UNWANTED MIGRATION

Returning to a beloved neighborhood, Itaewon

10/29/2024

Migration season continues. David and I are back to Korea looking for a nest. My parents moved out of Seoul to a small city called Buyeo. It’s an hour west of Daejeon where my whole family grew up. I hope to introduce Buyeo to you one day as the best way to know is by visiting in person! It’s a very quiet place where one of Korea's ancient kingdoms, Baekjae, had its capital. This historical capital is significantly different from where my parents were in Korea’s current capital. In Buyeo, they enjoy the wide sky, golden rice fields, and a touch of ancient Korean spirits. Due to my parents’ own migration, David and I are again searching for a home in Seoul.

If you are wondering where in Seoul we desire to live, I need to mention a town called Itaewon. Itaewon is a very special place. An area where the US military stationed for 70 years, it also has attracted minorities, foreigners, refugees, and LGBTQ communities. It’s located in the very center of Seoul where people who couldn’t afford the surrounding 3 million dollar homes settled. However, my first visit to Itaewon wasn’t too impressive. Even before my parents originally moved to Seoul, I remember visiting Itaewon with childhood friends. We were not familiar with Seoul at all, but heard about Itaewon, known for its diversity and colorfulness. We planned to eat Indian food for the first time, but my friends did not try much after all. The Song of ten years ago didn’t know that she would meet someone very important in two years who would make Itaewon such a special place.

When David came to Korea back in 2019 as an exchange student, he didn’t only come to learn my language and culture. He came to connect with Korean people and learn from them. The Baraka community in Itaewon was introduced to David through a Christian couple. Its official name is ‘바라카 작은도서관 (Baraka Little Library),’ and it operates as a community center for immigrant and refugee children and mothers living in Itaewon. This couple heard about Yemeni refugees rushing into Jeju Island in 2016. Originally serving in Egypt, this couple was able to speak Arabic with refugees and help them find homes and jobs. They moved to Korea to temporarily help the Yemeni refugees, but found a more lasting work to be done here. Ever since David connected with the Baraka community, he has received inspiration and encouragement in this diverse community, with its intersecting languages and peoples.

We moved to a small place near Baraka earlier this year for a couple months. It was so sweet running into our neighbors from the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other countries on the street. David wouldn’t schedule anything for Sunday afternoon because he wanted to play with kids while mothers enjoyed their gathering time. We wouldn’t call it “our ministry” because often we were the ones being cared for, prayed over, and fed. The oddness of walking through night clubs and transgender bars and then past Seoul’s only mosque to get home became a daily routine. Everyone seemed misplaced, lonely, and lovely in this odd land.

<Sunset, view from our temporary home, Jan 21. 2024>

When we returned to Korea last month, we were told that most people and businesses moved out of the section where our neighbors were. We knew it was happening. Seoul’s city development plan had been a thing for almost two decades, but the city had conflicts with residents. The plan finally got approval and moved forward, and 10,000 homes (imagine every household in Paducah, KY needing to move out of their home) fell under this development plan, including many people from the Baraka community. Homes, shops, churches, temples, and every other building are going to be destroyed for multi-million dollar luxury apartment complexes. Walking the streets again, I saw kids in different colors playing soccer together for the first time in this neighborhood. Where will they go? It is such a loss that my country chose a path for rich people over this diverse community.

One day, we wanted to capture the neighborhood in photos before its demolition, so I borrowed a DSLR from a cousin. David and I walked around the streets and small alleys where we used to stop for a cup of coffee or take a day walk. Every shop was empty, and nobody was there. Only yellow caution tape and abandoned furniture were welcoming us. It was when we finally sat down after shooting that I realized the camera did not have a memory card! All the photos we took for hours were gone. I felt empty. What I wanted to save by photography was lost. Photos of stray cats sitting on empty chairs, churches with their gates closed, rows of fridges standing oddly… And the emotional energy we spent facing these scenes… But in the moment of devastation, David reminded me of an important perspective. In a small way, we experienced our neighbors’ loss here. In that moment, we lost photos, and yet people are losing their homes and experiences and living memories. Just as I didn’t plan the loss, neither did they.

I’m planning to go back to Itaewon soon and take photos again. Until then, I invite you to sit with me in the weight of loss. And I invite you to pray for people around the world who have experienced and are facing unwanted migrations. There are many more stories to be told from this community, so I will continue on next month’s.

<David's favorite cafe that is now gone, Feb 5. 2024>

Would you lovingly pray for Songbird in these ways?

1. That David and I would find an affordable home in Seoul near our Baraka communities.

2. That my parents would continually adapt well into their new place and ministry.

3. My KY dad is having a surgery regarding his colon cancer. Please pray for healing and recovery.

3. That the Lord would teach us wisdom of resiliency in our current situation.

4. That I would experience God in small, daily ways.

Nesting Together #5

What have you lost recently? How does this loss make you feel?

Visiting neighboring nests

Other birds' answers to "in what creature would you symbolize yourself?"

My creature bridges the sky, the land, and the underground as a gopher-bird. It flies into the heights, loves and lives in the trees , and its songs fill the air with beauty. But it is part gopher as well, tunneling underground (my inner world) on its journey, and coming up to the sunlight and grasses for food and fresh air.

Idk why but I have chosen this animal as my fav for a long time. Probably bc it’s somehow a mammal that lays eggs and has a beak. Just a strange creature that breaks all our expectations of what a mammal should be.

A local bird here- a sanate and a USA bird- a crow. It would be a hybrid but hidden. They are both black. Considered ugly. But their beauty and intelligence is magical. We are a beautiful mix of earthy and divine. Of culture and spirit.