When a Supermarket Became My Hero
No matter how hard I tried to explain my Indonesian origins to those around me, my face erased my story.
Inheritance Remembered
Enjoy your cultural tapestry
Embrace your ancestral terrain.
Remember they once had nothing
Remember from whence you came.
If My Nose Could Reclaim Heritage
Look at her nose.
It’s like mine.
I am both
I couldn’t see myself as both
not because I did not want to
but because society told me I couldn’t be
both
Psalm 17: A Prayer for Asian Americans
Over time, the soft yet profound distinctions between being Koreans in America and being Koreanamericans settled into our lives. Ye Eun yielded to Julie as I underwent a nearly complete transformation and became a cultural stranger to my ancestors. Yet to this day, no prayer moves me more than ones uttered in my mother tongue.
Where I’m From
I’m from “Did you eat yet?” and “Practice your piano,”
From “Don’t get to dark or you’ll smell like the sun”
Angry Prayer: Tongsung Gido and Our Difficult Emotions
What tongsung gido had been saying all along is this: our negative emotions have a place in our relationship with God and with each other. We are all angry. We all know the contours of despair. We have only to direct our cries heavenward, together.
On the “Ching Chonging” AAPI Communities Often Endure Within Institutions of Higher Education
Americans of Asian descent deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and Keon’s public denigration of Asian languages and cultures contributes to the pernicious pattern of anti-Asian prejudice, discrimination, racism, and violence endured in our communities for generations.
AACC Statement on the Gun Violence in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay
There were 38 mass shootings in the first 23 days of 2023. What illusions that gun violence is not a problem the Asian American community needs to wrestle with have been tragically shattered.
How to Improve Mental Health in Asian American Churches
On this episode of the Erasing Shame podcast, Dr. David Chao shares about the pioneering work of the Center of Asian American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary that's paving the way for Asian Americans to more fully experience the abundant life.
A Year “2” Remember: A Journey Through Asian American History of the Years that End in “2”
We must do the good work of remembering and remembering actively. When we do this, we are able to better anticipate and address the issues that impact Asian American communities across the US and to work towards a justice for all that falls in line with the heart of God for healing and wholeness driven by the church.
Who is the Jesus of Advent?
The God of Advent is not a God of wealth, privilege, or status. The God of Advent is lowly–identifying with a forsaken place of our world.
I Didn’t Go to Church This Year…
How can we find peace and hope in the midst of the realities of relationships, anxieties, and responsibilities? Where is the joy?
Where's the Joy in 2022?
But also within the last year, amidst God’s bride acting less than holy, God has reminded me along the way that my hope and joy truly are found in him.
Those Who Walk In Darkness
This holiday season, may we rest in the knowledge that the God we worship is not one who is intimidated by our suffering.
Inhabiting the Hole of Advent: Transfiguring Asian American Futures
What if the problem is not our perceived foreignness at all, but our perpetual propensity to play the game? Maybe the way out of this perception is not ultimate economic empowerment, but a transfigured desire that perpetuates the possibility inherent in the empty space of Advent.
“You bring your gun to church?” A Chinese American Pastor’s Reflections on the Epidemic of Gun Violence
There are lots of reasons that people own guns. For comfort, to collect, as part of their jobs, for personal defense, or for sport. But as pastors and as a church, we cannot ignore and be silent on guns anymore.
Dare to Dream: A Reflection on the AACC Gun Violence Symposium
To take a stand against gun violence requires more than decrying it from the pulpit, we must go to local legislators and communities to bring about tangible change.
Not Korean Enough: Experiences of Imposter Syndrome While Leading a Study Abroad, and a Prayer in Response
I have a confession to make: I am not as “Korean” as I appear to be.
Reclaiming Chuseok and Mid-Autumn Festival for My Children
Teaching my children has been extremely meaningful in my own journey of reclaiming the forgotten parts of my identity, even those parts I did not know had been forgotten. There is a deep healing in reconnecting and rediscovering our roots.