Chinn Family To Stay In Korea.

In the end, it wasn't a difficult decision.  When the Chinn family moved to Pohang Korea in August 2012, it was for one year during which Ken would serve as a visiting professor at Handong International Law School (HILS) and also serve as Trinity Law School's representative in growing a relationship between the two universities.  Ken's view was that this would be a healthy adventure for the family.  Susan was ecstatic about the opportunity for the kids and Ken to learn about the Korean side of our family heritage.  The kids saw it as a long vacation and adventure with the promise of returning home after a year to their friends and  the only home they have ever known in Orange County.

Second thoughts about the adventure arose immediately upon our arrival.  Everything seemed so foreign and we had hit a heat wave at the end of the monsoon season with no air conditioning in our apartment.  Ken's first experience eating a Korean style burger was an even bigger disappointment.  The flavors were all wrong and he could hardly finish it.  Clearly this adventure was off on the wrong foot.

Thankfully we got a couple of fans to help cool things off and the monsoon season soon moved into a beautiful Fall.  The teaching experiences were wonderful and the other law school professors soon became fast friends.  Susan and the kids were also quickly making lots of new friends.  We home schooled the kids who discovered they could be done with their lessons by noon if they worked hard in the morning.  Afternoons were spent roaming the campus and adjacent woods in search of adventures with their new friends.  We started to become familiar with the markets and found a Costco about an hour away in Daegu to purchase American familiar food items.  We were back in positive adventure mode as we explored Korea and its rich cultural heritage.  The kids starting asking questions like, "Do we have to go back to California?"  

Susan was clearly open to extending our stay and, surprisingly, I found my heart to be changing as well.  There is something very vibrant about living on a university campus with just a 5 minute walk to my office.  We could let the kids roam all day without a concern for their safety, knowing that they would return home by dinner time.  It reminded Ken of his youth and is an experience that has largely disappeared from life in big cities in the U.S.  Then there were the opportunities to minister.  Older people are looked up to with respect in the Korean culture.  We started having students regularly into our home for meals from Ken's classes and our church home here on campus.  You could feel the needs they had as they were far away from their homes and families.  We felt our family rapidly expanding.  Then there was the opportunity for our whole family to travel to Cambodia, Thailand and Laos over the Christmas break.  We have had many missionary experiences at our home in Downtown Anaheim as we ministered to the poor in our neighborhood, but this was different.  In Southeast Asia we saw poverty beyond anything we had ever seen or experienced.  In spite of the poverty the people were joyful and welcomed our presence.  We saw first hand the wonderful work done by missionaries and NGOs with such  a heart to serve.  What a privilege we had to learn from them and serve along side them during our travels.  The desire to remain and serve God in Asia pulled even stronger on our hearts.

But what about Trinity that so generously sponsored our trip to Korea.  How could we not return at the end of the year?  I wrote Dean Myron Steeves and shared the pull we were feeling.  He could not have been more encouraging.  He had traveled over to HILS in December 2011 and experienced the special environment here, and thought at the time he suggested our family travel to Korea for a year, that there was the possibility we would want to stay.  He recognized the special call and heart we were feeling towards staying in  Korea and was supportive of our decision to remain.

How long we remain in Korea is an open question.  We have committed to stay another 2 1/2 years.  Trinity has kept the door open for the possibility of Ken returning to Trinity as a visiting professor at the end of that commitment.  We are keeping our home in Anaheim, at least for the time being.  We miss our family and friends and home church in California.  Thankfully we are returning to California at the end of July for a visit.  All this has been a real step of faith and well outside Ken's normal comfort zone.  It is exciting to be following the Lord and depending on Him in these decisions.  We covet your prayers and hope some of you will come to visit us here in Korea - "The Land of the Morning Calm".

Ken and Susan Chinn