From Insider To Outsider
8/10/25
Dear beloved Stetson Memorial UMC family, I’m so thankful to
walk this new journey with you. It has been such a blessing to see so many
things happening in our church, our community, and our cluster—especially
during “Pioneer Week.” As we watched the videos and pictures from the events,
and as we shared our joys from the Combined Women’s Retreat, the Men’s Public
Supper, the Pie Sale, and the Yard Sale, I felt so grateful. God blessed us
with laughter, fellowship, extra energy, and fun memories. Yes—we did it all! I
know my real job today is to wake you up after the busiest day yesterday, not
to put you to sleep. I’ll do my best.
My own “outsider” life in Patten
I’m learning so much about our church and our Patten
community. Locally, I live in Houlton, so in Patten, I am an outsider. Even in
the U.S., I’m a city girl from Korea, so I’m an outsider in a small town. Parades,
museums, and small-town celebrations are new to me. Even though I’ve known
country culture for 11 years, I’m not a Mainer and never will be. In Maine, you
can live in a town for 50 years and still be “from away.”
Being an outsider isn’t always fun. It can feel like living
on the edge. Everything is new. You have to be humble to learn. You can feel
lonely, not really belonging. You can’t join the inside conversations or the
circles of people who’ve known each other all their lives.
Patten itself sits on the edge of boundaries. Sometimes we
shop in Houlton, sometimes in Bangor. We have ties to towns north and south.
I’m so glad Patten Church is part of our Aroostook Cluster now. Without that
connection—through Sara Hill—many people in northern Maine wouldn’t know
Patten, and we wouldn’t have the friendships we have today. Patten is a small town, but you work with
Sherman and Island Falls. I heard you have a big celebration with those towns
every year. I’ve learned not to plan a women’s retreat or VBS during this
season next year!
God’s call to be an outsider
In the Bible, God sometimes calls us to be outsiders. We see
that in today’s scriptures—Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8. We call Matthew
28:18-20 “The Great Commission”, and Acts 1:8 “The Great Commission in the
power.” It was Jesus’ last command before
He went up to heaven:
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to
me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very
end of the age.”
The mission is simple: Go – Tell the good news to all people,
everywhere, Baptize – Welcome people into God’s family, Teach – Help others
learn and live like Jesus.
In Acts 1:8, Jesus promised:
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you;
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to
the ends of the earth.”
Jesus Himself stayed mostly in Judea and Jerusalem, but He
told His disciples to go to the whole world. Jesus focused on Jews with his
physical limitation, but He empowered the disciples with His authority in
heaven and on earth, and the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s fulfilled God’s
plan from the very beginning, bringing salvation to all nations, as He promised
with Abraham. When we move, we often have to become outsiders. We live on the
edge. We might feel lonely or left out, but this is often how we become
insiders in God’s kingdom.
My life as an outsider
My whole life has been filled with seasons of being an
outsider. That doesn’t mean I didn’t belong anywhere—it means God often moved
me to new places for growth, stretching, and challenge.
Whenever I became comfortable as an insider, God sent me
somewhere new as a pilgrim.
After Victor and I got married, we left everything—our
church, our hometown, even our country—to come here. We thought we would return
to Korea after school. But God led us into ministry in the United Methodist
Church, and we were sent to Dalton, Massachusetts.
In Dalton, there was only one elderly Korean couple in town. Everyone
else was white. No Korean food. No Korean friends. My English was poor. I felt
like a baby again—helpless and alone. I made embarrassing mistakes. Once I
tried to comfort a woman I thought had just lost her husband, only to learn he
had passed away eight years earlier. I mixed up faces and names all the time. It
was hard. I cried for six months in our little room.
One day, while I was crying and praying, “Lord, why did you
send us here? I can’t do anything here,” God spoke. “You prayed to be a
missionary like the Americans who went to Korea 140 years ago. Now I’ve sent
you here as a missionary.”
This year marks the 140th anniversary of the Korean mission. There
were ceremonies in the Spirig in Korea, and during the last week in Ohio.
When I was 16, I volunteered at Yonsei University and
Severance Hospital in Seoul, both founded by H. G. Underwood. Their mission was:
“Free people from disease by the love of God.” That mission captured my heart.
I went to that university and learned about Horace Underwood,
the Presbyterian missionary who arrived in Korea in 1885 with Methodist
missionary Henry Appenzeller. The Korean people didn’t welcome them. They were
seen as “Western ghosts with blue eyes” and even accused of taking people’s
eyeballs for medicine.
Underwood prayed: “Lord, nothing is visible right now. This
land feels barren. We are even called devils. Yet we believe that one day, the
people here will rejoice with us in Christ, and this land will be a land of
blessing.”
God answered his prayer. Schools, hospitals, and churches
were built. Today, Korea has the five largest churches in the world and sends
missionaries to many nations—including here—to give back the blessing we
received.
God gave me that same missionary identity from that moment. I
started a children’s ministry with puppet shows. I didn’t need perfect
English—just love.
Our identity
The Bible is full of outsiders. Jesus was an insider in
heaven, but He left His glory to become an outsider on earth—even a helpless
baby. Abraham left his home and became a stranger in Canaan. Hebrews 11:13 says
God’s people “admitted that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
David wrote in Psalm 39:12: “I am a pilgrim with you, a guest, like all my
fathers.”
Our identity is the same of other faithful outsiders.
·
From Traveler to Pilgrim: A traveler demands; a
pilgrim gives thanks.
·
From Wanderer to Pilgrim: A wanderer moves
without purpose; a pilgrim moves with hope.
·
From Homeless to Pilgrim: A homeless person has
no home; a pilgrim’s home is in God.
We can be pilgrims without moving houses. A pilgrim’s heart
is willing to be an outsider for God’s mission. I am thankful to Pastor Tae
Sung Kang who made this poster, especially “E” Enlarge your vision. I don’t
have a big picture of why God sent me to Patten, or why He sent our family to this
county. But last week I saw a piece of the bigger picture. When 90-year-old
Helen Woods from Houlton held Roberta’s hand… when Rue Guisheker hugged Penny
with tears after Penny’s testimony at the women’s retreat—I saw the Holy Spirit
at work.
Adjusting to a new ministry takes time. We still feel grief and
loss from past seasons. Sometimes I pray, “Lord, I can’t see anything!” But God
keeps showing small pieces of the picture.
If we are willing to be outsiders for God, He will expand our
territory. It’s not always fun, but it’s worth it. Someday, we will see the
whole picture together when outsiders on the earth will be insiders in heaven.
Amen.
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