JOY ELLEN YOON — 2022 Lay “O” Award Recipients

When Dr. Stephen Yoon and I were freshmen at Olivet Nazarene University, the biology department posted the pictures, names and hometowns of all the incoming students. As Stephen was reading the names of the incoming freshmen, he saw the picture of a Caucasian girl whose hometown claimed to be Daejeon, Korea. Stephen, a native-born Korean, was intrigued, and as a result, later introduced himself to me, who had grown up in Korea as the daughter of foreign professors. It was from our connection at Olivet that our relationship sparked; foreshadowing both a marriage and a career founded on faith and inspired by a country and culture that held special meaning to both of us.

ONU is the place where we developed into world-oriented Christian professionals. Whether serving in full-time ministry or not, we are all to minister through who we are, through our talents and skills, our profession, and our personal relationship with Christ. Much of our ministry foundation as lay ministers began at Olivet.

I wasn’t initially interested in attending Olivet, as many of my family members worked at and had attended the University. However, I ultimately decided it was the perfect environment in which to foster my love for biology and my heart for the world.

Olivet was not even on the radar for Stephen until serendipitously learning about the University from a classmate in language school. But as soon as he stepped onto campus, Stephen knew that it was the right place for him to cultivate a calling to serve overseas as a medical professional.

At Olivet, we fully embraced opportunities to get individually involved in extracurriculars like athletics and academic societies, and participate together in volunteer trips to San Francisco and China. Our time at Olivet set a strong academic and spiritual foundation for lives of service as cross-cultural humanitarian workers.

For both of us, one key Olivet memory is the chapel in which Joni Erickson Tada received an honorary doctorate. In fact, many chapels left long-lasting impressions upon us, but none greater than this one. Little did we know that years later we would be serving children with disabilities. Perhaps that chapel was the beginning of our hearts being stirred for the disabled around the world.

Following graduation from Olivet, Stephen completed a chiropractic degree from Cleveland Chiropractic College, D.C., and a Rehabilitation M.D./Ph.D. from Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). I completed an M.A. in biology from the University of California Los Angeles, as well as graduate certificates in special education from Walden University, educational therapy from University of California Riverside and the TEACCH Autism Program from the University of North Carolina. These academic experiences further expanded our understanding of the needs of disabled children and how we were specifically equipped to help address those needs.

In 2008, we founded IGNIS Community in North Korea. Through IGNIS Community, a multi-organizational, multi-cultural and multi-national ministry team, we lead a team of 38 adults and 29 children from eight different nations in how to serve through medical, humanitarian and social entrepreneurship avenues in one of the most secluded countries in the world.

Before we came to Pyongyang, North Korea, there was no medical training or therapy to treat children with developmental disabilities like cerebral palsy or autism. But after a few years of successful treatment of children with developmental disabilities at the hospital in Pyongyang, the North Korean Ministry of Public Health has agreed to establish Pediatric Rehabilitation Centers through our IGNIS Community in all ten provincial hospitals in the country.

Top political leaders in North Korea have signed off on our medical project to ensure its success and longevity, providing a glimmer of hope for physical restoration and geopolitical reconciliation in an area that has been plagued by division. Since then, we have been instrumental as unofficial ambassadors on the Korean Peninsula, writing official letters to the North Korean government as well as speaking to international organizations, including in New York at the United Nations.

In this way, we have been honored to serve, if even in a small way, as a bridge between the divided peoples on the Korean Peninsula. Receiving the “O” Award for our humanitarian work in North Korea this October at 2022 Olivet’s Homecoming was an incredible honor. Despite the many obstacles we face in engaging with North Korea, our hope is that this award will highlight the work we do and bless the children of North Korea.