It's the People
How do you keep hope alive when the world feels dark and unchanging?
This is a question that we routinely ask friends and mentors who have been in the work of peacebuilding for the long haul. Again and again, the common response is: it's the people.
It's the tenacious people they encounter in their work that inspire them to continue to walk in the way of peace. Their courage to counter violence with nonviolence, despair with joy, defense with vulnerability- they are visible reminders from God that the work of repair, restoration, and reconciliation is sacred work.
As we prepare to commemorate the 70-year-long division of the Korean Peninsula this week, we find hope in courageous and creative people who are reimagining a different future. In the past couple of months, we have encountered many inspiring peacebuilders who have breathed in new hope in us (see photos below). Who are the people who keep the flame of hope alive in your life?
Artworks are by Yujin Kim, a former participant of ReconciliAsian Asian Anabaptist artist cohort, and currently a communications associate for MCC East Coast. Read her powerful article below. Reprinted with permission from Mennonite Central Committee.
Belonging in Peace
by Yujin Kim
Prolonging.
It’s been 70 years.
Seventy years of a prolonged war between two Koreas. And more than 70 years since my grandparents fled their homes.
In August 1945, Korea was liberated from 35 years of colonization under Imperial Japan. The removal of Japanese forces was overseen by the United States and the Soviet Union, which resulted in the formation of the 38th parallel line, splitting the Korean Peninsula in half — into North (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea) and South (Republic of Korea, or South Korea).
The divided occupation brought confusion and instability as the two Koreas rapidly developed two contrasting political regimes.
Long ago, even before Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), the northern part of the Korean Peninsula was the center of Christianity in Northeast Asia. In 1907, the Great Pyongyang Revival, a Protestant renewal movement, took place in the city of Pyongyang, which is today the capital of North Korea. The city was known among missionaries as the “Jerusalem of the East.”
However, when the Soviet Union took over the North, many Christians fled to the South despite the risks of crossing the border, including my grandparents’ families. Many people also relocated to the North from the South when the U.S. took over that area.
My grandmother and grandfather crossed the 38th parallel as preteens in 1948. They lived their adolescence and young adult lives as refugees, facing and being shaped by extreme anti-communist sentiments. The Korean War broke out soon after they were uprooted from the North... (read more here)
About 50 leaders gathered in Los Angeles for a rich conversation around the implication of the 70th commemoration of the Korean Armistice Agreement.
Austin Headrick of AFSC and Sue co-presented a workshop entitled, "Remembering the Forgotten War" at Mennonite Convention in Kansas City, Missouri and at Global Mennonite Peacebuilding Conference in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
During Korea Advocacy Week in June, ReconciliAsian participated in visiting multiple U.S. House Representative offices via Zoom to advocate for H.R. 1369. You can still contact your Representative or Senator to request signing the bill.
Nehemiah Institute and Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary have officially partnered to offer Korean Anabaptists Master of Arts: Theology and Global Anabaptism (MATGA).