추석날 태국에서 필리핀 마닐라로 왔습니다. 마중나온 최선교사님과 함께 늦은 밤 선교관에 도착했습니다. 마침 이웃 선교관에 오신 손님 박 목사님과 대화를 잠깐 나누고 잠자리에 들었습니다. 이미 시간이 늦었기 때문입니다. 그리고 다음날 아침 8시부터 커피와 함께 최학정 목사님 부부와 대화가 시작되었습니다. 그리고 밤 8시가 넘도록 장소를 바꾸어 가면서 점심과 저녁을 먹으며 많은 이야기를 나누었습니다. 누구의 표현대로 “마음을 열고 편하게 이야기 나눌 수 있는 분들이 오셨으니 얼마나 기쁘셨을까요^^ 선교사님 부부에게 큰 위로와 힘이 될 것 같습니다.” 선교사님을 만나 이야기를 들어주는 사역을 소원한지 35년도 더 된 것 같습니다. 당시 파푸아 뉴기니아로 떠난 선교사님이 한 동안 잠수를 타고 연락이 되지 않아 당장 날아가서 만나보고 싶었지만, 그 때 당시 개척교회의 목사로서는 다만 꿈일 뿐이었습니다.
세월이 흘러 20년 전 쯤에는 교단 순회선교사 모임이 우리 울산 집에서 결성되었고, 고국의 목회자와 시니어 선교사가 한 팀을 이루어서, 세계를 몇 개의 권역으로 나누어 순회선교사역을 하도록 교단의 공식적인 파송을 받기도 했습니다. 그러나 파송된 지역에 산재해 있는 선교사를 순회 방문하는 것은 울산교회 담임 목사로서는 이상이었지 현실적이지는 못했습니다. 그 후 또 몇 년의 세월이 흘러서 선교사 멤버케어위원회가 만들어졌고, 10년은 넘게 섬겼나 봅니다. 그러다가 목사로서 정년 은퇴를 하고도 5년이 지나서, 이번에 비로소 태국 치앙마이와 필리핀 마닐라를 방문했습니다. 그것은 울산교회를 함께 섬기다가 선교지로 나온 분들을 만나보고 싶은 마음의 부담 때문이었습니다. 태국에서도 어디를 가든지 선교사님의 이야기를 듣고, 필리핀에 와서 어제도 종일토록 선교사님의 이야기를 들으면서, 이제 비로소 순회선교사의 꿈이 이루어졌다는 생각을 합니다.
이번에 방문한 치앙마이의 양정금 선교사님과 마닐라의 최학정 선교사님의 공통점은 착한 분들이라는 것입니다. 하긴 사도 바울의 말대로(딤전 3:1), 착하지 않으면 할 수 없는 일이, 목회이고 선교라고 생각합니다. 돈이면 이 편한 세상을 잘 살 수 있다고 믿는 사람들 사이에서, 목회자나 선교사는 돈을 추구하지 않고 자신의 삶을 주님께 드린 분들입니다. 게다가 이번에 제가 만난 분들은 공통적으로 선교사의 원대한 꿈을 이루려는 야망이 없는 분들입니다. 다만 주님이 어떻게 자신들을 사용하실지, 필요하면 기다릴 줄 아는 분들입니다. 무화과 나무 아래에서 하나님의 나라를 대망하는 나다나엘의 후예이고, 사이프러스의 농장을 팔아 예루살렘의 배고픈 제자들을 먹이던 착한 사람 바나바를 떠올리게 하는 분들입니다. 어려운 사람들을 위해서 자신을 내어주고, 속이면 속아주고, 악을 악으로 갚지 않고, 섬김을 통해 신불신 간 주변 사람들에게 믿음을 주고 선한 영향을 끼치는 사람들입니다.
두 분이 지금은 그럴듯한 선교센터를 건축하여 다른 분들의 부러움을 사고 있지만, 이 분들은 그것들이 내세울만한 아무 것도 아니며, 다만 주님이 하셨을 뿐 아니라 사람들을 섬기기 위해서 사용될 것을 마음으로 깊히 믿고 있는 분들이어서 존귀해 보입니다. 선하신 우리 하나님께서는 그들의 인맥이나 그동안의 경험을 한 부분도 낭비하지 아니하고, 선교지에서 알뜰하게 다 사용하셔서 한 분은 청소년들을 섬기는 사역을 하고 계셨습니다. 또 한 분은 여느 선교사들처럼 한국에서 오는 선교팀들을 때를 따라 섬기는 동시에 한인교회를 섬기고 또한 현지 교회를 개척하여 세운 사역자들을 동역자로 대우하며, 그들이 그들의 교회를 섬기도록 옆에서 격려하는 모습이 참으로 아름다워 보였습니다. 선교라는 이름으로 현지인 위에 군림하는 이들이 흔한 선교지에서, 이처럼 귀하게 사역하는 것을 보면서 사막의 오아시스처럼, 광야의 백합화처럼 아름다워 보였습니다. “잘 하였도다 착하고 충성된 종아 네가 적은 일에 충성하였으매, 내가 많은 것을 네게 맡기리니 네 주인의 즐거움에 참여할지어다.”라고 한 날 주님께서 칭찬하실 것입니다.
