Mission life: THE KUKMIN DAILY

Families of Sewol Victims Visit NCCK to Ask Help for Sunken Ferry Salvage

2015-04-01 17:59

“The missing persons are human beings and citizens of this country. Is there something wrong in citizens’ requesting help to find fellow citizens? The innocent six-year-old Gwon Hyeok-gyu took off his own life vest to save his younger sister. The Republic of Korea has less empathy than that little boy.”

Ms. Lee Geum-hui, mother of Jo Eun-hwa, missing in the Sewol disaster, broke down in tears as she vented her frustration at the office of the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK) in the Korean Christian Building on Daehak-no, Jongno-gu, Seoul, on March 31.

On this day, five family members of missing persons from the Sewol disaster including Ms. Lee visited NCCK, and met with NCCK Moderator Hwang Yong-dae, General Secretary Kim Young-ju, and Son Dal-il, former moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Korea (PCK Tonghap). Ms. Lee continued her plea, “All the families of missing persons from the Sewol disaster say the same thing: We want to become ‘bereaved families’… Please help us find our missing family members. We hope the Korean church will help us recover them. The most urgent and necessary process for that is the salvaging of the Sewol ferry. The government won’t talk to us. Please help us.”

Ms. Park Eun-mi, mother of the missing Heo Da-yun, said, “My heart was in such pain that I wailed, ‘God, are you doing anything?’ I know that the churches have already helped us a lot, but I hope they continue to remember the missing persons.”

Hearing the laments of the family members, Moderator Hwang and General Secretary Kim consoled them, saying they would never cease to remember the Sewol disaster. Hwang said, “Listening to you in person, I realize that your lives do not feel like real living… NCCK will pray with you together continuously and exert our best efforts to find the children who are still in the water.” Kim said, “The most unbearable thing is the loneliness of the one who has been left alone. As God helped Elijah in his crisis, we’ll remember and participate together with you in the ‘first-person’ in response to this disaster.”


* In the photo, NCCK moderator Hwang Yong-dae (second from left) embraces and consoles Pan Nok-han, a Vietnamese Korean, who is the aunt of missing Gwon Hyeok-gyu.


Reporter Jin Samyeol (samuel@kmib.co.kr), with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok


Click here for the original article in Korean

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