The New begining

Dear family, friends, and ministry partners,

As we come to the end of six years at the Kona YWAM base and three and a half years at the Colorado Springs YWAM base, our family will be relocating to South Korea in early August to pursue ministry focused on North Korea, Japan, prison outreach, and cultural ministry among young people on the Korean Peninsula.

In fact, since 2013, our family has carried God's heart for North Korea, Japan, and the young people of Korea. We had a vision and a desire to go and serve in those regions as missionaries. During that season, Joe wrote Korean traditional fusion worship songs centered on the hope of reunification, and Kyungjin often performed janggu(Korean traditional drum)while we ministered together through worship in various places. It was a time of dreaming and holding on to the vision that God had placed in our hearts.

However, in 2016, Joe suffered a serious head injury while playing basketball and subsequently endured the long-term effects of a concussion. For more than ten years, as we navigated ongoing physical challenges, the vision for North Korea and Japan that we had once held so deeply in our hearts gradually became buried in the background of our lives. During those years, our primary prayer request was simply for Joe's healing and recovery.

After Joe was no longer able to serve in ministry following the accident, Kyungjin served full-time as a staff member—working as a building manager in Kona and in housekeeping ministry in Colorado. Meanwhile, Joe focused on recovery while helping with the children’s homeschooling and caring for the family, within the limits of his health. It became a season of learning to remain faithful in the roles God had entrusted to us, rather than pursuing visible ministry positions.

Then, in September of last year,One Korea DTS (hosted by YWAM Chateau), followed by a One Korea Night in November. At these gatherings, our family had the opportunity to share a special musical offering. For Joe, it was his first time officially standing in worship ministry, and for Kyungjin, it was the first time in 12 years since Kona that she played the janggu again.

As the event began, we met one of the school speakers who would be sharing his testimony. We later discovered that he had attended the One New Korea event in Kona 12 years earlier as a student in the Northeast Asia DTS. He had since moved from North Korea to South Korea and become a pastor. After 12 years, we encountered him again at a reunification vision gathering. It was truly an astonishing reunion.

Afterwards, we heard that the YWAM Chateau team would be hosting a North Korean pastors’ retreat here at the end of May, which brought a quiet sense of anticipation. We were later asked by the team to help, and we gladly agreed.

At that time, Joe’s health had improved significantly compared to before, and he had begun to gradually serve again through the photography and media skills he had been developing, as well as in worship ministry. We were simply grateful for the opportunity to participate in ministry in even a small way.

This retreat was attended by four pastors from the leadership board of the North Korean Christian Federation, two additional member pastors, along with their spouses and children—13 people in total.

On the first day of the retreat, Joe led worship for the first time in a long while. Deeply moved by the grace of being back in a worship setting, he shared a short testimony while leading praise, tears flowing throughout—as has often been the case in recent seasons whenever he leads worship.

Shortly after this time of worship and sharing, something unexpected took place. The pastors gathered for an urgent meeting and then expressed their desire to invite Joe to Korea to share his testimony and worship at an upcoming retreat for North Korean defector Christians.

In particular, they shared heartbreaking news about the growing drug-related challenges currently affecting North Korea. They also expressed their belief that Joe’s testimony would carry a powerful message of challenge and restoration for many North Korean young people and believers from North Korean backgrounds.

As a result, our family began planning a trip to Korea for the first time in 12 years. We desired to visit the field of North Korean defector ministry firsthand, explore areas where we might be able to participate, and reconnect with supporters whom we had not seen for a long time.

After the retreat concluded, a new fire began to burn in our hearts. At the same time, we continued to stay in contact with the pastors who had returned to Korea, sharing vision and ongoing ministry updates. Throughout this process, we experienced a deep sense of conviction and a clear sense of God’s direct leading.

More than 80 years have passed since the division of North and South Korea, and the generation that directly experienced the pain of war is gradually disappearing. Along with that, the urgency and tangible connection to the hope of reunification are also fading.

However, we came to a strong conviction that North Korean defector pastors—who risked their lives to escape North Korea, encountered God, and have now been called into ministry across South Korea—along with the 77 defector churches, represent a crucial generation and bridge that God is using to open a new way toward reconciliation and reunification.

The pastors also shared that North Korean defectors and the Korean diasporas share the common experience of immigrant life, allowing them to understand one another more deeply and connect at a heart level. They encouraged us, affirming that our family could be used as an important instrument in North Korean ministry.

