Hello! My name is Claire Kim, my Korean name is 김은혜 (Kim Eun-hye), and I am so honored and excited to have the opportunity to serve with the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA) as a young adult volunteer in South Korea. I am a third-generation Korean-American and a fourth-generation Presbyterian Christian, so I am especially excited to learn more about my cultural roots and religious roots through the Presbyterian Church of the Republic of Korea (PROK) and their site partners. I was born in Atlanta, Georgia but have lived in Minnesota since I was two months old. I grew up in the church as the daughter of a pastor of first an English ministry of a Korean immigrant church and then the multicultural church it became, Church of All Nations. Because of this, I have always had a strong and supportive community, and this manifestation of the body of Christ was how I primarily experienced God’s presence. I stayed in Minnesota for college and attended the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. College was the first time I took Korean language classes, having grown up in an English-speaking household, and this unlocked a curiosity about my Korean heritage that has stayed with me since. This led me to major in Asian Languages and Literatures and minor in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Over the breaks, I studied Korean at Korea University and sustainability in Ecuador, worked on an organic farm, and went on a month-long mission trip to Ethiopia. On this mission trip, I read the gospel of Matthew on my own for the first time, and this is what personally compelled me to the Christian faith, even though I had been raised in the church. So I decided to attend our church’s seminary after college to learn more about Christianity and the Bible. Here, the seed of my adult faith was planted, and growing that faith has been my number one priority ever since. During seminary, I joined the World Student Christian Federation-US, where I was plugged into the ecumenical world—a global community that sustains my hope and strengthens my faith to this day. After graduating from seminary in June 2023, I went to Italy in August for a 3-week international ecumenical camp for young adults. Later, in November, I went on a mission trip to Cuba. Both of these opportunities came through my WSCF network, and one of my team members with whom I went to Cuba worked for the YAV program and invited me to apply. I had never felt ready to leave my tight-knit congregation and family before, but after these international experiences where I got to witness God’s spirit and work in other parts of the world, I felt called to apply to the YAV program in order to really solidify my faith apart from my parents and home church. My hope is to grow in my faith during this year, just as Moses did during his forty years in the desert and Jesus did in his forty days in the wilderness, so that I can love from a deeper place and with all my heart my fellow neighbors and children of God, secure in the knowing that I am God’s beloved.
Follow my blog niceainkorea to stay updated about my YAV year in Korea!
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