With a Grateful Heart for Service
With a Grateful Heart (5 of 8)
Serving Others
When I was young, I was awed by the idea of missionaries going to far off places and working with the people there. It seemed exotic and out of reach. I settled for putting some money in the plate at church to support others’ efforts. How strange, then, that as an adult in my forties and fifties I began experiencing service in far off lands myself. Everything seemed to happen organically. A friend at church asks, “How would you like to teach English to North Korean women refugees with me?” My school offers “Service Interims.” My children are asked to “do service” and so I accompany them. Or my church offers a service trip and I think, “Yes, I really want to do that!”
What follows are some stories and reflections upon various service opportunities I have had over the last decade or so first published on my blog “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” Of them all, working with the North Korean Women Refugees while in Korea and at Shanti Dan with the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, India were the most impactful on my life as a human being.
March 14, 2021
Since living in Asia I have engaged in more service than I even understood myself until creating this blog. It began with KIS students collectively supporting an orphanage in Luang Prabang, Lao. I organized some fundraisers for "Support Lao Children" for a few years. And then when we left Korea I continued personally supporting a student, Sommon, to attend law college for four years after he had graduated from the orphanage school.
My final two years in Korea I worked with volunteers from my church to teach English to North Korean Refugee Women. It set the stage for some of the service I would do later. (More on that soon.)
A similarly powerful day of service was meeting some of the living Comfort Women remaining in Korea. These were Korean women who were forced to be sex slaves to Japanese occupiers during WWII. These women were being cared for by an NGO who gathered the aging women together to be taken care of in community. A group of us visited with the women and sang songs and ate with them. Admittedly, they were doing more service for us than we were to them. Yet it was a powerful and memorable day. To this day, Japan has not yet fully taken responsibility for these atrocities.
Once in Hong Kong my first few years of Interim weeks were with the Social Awareness group. A group of about 20 HKIS students met with an NGO begun by one of our alumni, "Mother's Choice." This organization helps care for pregnant young ladies and walks them through creating adoptions plans as needed. It also provides sex education to schools. Our group of students also worked with the students at the Chi Lin Nunnery School exchanging fun games and stories with 13-17 year old developmentally challenged students.
Presently, Brent and I sponsor a teacher with the Garuna Foundation by paying her salary for a year. The Garuna Foundation works in SE Asia and its mission is to "support and encourage the proclamation of grace, mercy, and compassion of Jesus Christ to the people of Thailand and Cambodia and surrounding countries." (You can learn more here at Garuna.org.)
While in middle school, Adam was required to do some service. He chose to work with the Missionaries of Charity in Hong Kong. The sisters provide a soup kitchen called "Home of Love" in the Sham Shui Po district where there is a high population of homeless individuals. We returned several times to help prepare meals on Sunday mornings. I was surprised to learn how many of volunteers were helpers taking their only free day of the week to serve the poor in this way. Little did I know I would have further volunteer experience with Missionaries of Charity.
And then, in 2018 and 2019, I had the privilege of leading the “Children of Kolkata” Interim trip with students from HKIS. Through the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, we worked for several days at Shanti Dan, a house for young girls to women who were disabled and had been rescued from the streets of Kolkata. It was extraordinary and transformative. Additionally, our school has had long-standing relationships with two other organizations, Future Hope and Anondo Trust. The Future Hope organization houses and educates slum children and street children from Kolkata. (You can learn more here at futurehope.net) Set up in 2006, Anondo Trust is a registered charitable trust working with disadvantaged children in Kolkata, West Bengal. I won’t forget how welcomed we were and how quickly we bonded with the children at these organizations!
Finally, also in April 2018, just a month after completing my first of two interim trips to Kolkata, I volunteered with my Church of All Nations group to go to Cambodia where we worked with Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation (CWEF). With CWEF's help, we worked with school children at Bos Plu, this time teaching a bit of English and connecting with them through play. More importantly, we brought education about the importance of drinking clean water and hand washing using a puppet show. I have a full blog post from that time you are welcome to read. (You can learn more about CWEF here.)
(See original article here at greenbaytokorea.blogspot.com.)
February 24, 2021
One of the more meaningful things I have done in my life was teach English to the North Korean Women Refugees at a non-disclosed location in South Korea. This is something only a few people get to experience.
From 2012-14 I was a church member at a Christian church in Seoul which paired native English speakers with Korean translators. Our church was the only religious organization that the South Korean government would allow to partner with this center.
