Interview with Abigail Reed and Lydia Yang, Global Mission Interns

To help me reflect on my experiences as a mission co-worker, let me share with you an interview I did earlier in this year with two of my colleagues in the PROK, Lydia and Abigail, who are serving as Global Mission interns with Global Ministries (the joint mission agency of the United Church of Christ in the USA and the Christian Church, Disciples of Christ in USA and Canada.)

At the time of this interview, Lydia had been in Korea 23 months and Abigail 20 months. Lydia, who is from California, arrived in Korea speaking some Korean, as her parents were born in Korea; Abby, who is from Ohio, arrived in Korea speaking no Korean, but has learned a little along the way.

Lydia and Abigail in Seoul

John: Let’s start by having you both say a little bit about what it was like coming to Korea. What was that experience like for you at the very beginning?

Abby: My initial coming to Korea was a little stressful because I was having problems with my visa. We thought it was set, but then it wasn’t set. And then I had to go to Chicago to get things sorted out, yada yada. And then I flew out, literally, a day after my visa was approved. And so then I came to Korea, and arriving was kind of stressful because it was COVID, and I didn’t know any Korean and I came through security and they were like, “go here,” “go there.” I was like, “What if I go the wrong way and I’ve got COVID and I’m not quarantining correctly?” But once I got to the hotel it was pretty nice because I could just adjust and watch things out my window and get used to the time change.

Lydia: For me, I had been planning to come in December or January, but then it just kept being pushed back because of COVID. And then, all of the sudden, they’re like you can go, and then there was frantic packing and stuff. Arriving was definitely stressful because it was the first time for the PROK to figure out the quarantine process for someone coming in. The one big thing for me was that I got stuck at the airport for sixteen hours because I arrived at 5 am with a slightly high fever, because the plane was hot and stuffy, and when I came they took my temperature, and they’re like, “You have a small fever.” And I was like, oh gosh. I knew enough Korean to get through, but they were like, “Oh, she should be able to speak fluent Korean and do all these documents,” but I wasn’t confident enough to do all that. They sent me to the airport detention centre where they kept people who were being tested, and I was there for the whole day. I didn’t arrive at my hotel until 8 pm. So it was very exhausting. But like Abby, being in quarantine for two weeks allowed me to adjust to the time shift and being in a new place.

John: Tell me a little bit about your placements.

Lydia: Basically my placement is broken up into three categories. I’m at the PROK General Assembly office two times a week; I’m at the PROK Woman’s Association once a week; and then I’m also at Durebang*, which is a mission program centre of the Woman’s Association, two times a week. Without going into much detail, in general at each placement, I’m kind of just involved in each place. And like, if there are any events, I attend those events.

[*Durebang= “My Sister’s Place,” a counselling centre that works to eliminate human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation within camptowns and to challenge militarism.]

Abby: So I’ve had two placements now, both have been teaching English at a church, but my role within both has been different. The first one was in Haenam, where my role was more on the church side of it, like sitting in the church office helping with things but then also teaching at their private English education centre. And then my new placement is strictly teaching. Although I am working at a church, all of my time is at their alternative school, teaching English classes, and also working at the day-care for the school and doing things like phonics and stuff like that.

John: What have you learned during your time here?

Abby: I think it’s made me have a slightly better understanding of my belief in Christianity and my role within the church. But it has also sometimes made me more confused! One of the things that I struggled with, coming into Global Ministries, was just the idea of how many variations of Christianity and beliefs there are, and so, working in a setting that’s different from my home church, I’m like “Wow, there’s even more!” There has been a change in my perspective about how important things like community are, and youth involvement in the church, and things like that. I’ve also learned technical things, like how to be a better teacher and more about what I want to do once I leave Global Ministries, like what direction I want to take.

Lydia: There’s a lot. I think a big part of my time in Korea has been related to my Korean identity. Korea wasn’t my first choice as a placement. I had a lot of worries that would come with me being in Korea, like, negative preconceived notions I had of how my experience would be, just being Korean, but not being Korean enough. And so there was a struggle for me in the beginning. During my time here, though, I’ve been able to experience a lot that has been really good for me, experiencing more about Korean culture and the dynamics of what goes on here, learning where I am in my Korean identity—growing up, that was always a missing part for me. I had a lot of experience with Korean churches in the US. They were all very great and I liked going but there was also a lot of negative stuff to it, and then coming to Korea the PROK was a big surprise to me, just about how big they were on social justice issues, and not as conservative as I thought they would be. And especially, the church I attend is very different from what I had always thought Korean churches were like, that's been great. Just the general church aspect has been very interesting. I'm still learning a lot.

John: Any message about global mission you want to share with folks?

Lydia: Just how important opportunities like the global mission program is for young adults our age. It's been such a big learning experience for me, being able to meet a lot of people from all over the world, and from other parts of the US. It's important to have opportunities like this which are really supportive for young people in their 20s who are trying to figure out their life.

Abby: That's a good answer. I think similar to Lydia. It's important for people, especially young adults, to take the initiative themselves to figure out their stances on things. The church, for example—there's a lot of opinions in the US about it. And I know a lot of young adults are not going to church anymore because they see one perspective of it. And they're like, “This is the church, I'm done with it.” But then this experience has allowed me to see other perspectives and be like, “Okay, this is what I like, this is what I don't like, this is the church that I want to be a part of,” type of thing. And I think that it's important for everyone to take that step themselves, not just with religion, but with anything, because there's so many different things that people need to have opinions on. So my message is, just remember that you can make that choice yourself and go and find it.

