Hello Jubilee Church! I am new to Jubilee and I firstly wanted to show my gratitude to the warm welcome that I was met with on my first visit to the church, which had not even been during a Sunday service but in the course of a meeting that was held in preparation of the Heartland Missions Trip 2015. Since I am new and many of you will be unfamiliar with me, I want to introduce myself to you through this letter.
I was born on the 16th of May 1998, which makes me the youngest member of the Heartland Missions-2015 group. I am currently visiting Korea for the summer break and after the break, I will be returning to the US as a boarding student. Moving to the US, however, was a turning point which had only occurred quite recently and prior to this change, I had been living in South Africa with my parents, my sister- Hye In, and my brother- Peter whom you may recognize as they are a member of the Jubilee church.
Cool thing about living in South Africa is that I got to experience unique and diverse culture, language and environment from a young age. Yet, poverty and racism had been another part that had been revealed to me. Growing up seeing so many people anguished from destitution, it not only made me appreciative and humble for the privileges that I had, but it also grew my passion to helping those whom the need for aid was apparent.
Community service was the first step that I took, but only in the US did I get introduced to ministry work. In my school in New Jersey, I got to go on a mission trip to Arizona and it was a great blessing. This is why I am utterly looking forward to this mission trip to Namyangju. I realized that regardless of the efforts I had put in community service and ministry work, I had not for once gotten a chance to serve my country and spread the gospel to my fellow Koreans. This trip therefore, will be a whole new experience for me.
The format of the Heartland Mission Trip is similar to that of the Arizona Mission Trip that I had taken part in the US. Regardless, I know that I will be faced with a whole new challenge and experience in Namyangju. Therefore I would like as much support and prayer for this trip. I realized that mission trips are not something you can tackle solely, but it entails the contribution of the team you are going with as well as of the people around you.
In conclusion, I want to note that this brief introduction is basically a mere background information regarding myself and it cannot surely be enough for a deeper understanding of who I am. Thus I hope that I will gradually get to meet you all during future church services. For the time being, I please ask that you will support me as well as the two groups going on different mission trips, one to Namyangju and the other to Cambodia. Please support us in your prayers and financially too, there will be many challenges before us and only through your continual support and prayers, will we be able to overcome these challenges.
Thank you once again and may God bless
Hye Yoon Shin