In particular, they expressed that Joe’s worship and Kyungjin’s janggu playing could serve as meaningful forms of cultural ministry, helping to bridge hearts between North and South Korea.

Along with these words of encouragement, the unusual and remarkable works of God that took place throughout the retreat came to us as a renewed confirmation from the Lord. It became a moment in which a long-dormant vision was awakened once again.

It felt like the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel coming to life.



“The Lord said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘Sovereign Lord, you alone know’” (Ezekiel 37:3). And as God continued to speak, “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life” (Ezekiel 37:5).

Over the past ten years, we have experienced the vision for North Korea, Japan, and the younger generation being rekindled—visions that had been temporarily set aside amid physical weakness.

As we prepared for a visit to Korea, God gave us a clear conviction in prayer about relocating to Korea, and our hearts as a couple—and as a family with our children—became unified in that direction.

Although Joe’s health has not yet been fully restored, we have been able to move forward in faith, carrying an unexplainable boldness given by God and the strength He has allowed us to have.

As a result, we have made the decision to relocate both our ministry base and our home to South Korea.

The place where we will be settling in Korea is the YWAM base located in Janghowon, Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. This base is known for its Word By Heart Bible memorization ministry and was pioneered by Jihoon Lee and Sunmi Park.

On a personal level, Joe first became connected to this ministry in 2016 while participating as a Word by Heart student in Kona. Later, during our initial attempt to relocate to Korea in 2020 (which ultimately did not come to fruition due to various circumstances), we also maintained contact with this base.

Moving forward, we plan to settle here and participate in various ministries as we follow God’s leading.

With only two months left to prepare for an international relocation, we are currently going through an extremely busy season. At the same time, we are moving forward step by step with great anticipation and joy.

At the Colorado Springs base where we are currently serving, we are working together with the base leadership toward being commissioned to Korea as long-term missionaries. In particular, this base has a strong vision for sending long-term missionaries to unreached people groups.

As we are being sent out toward North Korea ministry and Japan, we are deeply grateful for the covering, support, and commissioning we are receiving here as we prepare for this transition.

Recently, as we began building a photography business, word of our work started to spread in the local community. we also carried a personal intention of eventually becoming financially independent through photography and video business.

However, we came to see again that the photography and media skills we had been learning late into the night were not merely for business, but were given as tools for ministry.

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”Proverbs 16:9 as this verse reminds us, God had a different plan.

Looking back, we realized that the vision that once burned so strongly in our hearts had not disappeared. Rather, it was as if it had been placed in a treasured vessel and buried deep in the ground. Through seasons of wind, storms, and snow, it was quietly preserved under God’s protection, patiently maturing in hiddenness while waiting for God’s appointed time—His kairos moment. And now, we are beginning to recognize that God is bringing that vision back to the surface, and that He is using us, shaped and refined through those seasons.

In Kona and Colorado, God taught us faithfulness through serving in cleaning and facilities work. We learned the foundations of daily life, how to care for a home, and how to relate to people in practical and humble ways. Through serving in the lowest places, we were taught humility.

In addition, Joe went through a long season of illness, during which everything except Jesus was stripped away. In that place, pride and unbelief were broken down, and by God’s grace he was being formed into a new person.

Our children are also in full agreement with the move to Korea, and they express a deep sense of identity as Koreans, preparing themselves to live and grow in Korea.

As a family, we are now entering a new season and are stepping into this next journey with a sense of awe, anticipation, and faith-filled vision.

Our family is now stepping into a new season. We are in the process of preparing for relocation and settlement in Korea, including the purchase of a vehicle and the practical needs required for long-term missionary work ahead. In this season, financial support is urgently needed.

Above all, we ask for your prayers. We humbly ask you to stand with us in prayer that God would make a way where doors seem closed, and that His Kingdom would come in places beyond human reach—North Korea and Japan, the next generation, prisons, and the sphere of culture.

We also invite those whom God may lead to partner with us through both monthly and one-time giving. Your prayers and support are not merely assistance, but a meaningful participation in sowing into God’s unfolding story of salvation and restoration.

We move forward in faith, excepting to see the remarkable story God will continue to write. We would be deeply grateful if you would join us on this journey.

With sincere gratitude for your prayers, love, and partnership,

Joe & Kyungjin, and our four children