ‘downward mobility’ and vision for compassionate ministry with the those often neglected by the world, was inspiring and exemplary. The four of us hope to travel together to a world area of need sometime in the future.

Also, Rev. Jong Soo Kim, founding pastor of 3,000 member Seshin Methodist Church, and Mrs. Jong Soo Kim, fluent in English and so proud of their daughter, Soung Ae, a student at Drew, hosted us for two days. The more time we spent together, the closer we all felt to each other, and we began to think about how we could do ministry in the world together, possibly in Malawi, together. Seshin Church already has 50+ missionaries and mission projects worldwide, and a new church plant in Malawi would truly be a great thing to do together.

Finally, I’ve been friends for many years with Younglae Kim, a former professor at Drew and who still teaches in the DMIN program, and now Associate Professor of Christian Education at Methodist Theological Seminary in Seoul. But Rebecca had not met him until this week. Younglae invited her to preach at the Seshin Church where he is an associate pastor, served as her translator, and spent all day Sunday with us. What a friend, and what a gift Younglae is to the church and academy. I’m sure we will continue to do many ministry projects together, in the USA and Korea.

Cross-cultural friends, indeed, are a gift to be received with gratitude, as Henri taught.

Popular posts from this blog

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue

Liberation Spirituality: Henri Nouwen and Gustavo Gutierrez in Dialogue Lecture Notes: Presented by Michael J. Christensen, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministry,  Drew University;  and  International Director, Communities of Shalom, The United Methodist Church Introduction “There is a little man in Peru, a man without any power, who lives in a barrio with poor people and who wrote a book.   In this book he simply reclaimed the basic Christian truth that God became human to bring good news to the poor, new light to the blind, and liberty to the captives.   Then years later this book and movement it started is considered a danger by [the USA, or Rome], the greatest power on earth.   When I look at this little man, Gustavo, and think about [the President of the US, or the Pope], I see David standing before Goliath, again with no more weapon than a little stone, a stone called A The...

First Generation Lambs Club Reunion

Fifteen of us gathered Saturday night at the Lambs Club for a 35 th year reunion of those who helped start the Lamb’s Church in Times Square in the mid to late 1970’s, including: Rev. Paul S. Moore , Founder of the Lamb’s Church of the Nazarene, and his wife, Tamara Dr. Michael J. Christensen , charter member and former associate pastor, and his wife Dr. Rebecca Laird Fr. William (BJ) Webe r, former Associate Pastor and Director of the Lamb’s Residency, and his wife Sheila who lived at the Lamb’s Jim and Dustee Hullinger, who were on staff together and made the Lamb’s their home for over 25 years Effie Canepa , who was the church pianist under 3 pastors, and her husband Peter Shirley Close, who attended the Lamb’s in the late 1970’s while studying, performing  and teaching music and voice Carl "Chappy" Valente , former associate pastor Rev. Bob DiQuatto , lead singer of the Church’s “Manhattan Project” and staff member of the Lamb’s, and his son Jason Rev. Gab...

Let the River Flow: Why WorldHope Corps digs village wells

  Sunday Sermon at the The Water's Edge in OB , San Diego, CA. "Woman at the Well" (John 4:7-15) When you think about the gospel story of the Samaritan woman with Jesus at Jacob’s well, I’d like you to picture this Woman at a similar well in northern Malawi. Sitting and talking with Pastor Dennis Singini about water. Her name is Nyang'oma, which means "drum." Her Christian name is Mary Botha. She is 85 years old and lives in a village in the Kampenda area of Northern Malawi. She has cared for 11 children, two of whom have died. And her husband has died. When Dennis and I first met Mary in 2008, her village did not have a deep well or access to clean water. Nor did the six surrounding villages with over 1,500 people. Women and children had to drink with animals from shallow seasonal wells or walk about of 5km away to drink from the closest stream. Sometimes they would get sick and complain of stomach aches. Cholera and dysentery were widespread, and m...