Once every few weeks a group of 4 - 6 of us would pile into a van on a Tuesday night then drive more than an hour to the rural and secret location of the Refugee Center for women. There, for about an hour, we would teach simple English lessons like counting, animals, days of the week, or polite conversation, then drive back home, arriving about 9:30 pm.
We taught about 20 - 30 ladies each time. Together we did a lot of singing, some dancing, and some hugging or hand holding. One day I was even asked to sign autographs. We talked about God's love for them. We sang about the freedom of the soul.
The refugee women had lived through hell prior to their arrival as refugees. And during their 6-week orientation to life in South Korea, they were relearning everything, including that Americans weren't the enemy. I never expected their faces to be so joyful and bright. I couldn't have expected them to be so thankful for everything we offered. And I hadn't imagined I would appear so tall!
While I never got to know individual lady's stories, our group would often discuss the plight of the North Koreans while on our travels to and from the Refugee Center, often eating Korean street food (mandu, pork bbq buns, or kimbab) on the way. We would also talk openly about our own cultures, be they American, Canadian or South Korean. My fellow teachers and translators gifted me with an understanding of both North and South Korean culture that I would not otherwise have ever learned.
After only two years of teaching there, our family decided to leave Seoul and move to Hong Kong. Leaving this volunteer program left a big hole in my heart. That hole has since become a great pool of gratitude for having had the opportunity to serve such amazing, courageous women. (See original article here at www.greenbaytokorea.blogspot.com)
February 27, 2021
Growing up I could never have imagined I would ever travel to Kolkata (Calcutta), India. I grew up knowing about Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity. I had heard of The Mother House. I had read A Simple Path. I knew she and her organization served the poorest of the poor. I knew these things, but I didn't know I would one day become a volunteer for the Missionaries of Charity myself. This was truly one of the more transformational experiences I have had during our eleven years living as expats in Asia.
In March 2018 and March 2019 I had the privilege of chaperoning our school's service interim trip to Kolkata called "Children of Kolkata". Along with about 16 students and one or two other chaperones upon each occasion, we spent one week working with service organizations in Kolkata. The Missionaries of Charity service was the most challenging and eye opening for me.
Each morning we would meet at 7 AM at THE Mother House with the nuns who would provide a bread, banana, and milk tea breakfast, lead a few prayers and songs, and then dispatch us to various homes around the city which cared for the disabled, sick and dying who had been rescued from the streets. The girls in our service group and I were dropped off at Shanti-Dan (Shanti meaning “peace” in Hindi) each day, which serves young girls to young women with mental health needs, cerebral palsy, or blindness. There, we learned how to care for the "girls", sing to them, walk with them, teach them English, do physical therapy with them or care for the facility by hand washing clothes or hanging clothes on the line, folding clothes, or making up the cots. Day in and day out the tasks are always the same, the routine for the girls is the same, but when you are new and don't speak the language knowing what to do and how to do it and even how to BE is quite a shock to the system.
As volunteers you feel conflicted about your role in these strangers' lives. You see what you interpret to be lives of suffering, but you also understand love and compassion at a much deeper level than you have before. You confront how fake or real you are living your own life. You realize that a person's eyes really ARE the window to their soul. You realize that every human being has worth and is worthy of love, comfort, and connection. You love these beautiful souls, these beautiful girls dearly. And then you feel ashamed when you walk past homeless person after homeless person still looking away, still unable to fully love them too. It is a humbling and transformative experience.
(See the original article here at www.greenbaytokorea.blogspot.com)
And Next?
Since returning to Green Bay I have thoroughly enjoyed playing my gong twice a month for the peer recovery support group at Hope Chats. And I’ve been contemplating working with the local Literacy Council which provides English language tutoring services to those in need, such as refugees. (I’ve been learning some Ukrainian so that might come in handy!) I also toy with volunteering with the Red Cross one day. All I know, is that serving others is far natural than I imagined. The magic is that through giving your time and talent you receive something deeply personal in your heart.
Click HERE for a bonus article: “The Potential for Hope,” my first article in the series Reasons for Hope.
Next up: With a Grateful Heart for Shelter
You can find all of my series in the archives:
Adulting 101 Coupons: A Gift from your Parents
Partnering 101: A Deep Dive into Leaving Kindly
Me-Time: Self-care in the time of Covid
Reasons for Hope
From Fog to Flow
With a Grateful Heart
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Writer. Gong Player. Teacher.
Find more of my writing at GreenBaytoKorea.blogspot.com
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All photos by © Brenda Brayko 2022 unless otherwise credited.