Hello, my name is Jong Han (Abraham) Lee, the younger brother of Jong Eun Lee (who used to go to Jubilee, I think, between 2011 and 2014?).
Just like my brother, I grew up for most of my life with my missionary parents in Saint Petersburg, Russia. There I went through very difficult times, having struggled with racial prejudice, financial lack, loneliness, and depression from a young age. Forced to stay at home alone (Russia was a dangerous place for non-white children), I never had any real friends of my own until high school. Even to this day, Russia brings me bad, even traumatic memories that I would rather just like to forget...
For the first sixteen years of my life, I was also an atheist. I had trouble accepting that someone/something I could neither see nor touch was real. When I was little, I always thought that the Bible stories my parents told me were nothing more than mere fairy tales, or something like Greek or Roman myths.
On May 3, 2013 (my sixteenth birthday), I tried to commit suicide. I was convinced by then that no one could possibly ever accept or love me or understand who I am or what I am going through. I was yellow, I was poor, I was flawed, I was despicable. No hope, no path forward, nothing at all to live for. How could anyone care for me when even I didn't like myself for who I was... But right before I jumped out the window of my room, I had the strange urge to read a book to my left.
Maybe I was just afraid to make that leap, but what I do know is that I instead made a completely different leap - a leap of faith. When I first heard about God's grace - nothing about following the Ten Commandments, nothing about being a good, perfect human being, nothing about working to please an angry man upstairs - you could say I had a change of heart. I realized for the first time in my life that someone did accept me for who I was, did love me, someone did die for me. I did not have to be this white, rich, good-looking, smart, Harvard-graduate man. I could be Jong Han and still live a truly meaningful life.
To be honest, I still have doubts (a lot, actually). But if Jesus is a lie, it is just too good to simply ignore or forget about. One thing I still cannot really understand is why God allowed so many bad things to happen in my life, so much pain to hurt and traumatize me. Looking back, perhaps it was to give me compassion for people who went through similar things. People wandering confused in the darkness, people drowing hopelessly in loneliness and depression, people unable to accept themselves because they simply can't ignore how broken and disgusting they are... I want to show them a Light that can guide them out of the darkness, I want to give them a Hope that completely transcends and overcomes any trauma or grief, I want to tell them the glorious grace and Truth that came through Jesus Christ.
Hence I want to work to bring North Koreans out of the hell they are living in, to give them the chance to discover the only Way out of slavery and bondage to sin and self-condemnation, to help them in any way I can to see and feel and what I have seen and felt. I am going to EUC in a week or so, called to serve a people who experienced what no one ought to go through. Albeit just a little step to my greater dream to free my fellow Koreans to the north, I decided to join anyway. Everything has to start from somewhere, right?
But honestly, going to EUC, I really don't know what to expect or what it will be like. Reunification does not seem to be something I can really do anything about - as of 2016, I feel like only God or the government can do something about this. Maybe Korean students from both sides of the peninsula becoming friends with each other and encountering the transformative power of God's grace - maybe just seeing that will change and bless me, too? So if you want to support me, well... I guess it wouldn't make all that much sense to me personally, except perhaps that the Holy Spirit moves you the same way He does me.
Umm... so prayer requests? 1) Wisdom for me, 2) Grace for the camp, 3) Unity among the staff, and 4) A greater revelation of the love of Jesus Christ for everyone at the camp. Kinda broad and general, I know, but... maybe you should just let the Holy Spirit guide how you pray for me and the camp as a whole. From personal experience, at least, I know He knows how to pray and what to pray about better than I do... so... yeah, this is way too long of a letter (but still not as long as any of Paul's letters).