(gentle piano music)
- I grew up
most of my childhood in Korea.
Middle of nowhere, small town.
My dad was a church planting pastor
who loved small churches,
which meant we were always moving every two years
from one small city to another.
Cities got smaller, less traffic lights, less schools.
It wasn't until I turned 10, I have older sister who's 12.
My parents sat us down and we thought,
"Let's go to Seoul for summer, you know."
The conversation was,
"Hey, we're gonna actually go to America."
And we're like, "America? Where is America?"
Land in McLean, Virginia,
which is a very, very wealthy city in Virginia.
We have an aunt who lives in Virginia.
She immigrated there...
Man, I think in the '70s.
She's done really well.
So we moved there.
No house.
My parents didn't have much money.
They were in ministry all their life.
I remember my aunt picking us up
in her, like, this giant Cadillac.
I remember America being so big.
Car is big, people are big.
I think we stopped by McDonald's that day.
And I remember thinking everything is just different.
August 9th, I land there, I think September, I'm at school.
Spring Hill Elementary School in McLean, Virginia.
One of the most ritzy areas in the town.
But here I was, grade five, didn't know the alphabet.
Didn't know the alphabet. (giggles)
Only phrase I've learned
from the moment I found out I was going to America...
Only phrase I've learned for three months was this phrase,
"I am a boy. Right?"
That was the only phrase I knew. I've never used it.
So Mrs. Ogrevy sees me and she's like,
"Okay, this guy knows nothing."
She put me in the library with the librarian,
and she made me make these scrapbooks.
Gave me a bunch of like magazines.
I think we had these like national...
I don't know what kind magazines we had,
but I cut up these magazines,
I think the librarian lady would help me.
This is a car, so I'll put C-A-R, car.
This is a bike, right?
If that was enough, Mrs. Ogrevy,
at the end of the day, every day,
she would make me stand in front of the class
by fifth grade, right?
These are not like nice little kids.
And she'd be like, "Hey, can you present your scrapbook?"
And I'd be like, "Okay."
So I was like, "This is a car. This is a cat."
I had no shot of making any friends, right?
So grade five, like second day,
I gave everyone Korean names.
I'd be like, "Oh, you're..."
You know, I'll write their name like Chris.
I'll write their, you know, name in Korean.
And all the kids were just going crazy.
They were just like, "Oh, my goodness."
So I made friends.
I was never in the cool circle, but I made friends,
and eventually there were other Korean kids
that landed there and we became friends.
I think it took maybe two to three years
from me to get adjusted.
My dad's original plan was to go back to school,
perhaps get a PhD.
That was sort of his dream.
Like a theological degree.
But they realized the reality things were really expensive.
We didn't have much money.
So my parents got odd jobs.
My mom got a job at a dry cleaner for a Korean couple.
They eventually became best friends.
It was actually one of the better stories.
She met all these politicians
because she got a job at a cleaners in McLean, Virginia.
I remember her telling me meeting
Bill Clinton for the first time.
And she's like,
"He's the most charming person in the world."
I was like, "Yeah, mom, be careful."
My dad was a part-time pastor at a local church.
Didn't get paid very well, but also he...
I mean he tried to do couple different things.
Every career is unique,
but being a pastor also comes
with very unique set of challenges and joys.
I grew up thinking I would always be an entrepreneur, right?
Growing up, seeing my mom struggle
ever since we moved to America.
I mean, paying bills was tough.
I've seen my mom pick up multiple jobs.
My dad, you know, doing multiple jobs, cleaning offices.
The moment that we moved to America
and seeing them go struggle a lot with money and finances,
I didn't know what I wanted to become.
I just knew I wanted to make a lot of money.
When I thought about going to college,
it wasn't even a choice for me.
It was like, "Oh, business management."
That's the easiest way to get there
and be able to get a job and be able to provide.
So I left the states as soon as I graduated college.
So after I've majored in business management
after I had some work experience,
and after being removed from America, I was in Korea,
I think I was able to really
do some soul searching and say,
"Hey, what do I really wanna do with my life?"
And I've seen my dad make great impact
in the lives of people around him, community.
I had mentors that...
In the church was really a challenge in me.
Hey, I think you have certain traits.
Sure, you're not gonna be the conventional pastor.
Maybe you're rough on the edge
and you might do it differently, but I think you have...
You might be able to do it and you might enjoy it.
Yeah, it wasn't until in my 30s.
I think I felt more comfortable with the idea
of being a pastor.
I started going to seminary at 28.
But I didn't go into full-time church ministry until 29, 30.
I never thought, "Okay, I'm gonna move to Korea
and do this English church thing."
I was serving at a church called Jubilee.
It was Korean American.
We have also international community as well.
At this point, I was at Jubilee for about 10 years, right?
I was serving as a full-time pastor
for about maybe seven or eight years.
And the senior pastor and I just had an honest conversation,
because the decision was made by the main leadership
to plan a new church maybe even a year or two years ago
before this conversation.
But we didn't have a person.
I think the most important thing
is we need a person to be able to lead the church plant.
In my honor conversation
with the senior pastor and myself,
and just looking at Jubilee Church and our community,
I felt led to raise my hand and say,
"Well, maybe I could try this?" Right?
I've tried the pastor thing.
I didn't know I wanted to do it. Maybe I could try this.
From there, lots of conversations with my wife.
With friends, with leaders of Jubilee.
Took about, I wanna say another year and a half
or two years for us to leave and plant.
And I think the bigger challenge
of being an international church pastor
is the relationship fatigue.
Because people are always coming and going.
So within, you know, three years
you'll probably have turned over 75% of your congregation.
There are group of people that are here for long term,
that are stayed, they have planted their family here.
But 75% of our congregation
are here on a midterm or short term sort of work.
So every year, I've said goodbye to very good friends.
And now that I have two girls and you know, wife,
goodbyes are harder.
It's not simply, you know, two dudes saying goodbye,
we'll catch up.
It's like, my girls' best friends that are transitioning,
my wife's best friend, they're transitioning.
The great thing is you meet so many new people.
The terrible thing is you say too many goodbyes.
National identity,
obviously, I have the US passport, so I can't dispute that.
I like to believe I am more culture
than I was 17 years ago.
But I could just be Korean ajushi (laughs)
convincing myself I'm not.
I've seen a lot of beauty in the culture.
I've seen a lot of beauty in the way people interact.
I think Korean culture
gets bad rep,
especially, by Korean Americans.
'Cause I think we...
I don't know, we think we're better,
but there's a lot of beauty in Korean culture,
and it is evolving.
My idea of Korean culture is very limited,
and it's probably very shallow.
And I probably think I know more than I do.
And even like hanging out with this couple,
this past weekend, complete Korean couple.
Never lived outside of Korea.
I had these assumptions or these ideas,
of what they would be like.
But no, they were like totally cool.
They're more western than even...
Global than even like my wife and I in some ways.
And the way they thought about parenting,
the way they thought about politics and relationship.
I was like, "Oh, yeah, Korean culture
is evolving very, very quickly."
And I think even when someone's watching this,
they'll be surprised about stuff that we're talking about
because I think their reality
maybe 30, or 40, or 50 years later
will be very different from
what they're hearing from all these interviews.
My name is Sangmin.
This is my "Korean American Story."
(gentle piano music)