I AM KOREAN AMERICAN

Own Words

These are a couple of words that predominantly describe me:
1. Christian
2. Student
3. Leader
4. Korean American

I am a Christian.

I strongly identify myself as a Christian. I willingly gave my life to the Lord the summer after my senior year in high school. Since then, I have relied on the Lord to take, shape, and control every aspect of my life. I will never forget the day when I broke down to confess how broken and lonely my life was. From then, I have witnessed so much freedom and breakthrough in my life. My life’s goal is to see people from every nation be changed and transformed and I truly believe the Lord is currently preparing me as a worshipper and an intercessor for the nations. There are many countries I have been praying for a couple of which are: Korea, Japan, China, & Africa; especially Japan where I believe is in strong need of more of the gospel. Praise God for opening my eyes to the urgency of this world and for the people he has placed in my life. I never realized church was so important until I came to Blessed International Fellowship. (If any of you have a chance, I strongly recommend Blessed located in Anaheim.) I have never openly expressed my thanks to friends and leaders of my church but I am so blessed and so honored to have the opportunity to serve at a church that is completely Spirit filled.

I am a Student.

I am currently a full-time student majoring in Business Administration at Pepperdine University. Frankly, my decision to focus on the field of Business was a poor decision; one where I was forced to heed to my parents wishes. The only courses where I excel and love paying attention to are the ones that deal with people behavior. I am currently taking a course on Human Resources Management as an elective and I absolutely enjoy learning about management in diverse business industries. I let my brother know that I might want to pursue a career in Human Resources and he simply told me that I would either be hiring or firing people. (What a stereotype right?) Or is that all there is to it?

Let me tell you a bit more about Pepperdine. If you don’t know already, I study and live literally ON the beach. Pepperdine is located in Malibu, just 30 minutes away from Hollywood or Koreatown. I love inviting people over on a sunny day where we can chitchat and just relax in beautiful cali weather. Pepperdine is also known for networking and connection. The networking system here is unbelievably strong. As long as you take advantage of what this university offers such as the career fair or internship offers, it shouldn’t be too difficult finding a job upon graduation. I hope this pertains to me; i’m in desperate need of a job/internship!

I am a Leader.

I strongly identify myself as a Leader. When I came to Pepperdine, I realized that I didn’t know much about the world! I never took the initiative to step outside my boundaries. I was always so seclusive in mingling with the small group of people I knew. Moreover, I never knew that I had leadership qualities in myself. I am still in the process of finding out my identity. I’m not too worried, however, because I know that my identity is found in Christ. One characteristic the Lord revealed to me by prayer and fasting was a quality of leadership. Since my first year of college, God had opened up numerous opportunities for me to build my character as every organization or club I took place in was never a coincidence. My freshman year was the first year that KSA (Korean Student Association) started at Pepperdine. I was so shy to the point where I would hide myself in my little corner, never to come out unless to eat. Yes, I know, sad! But somehow, my freshman roommate talked me into my first interview with Kevin Park & Stewart Ho (Our very first KSA presidents). So my adventure started from then on. I became the logistics coordinator of KSA and after two years, I am currently the Co-President of KSA at Pepperdine University. Praise God for such a wonderful opportunity. I was then given the opportunity to take part in one of the biggest ethnic conferences in the nation: KASCON!

KASCON XXIV was held on March 5-6, 2010. I was given the position as the Programming Manager. Regardless of my title, I learned SO much about leadership skills and qualities. It helped me define “leadership.” Simply defined, a leader is someone who leads. As long as a people are willing to follow you for what you believe in, you are a leader. However, that’s not all there is to it. I would like to point out that Hitler was a leader. He was a good leader. He had the leadership qualities we look for in people: boldness, persuasiveness, etc. Yet, Hitler did not lead for the right reasons. It scares me to think that a leader can be so clever and persuasive but have immoral values. Leaders have power. They have power to change the minds of their followers; they can brainstorm their followers into believing what is wrong and unethical. Anyways, I digress so back to KASCON. KASCON was such a success. We didn’t have such a high turnout as we expected considering we live in a metropolitan area but we emphasized quality over quantity and our conference turned out much better than expected. We had our highs and lows planning the conference, but planning KASCON was probably another big and rewarding asset to my life; It was more of an experiment and a project that tested my character. Six months of hard work finally paid off and through this conference, I learned what I wanted to do: to inspire and empower students to live their dreams.

I am a Korean American.

I am proud to be a Korean American. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet KW Lee: the first Korean American journalist to work for mainstream daily publication in the US. He is an old man in his 80s but he is such a passionate speaker. Aside from the shouting and cursing he projected, I truly saw the fiery passion he had for inspiring students to pursue a goal-oriented life. I shared and understood his hatred for indifference. Our parents immigrated to the states not to achieve their own dreams and goals but to provide a substantial living opportunity for their children (us.) We are so blessed to have the opportunity to use the resources freely handed to us in this land called America. To live a life of mediocrity is outright stupid and dumb. Set a goal and pursue your dream in accordance to God’s will.

Koreans have come such a long way in a positive and negative sense. So many Korean Americans have been so successful in every aspect/field esp. in careers. God has shown so much favor on Koreans and I know that God continues to bless us. I read somewhere that Korea has the highest rate of missionaries going out into the nations to preach the gospel. Koreans love to pray as well so I definitely know that God is blessing our prayers. However, along with such fervor for the Lord, the enemy comes to destroy our destinies. The enemy fights back and comes to steal. Thus, Koreans unfortunately are faced with issues of compromise and sinfulness. I see so many  people fall away from church only to find themselves lost and stripped away from all hope. They try to flee pain by turning to drugs and alcohol. Koreans (fobs) come to the states only to experience culture shock. They start to mingle with the wrong crowds and fall away to sin and immorality. Don’t get me wrong. Every race, all over the world faces temptations and hardships. That is why we need to pray and intercede for the nations. God will come to redeem His bride and we need to be ready. Anyways, you understand my point. KP! haha