Lydia: My experience of Global Ministries is that they gave us a kind of a framework, an outline of how this program is run, but then also gave us a lot of freedom and independence, to be able to decide how we want our experience to be. Having that independence has helped foster in me a lot more of what I want to do, what I think and my own ideals.

John: Can you give a specific example?

Lydia: There is our recent trip to Japan. I know a lot of programs that are like, “No, you're here in Korea, you can't leave the country,” but Global Ministries was very supportive of us going to Japan for a couple of weeks. And that was a big part of being able to do it, planning out our own schedule and our own itinerary for this trip, but also getting support from Global Ministries. This was important because our trip to Japan was about both of us learning more things about Global Ministries, as well as being able to go somewhere and meet other partners of Global Ministries and mission co-workers.

John: I am particularly interested in hearing how your experiences have been similar or different, given Lydia’s Korean background - how do the two compare?

Lydia: Being able to speak a little bit of Korean has been kind of helpful in my placement, and has defined where I'd be going and the type of work I would be doing. My Korean skills weren't that great at the beginning, yet there was the expectation that people had that I should be able to get around and be able to hold steady conversation and stuff. Most of the time I was like, “Okay, whatever,” but once or twice I felt like there was a slight disappointment—“Oh, she’s more American than we thought.” It was a little bit of a conflict for me—having to learn to not really care, how to let go of the disappointment that I feel people are feeling when they realize that I've not as Korean as they want. It's been a kind of internal struggle for me, especially in the beginning.

Abby: For me it was very different, as a white woman from America. Just as Lydia is kind of judged for not speaking Korean, if I say even one Korean word, they're like, Oh, good job! and all I said was hello. So the bar is set super, super low on my abilities, because of where I'm from. Even if I were to choose to not learn Korean, they'd still be like, “Oh, that's okay, you're doing great!” It's kind of an uncomfortable low.

John: I think for both of you, coming to terms with your American identity in Korea was an important growing edge—how did you navigate that?

Lydia: That was definitely a big part of my work when I was at Durebang, because of the US military involvement in Korea and the social effects. Listening to some of the women’s stories and knowing that my own country is the ones who did this has been kind of iffy. I've had some thoughts about the feeling of how privileged I am as a Korean American—realizing that just being able to have grown up in the US was a big privilege. Especially because some of the clients have lived in the US or have gone to the US and a lot of their experience has been very negative. And so for me, to recognize the privilege of having grown up as an American person, with all that entails as an American citizen, has been a struggle. Just having to learn that history, I think has been a challenge, but also a very good eye opening to what it really means to be an American, in different countries.

Abby: I try to make it so people are not praising me for tiny little things like using chopsticks—like learning Korean and trying to understand the culture better. So the focus is on me learning about Korea. This is something I struggle with while working abroad in some settings, especially working in the church under the terms “missionary” and “mission co-worker,” because of the history of it. So I do what I can to be more comfortable with that history. Creating that cultural exchange of me learning Korean, of me learning about the church and making the connections with the people I'm working with—that’s how I've been trying to navigate it better.

John: If there were people back in the US who were thinking about applying for the program, what advice would you give them? Would you encourage them to apply?

Abby: Personally, I think they should do it if they are thinking about it, because I know for me, I thought about it and then I decided to do something else. And then I still ended up back here because I was like “Wait, no, I want to do this.” I know for me when I applied, I applied just kind of open-ended. I didn't necessarily care what work I did or where I went. This is a good decision to make sometimes, but knowing more about what you want to get out of the internship before going in would be a good thing to have. That way you know more what to expect when you're in the internship because when you go in open-ended, you're like, “Okay, this is happening, ... but wait, is this supposed to be happening?” Because I didn't really know beforehand. Reaching out, talking to people that are in the program, or even just doing your own research, is a better way to go.

Lydia: My answer is similar to Abby’s. A big part of my reason to come was to give myself a break between graduating college and grad school or whatever, learning and experiencing the world. And an opportunity like this doesn’t come often. Being able to explore the world and see new things and experience new things learning about yourself, I think it’s so important. I thought that a year would be a long time—but it’s not long.

John: One last question: What was your most important learning while you were here in Korea?

Abby: For me, it is to be more understanding when I talk to people and not having a preconceived notion of where a conversation is going to go. Especially with working in ESL, when I am working with students, I don't correct them on every little thing, because I know that English isn't their first language and they're trying to learn. And then when I am speaking in Korean with young adults, they're accepting of me if I say random words in a sentence, they're like, “Okay, I understand now,” rather than like having to be perfect at something. I am more understanding, and take my time, because that is more important. It’s not like, “You have to be perfect in English or I’m not going to speak to you,” or vice versa in Korean. Language is important, but there are ways to communicate if language isn't there, you just have to allow that space to exist. I've been thinking a lot about that lately.

Lydia: Personally, I keep coming back to this—learning more about myself. But other than that, it's really about how important communication is, learning more about how to communicate better with people. Especially having to navigate the different cultural barriers and backgrounds that comes with communication. Abby said it better than me, so I agree with Abby's answer!