On Chuseok day, I traveled from Thailand to Manila in the Philippines. Together with Missionary Choi, who came out to greet me, I arrived at the mission home late at night. I briefly conversed with Pastor Park, a guest staying at the neighboring mission home, and then went to sleep, as the hour was already late. The next morning from 8:00 a.m., over cups of coffee, a long conversation with Pastor Hak-Jung Choi and his wife began. Moving from one place to another for lunch and dinner, our fellowship continued well past 8:00 p.m. As someone aptly remarked, "How joyful they must have been to welcome guests with whom they could open their hearts and converse with ease! It will surely bring great comfort and strength to the missionary couple." It has been more than 35 years since I first harbored a deep desire to visit missionaries simply to listen to their stories. Back then, a missionary who had departed for Papua New Guinea fell out of contact for quite some time. I desperately wanted to fly out immediately to see him, yet for a pastor leading a newly planted church at that time, it was nothing more than an elusive dream.
As the years passed, about twenty years ago, a gathering for denominational itinerant missionaries was formed at our home in Ulsan. A pastor from the homeland and a senior missionary would team up, and we were officially commissioned by the denomination to divide the globe into regional spheres and conduct itinerant pastoral care. However, traveling around to visit missionaries scattered across vast mission fields remained an ideal rather than a practical reality for the senior pastor of Ulsan Church. A few years later, a Missionary Member Care Committee was established, and I served there for over a decade. Then, five years after retiring from active pastoral ministry, I was finally able to visit Chiang Mai, Thailand, and Manila, the Philippines. It was prompted by an abiding burden in my heart to visit those who had once served together at Ulsan Church before venturing out into the mission field. Wherever I went in Thailand, I listened to the missionaries, and here in the Philippines, having spent all of yesterday listening to their stories, I felt that the dream of an itinerant missionary was finally being fulfilled.
What Missionary Jung-Geum Yang in Chiang Mai and Missionary Hak-Jung Choi in Manila hold in common is that they are genuinely good and gentle-hearted people. Indeed, as the Apostle Paul wrote (1 Tim. 3:1), pastoral ministry and missions are callings that cannot be truly fulfilled unless one is good. In a world where people believe money is the key to living comfortably, pastors and missionaries are those who have relinquished the pursuit of wealth to surrender their lives entirely to the Lord. Moreover, the servants of God I met on this journey share an absence of personal ambition to build grand missionary empires. They are simply content to wait upon the Lord and see how He wishes to use them. They are true spiritual descendants of Nathanael, yearning under the fig tree for the kingdom of God, and they bring to mind Barnabas—that good man who sold his estate in Cyprus to provide for the hungry disciples in Jerusalem. They pour themselves out for those in need, allow themselves to be taken advantage of without malice, refuse to repay evil with evil, and exert a quiet, righteous influence that inspires trust among believers and unbelievers alike through genuine service.
Both of them have now established respectable mission centers that draw admiration from others. Yet they view these buildings as nothing to boast about; rather, they hold a deep, heartfelt conviction that it is entirely the Lord's doing and meant solely for serving people, which makes them appear all the more noble. Our good God has not wasted a single connection or grain of their past experience. Utilizing them gracefully on the mission field, one is dedicated to serving youth, while the other faithfully hosts visiting mission teams from Korea, ministers to the Korean diaspora church, and honors local church planters as true partners in ministry—standing beside them to encourage them as they shepherd their own congregations. In mission fields where it is regrettably common for workers to lord it over the local people in the name of missions, witnessing such precious servant-hearted ministry felt like finding an oasis in the desert, like seeing a lily blooming in the wilderness. On that final day, the Lord will surely commend them: "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!"
