The family ministries department of the Korean Union Conference (KUC) held a campmeeting for multi-cultural families from October 2 to 3, 2016, at Madalpy Sahmyook Retreat Center. About 70 people from multi-cultural families participated in the camp with its theme of “Happy Companion.” This is the ninth camp for multi-cultural families, and Ahn JaeSoon, director of KUC family ministries and her husband, have devoted themselves to this work since before they were in charge of family ministries.
This year, in addition to multi-cultural families, some Korean families joined the camp with their multi-cultural friends. The campmeeting included various programs for the participants. At the cooking session, the participants had time to cook traditional Korean dishes together as well as to introduce foods from their international mother countries.
Lectures were presented on the pursuit of a happy family in God. Pastor Jang SahYeol prepared a series of lectures with the following topics: “Wound-healing communication,” “Who is your star?,” and “When nobody becomes the best.” In his lectures, he pointed to God who heals our wounded hearts and comes close to us to support and encourage us.
“Self-esteem is the state of mind when you believe in God as your creator and love and respect yourself as God’s creation. We have to recognize our own value which is granted from God and be content with God’s blessings. This is key to happiness,” said Pastor Jang.
A Korean family, consisting of the parents and three children, came to the camp together. The parents remarked, “From this campmeeting, our family has learned how to accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses and be complimentary to build up a happy family.”
It is noteworthy that the Korean Adventist church runs programs to strengthen Adventist homes, and this campmeeting was one of those programs. Multi-cultural families received training on how to deal with common difficulties faced by multi-cultural families and how to better understand their spouses.
The church also invited experts to hold classes on various subjects, such as how a couple becomes united in God, how to communicate well, how to raise children in God, and Christ-centered married life. Due to their efforts, many multi-cultural couples and families have overcome cultural and racial conflicts and rebuilt their homes.
The KUC family ministries department will continue working with multi-cultural families and help them develop their Adventist faith. They are planning to study evangelism for multi-cultural families and ultimately train “multi-cultural” missionaries.