Representatives of Chung Dong First Methodist Church and Wong (second right) visit Sibu Methodist Heritage Gallery.
Representatives of Chung Dong First Methodist Church and Wong (second left) in front of the house where Soung Wook and his family once lived.
SIBU: The grandson of Korean Christian missionary Reverend Kim Soung Wook led a team to visit Bintangor a few weeks ago to retrace his grandfather’s footsteps in Sibu.
Soung Wook was from Chung Dong Methodist Church in Seoul, South Korea.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, this church was building and training missionaries while Korea was rebuilding the nation following the Korean War (1950-1953).
Soung Wook, then 41 years old, was the first missionary from that church to step outside Korean soil. His first station was in Sibu.
Today, his grandson, known only as Dr Kim, is in Sarawak in an attempt to meet people who knew his grandfather.
Dr Kim and his team went to Bintangor a few weeks ago to retrace the places his grandfather Soung Wook had stepped on, and meet people who knew him.
“We celebrated the 130th anniversary of Chung Dong Methodist Church last year, and now we are digging up things to find out where and what the missionaries had done.
“One of our projects was sending out missionaries,” Dr Kim said.
According to him, his grandfather born in 1923 was a talented man who spoke very good Mandarin.
He went to Manchuria to study when he was 13 years old, which accounted for his ability to speak fluent Mandarin.
Soung Wook was a certified medical doctor who was also into farming, but he enrolled with a theological school after leaving Manchuria to return to Korea.
In 1964, he arrived in Sibu where he stayed for about seven months before moving to Binatang (now Bintangor) District to become a chaplain of Kai Nguong Methodist Church.
“He stayed there for four years, helping the district superintendent. He used to move around the district on a motorcycle, working with youths,” Dr Kim recalled.
In December 1969, Soung Wook returned to Korea for his sabbatical year, and later went to Ohio for theological studies.
In 1971, he returned to Bintangor where he stayed until 1974.
While in Bintangor, Dr Kim met a mechanic who used to repair Soung Wook’s motorcycle.
“What he remembered was interesting; the mechanic said my grandfather used to ride a classic motorcycle with the plate number DSA 175,” Dr Kim said.
According to Dr Kim, Soung Wook’s main work was with the Chinese community. His grandfather was passionate about missionary work and had given youths there much encouragement.
When he was in his 50s, Rev Soung Wook went to America and settled there until his demise in 2012. His wife returned home to Korea where she is currently staying with their son.
Since the Methodist Church was established in Korea in the 19th century, it has grown, producing more than 800 missionaries.
“After the Korean War, we were still struggling, and technically still at war. In those days, we experienced famine; the condition was really bad.
“At that time, how could they think of sending a missionary? I mean, if you have the money why send a missionary out?
“I think, what you have, you can send, you can do something, so it was a time to do something if you are a follower of Jesus, namely doing missionary in Sarawak,” he said.
The chief editor of The Chinese Methodist Message, Wong Meng Lei said the Methodist Church in Sarawak appreciated the missionaries who came here to spread the good news to locals.
“We were the church that used to receive missionaries, but now we are sending out missionaries. Since 1960s, the Methodist Church here has produced more than 60 missionaries,” Wong said.