Op die feesdag van Chuseok het ek vanaf Thailand na Manila in die Filippyne gereis. Saam met sendeling Choi, wat my kom verwelkom het, het ek laat in die nag by die sendinghuis aangekom. Ek het nog ’n kort gesprek gevoer met ds. Park, ’n gas wat in die aangrensende sendinghuis tuisgegaan het, en toe gaan slaap, aangesien dit reeds baie laat was. Die volgende oggend vanaf 08:00 het ’n lang gesprek met ds. Hak-Jung Choi en sy eggenote oor ’n koppie koffie begin. Ons het van plek tot plek beweeg vir middag- en aandete, en ons samesyn het tot verby 20:00 die aand voortgeduur. Soos iemand dit so raak opgemerk het: “Hoe bly moes hulle tog nie gewees het om gaste te verwelkom met wie hulle hul harte openlik en ongehinderd kon deel nie! Dit sal gewis groot troos en krag vir die sendelingpaar wees.” Dit is seker al meer as 35 jaar gelede dat ek vir die eerste keer die vurige begeerte gekoester het om sendelinge te besoek net om na hul verhale te luister. Destyds het ’n sendeling wat na Papoea-Nieu-Guinee vertrek het, vir ’n geruime tyd van die radar verdwyn sonder enige kontak. Ek wou dadelik soontoe vlieg om hom te sien, maar vir ’n leraar van ’n pasgestigte gemeente was dit destyds niks meer as ’n onbereikbare droom nie.
Met die verloop van tyd, sowat twintig jaar gelede, is ’n reisende sendelingvereniging van ons kerkverband in ons huis in Ulsan gestig. ’n Plaaslike leraar en ’n senior sendeling het spanne gevorm, en ons is amptelik deur die sinode afgevaardig om die wêreld in streke te verdeel en reisende sendingbediening te behartig. Om al die verspreide sendelinge in daardie aangewese streke te besoek, was egter vir die leraar van Ulsan Gemeente ’n mooi ideaal wat moeilik met die werklikheid versoen kon word. ’n Paar jaar later is die Komitee vir Sendelingsorg (Member Care) in die lewe geroep, waarin ek vir meer as tien jaar gedien het. Uiteindelik, vyf jaar ná my emeritaat as predikant, kon ek hierdie keer Chiang Mai in Thailand en Manila in die Filippyne besoek. Dit spruit uit ’n diepe innerlike las om diegene te besoek wat vroeër saam met my in Ulsan Gemeente gedien het voordat hulle na die sendingveld vertrek het. Oral waar ek in Thailand gegaan het, het ek na die sendelinge geluister; en ook gister in die Filippyne het ek die hele dag na hul verhale geluister. Ek besef nou dat die droom van ’n reisende sendeling uiteindelik werklikheid geword het.
Wat sendeling Jung-Geum Yang in Chiang Mai en sendeling Hak-Jung Choi in Manila gemeen het, is dat hulle opregte, goeie mense is. Soos die apostel Paulus immers geskryf het (1 Tim. 3:1), glo ek dat herderlike bediening en sendingwerk take is wat ’n mens eenvoudig nie kan verrig tensy jy ’n goeie hart het nie. Te midde van mense wat glo dat geld die sleutel tot ’n gerieflike lewe is, is leraars en sendelinge dié wat afstand gedoen het van geldbejag en hul lewens volkome aan die Here gewy het. Boonop het die mense wat ek hier ontmoet het, geen persoonlike ambisie om grootse sendingmonumente op te rig nie. Hulle is bloot bereid om geduldig te wag en te sien hoe die Here hulle wil gebruik. Hulle is ware geestelike afstammelinge van Natánael, wat onder die vyeboom na die koninkryk van God gesmag het, en hulle herinner ’n mens aan Barnabas—daardie goeie man wat sy grond op Siprus verkoop het om die honger dissipels in Jerusalem te voed. Hulle gee hulleself prys ter wille van behoeftiges, laat toe dat ander hulle te na kom sonder om wraak te neem, vergeld nie kwaad met kwaad nie, en boesem deur hul diensbaarheid vertroue in by gelowiges sowel as ongelowiges terwyl hulle ’n heilsame invloed uitoefen.
Albei het nou indrukwekkende sendinghuise opgerig wat die bewondering van ander wek, maar vir hulle is dit niks om op te roem nie. Hulle glo met hul hele hart dat dit louter die Here se werk is en uitsluitlik bedoel is om mense te dien—wat hulle des te meer edel maak. Ons goeie God het nie ’n enkele van hul verhoudingsnetwerke of lewenservarings tot niet laat gaan nie, maar dit alles vrugbaar op die sendingveld aangewend: die een wy hom aan jeugbediening, terwyl die ander, soos talle getroue sendelinge, gereeld sendinggroepe uit Korea ontvang, die plaaslike Koreaanse gemeente bedien, en inheemse gemeenteleraars as gelykwaardige medewerkers behandel en bemoedig om hul eie gemeentes te lei. Op sendingvelde waar dit helaas dikwels gebeur dat werkers in die naam van sending oor die plaaslike bevolking heers, was dit soos ’n oase in die woestyn, soos ’n lelie tussen die dorings, om hierdie kosbare dienswerk te aanskou. Op daardie groot dag sal die Here hulle gewis prys: “Mooi so, goeie en getroue dienskneg! Oor min was jy getrou, oor baie sal Ek jou aanstel. Gaan in in die vreugde van jou heer.”