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This story and photo available online:
www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09057<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09057>

‘Through the waters’

Sue Youngsook Yon is among PC(USA)’s first Korean-American
Certified Christian educators

by Emily Enders Odom
Associate, Mission Communications

Forrest Palmer (behind lectern), associate executive for
Greater Atlanta Presbytery, greets Sue Youngsook Yon
(right), one of the first Korean-American Christian
educators certified by the PC(USA), while one of her
mentors, the Rev. James Jung (left) looks on. Photo
courtesy of Greater Atlanta Presbytery

Duluth, GA, January 23, 2009 ? Although Sue Youngsook Yon
is intimately acquainted with loss, she has also
experienced profound rebirth, most recently in following
her call to become one of the first Korean-American women
to be certified as a Christian educator in the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.).

Venturing forth in 1973 from her native Korea as a young,
single woman with a nursing degree and a hunger to learn,
Yon could scarcely have envisioned the honor that awaits
her on Jan. 30, when she will be recognized by the
Association of Presbyterian Church Educators (APCE)
[http://apce.net] at their annual event in San Antonio, TX,
as one of 13 educators to be certified in 2008.

Her certification, which was awarded by the Educator
Certification Council (ECC) of the PC(USA) on Nov. 7, 2008,
has already been celebrated by the Presbytery of Greater
Atlanta [www.presbyteryofgreateratl.org], of which her home
congregation ? the Korean Community Presbyterian Church ?
is a member.

A self-described “city girl” who somehow found her way to
the Atlanta suburbs more than 35 years ago, Yon’s initial
experience in the U.S. was one of isolation. Not only was
she immediately separated from the group of college friends
who had emigrated with her, but also from the man who would
later become her husband. Inspired by his witness of having
been raised in a Christian family in Korea, Yon, whose own
background was not Christian, sought out the church.

“My Christian journey started here in the U.S.,” she
said. “I was young and alone here. The church gave me a
sense of belonging. My faith grew that way.”

When Yon was reunited with her fiancé in Georgia two years
later, they were married in the church. “It was a blessing
that I met my husband,” Yon recalled. “He was a very
faithful man, an easy model to follow.”

As part of their Christian outreach and service, the young
couple nurtured and literally fed seminary students, among
them David Chai, who currently serves the General Assembly
Council of the PC(USA) as the associate for Asian American
Leadership [www.pcusa.org/asianamerican/index.htm].

Chai, who was then a young, single student at Columbia
Theological Seminary, looked forward to the weekly ritual
of Korean food prepared by the Yons and other church
members. In an eventual reversal of their original roles,
Chai would later come to support Yon, becoming her chief
encourager in the educator certification process.

As her family grew with the arrival of two sons in 1977 and
1978, Yon dedicated herself to raising her children in the
life of the church. When in 1992, her husband suddenly fell
ill and died, she found herself questioning the very church
that had sustained her. “I had to rethink my faith,” she
said. “Everything I loved was gone.”

With the encouragement of her pastor, she sought to work
through her questions and doubts by entering the Georgia
School of Theology while still working full time to support
her two boys. “I needed the gospel,” Yon recalled. “I
needed to know I would again see my husband.”

Upon completion of her M.Div. studies in 1999, Yon began to
envision ways in which she could return her gifts to the
larger church, sensing that her first calling was as a
missionary. Already making a significant contribution at
the Korean Community Church by working with the Sunday
school, nursery and pre-school programs as well as a
ministry for single parents, Yon first approached Forrest
Palmer, executive associate presbyter for Greater Atlanta
Presbytery, in 2002 to inquire about the Christian educator
certification process

“Working with Sue was transformational for me on a number
of levels,” Palmer said, recalling their first encounter.

“In my nearly 30 years of care and support of Christian
educators, she was the first Korean-American with whom I
had worked specifically on certification. I also worked
alongside her and her congregation in struggling through
the issues of language and culture. She also received
tremendous encouragement from her pastor, James Jung, whom
I see as a visionary leader in this presbytery and in the
Korean community. He was supportive of Sue and of the
certification process from the very beginning.”

The certification process itself, according to Martha
Miller, associate for certification and Christian vocation
in the PC(USA) Office of Vocation [www.pcusa.org/vocation]
? a joint ministry of the General Assembly Council and the
Office of the General Assembly ? can be challenging and
time-consuming for even the seasoned educator.

“One of the advantages that these experienced educators
typically have, however, is the fact that the language used
in the courses, readings, and exam is in their native
tongue, English,” Miller explained. “For Sue, this was not
the case. She worked through this process in a language
that was not native to her and accomplished a major goal in
her life.”

Miller added that due to the high standards of the
certification process as it is currently structured, it is
not unusual to see educators occasionally drop out due to
job changes, lack of time, or the level of commitment
needed to complete the steps. “Sue is an excellent example
of an educator who stuck with it and pressed on,” Miller
said. “She was not willing to give up.”

Concurring with Miller’s assessment, Chai observed that Yon
sought guidance and encouragement every step of the way.
“It is unusual that she was so persistent,” he said. “So
often the language and cultural barriers are so high,
especially for Korean-American women seeking leadership
roles, that people eventually give up and stay in their own
cocoon. In daring to come out of her comfort zone, Sue
tried the certification process and made it.”

In the six years that Yon worked with the ECC, the group
that sets and maintains the standards of the educator
certification process in the PC(USA), its members were also
transformed by the experience.

“Due in large part to Sue’s example, the ECC has begun
looking at ways of becoming more culturally proficient in
its own process and work,” Miller said. “We look forward to
more racial ethnic Christian educators becoming certified
in the future.”

As for Yon, who designed and taught a 6-hour course on
Christian baptism in partial fulfillment of her
certification requirements, she is continuing to explore
that Sacrament’s significance in her own life and ministry
as well as in the Korean-American church context, where she
finds that its meaning is not well understood.

She now sees herself as an evangelist, eager to bring those
particular teachings and her own witness of “passing
through the waters” to other churches in the
presbytery. She also continues to be excited about teaching
young children, who have great capacity for change.

“Baptism is a sign of our belonging to God’s family,
becoming a part of the church, and being adopted into God’s
family,” Yon said. “In my own baptism, I was welcomed into
the community of faith. When I lost everything, I found
that the church members were my relatives.

“I hope I can use my Christian educator certification to
share that experience with others, remembering Jesus’
command, ‘to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit.’”