This is the story of Rev. Jeong Gyeong-wan (40·Young Adult Division of Yangmuri Church, Gunsan) who took part in the 6-month underwater search and recovery efforts off Paengmok Port. He spent six months as a diver engaged in the underwater search for persons missing in the Sewol Ferry disaster.
From the time of the disaster on April 16, 2014, Jeong participated in the search and recovery operations as a “diving specialist,” not as a pastor. Battling the strong underwater currents, he looked unceasingly for (the bodies of) the children until November 11, the 209th day after the disaster, when the government announced the official end of the underwater search. To be precise, he was there from April 25 to November 11.
Korean church circles were unaware of the fact that a Christian pastor was part of the underwater search activities. The only ones who knew were his church (Yangmuri Church; pastor Rev. Hong Gi-pyo) and the members of its young adult division, of which he is in charge. This was because Rev. Jeong did not wish to be known by “the world” for what he was doing. His church supported him with intercessory prayers.
Jeong devoted himself to retrieving the bodies found inside the sunken Sewol Ferry in almost zero visibility. He could not bear the day-to-day work without prayer. “I could see nothing, the water was so turbid. All I could do was call out ‘Oh God, Father, Father’ and hang on to God,” he testified. His waking life for those six months on the barge was a continuum of searching and praying.
He said, showing deep grief, “It seems to me that God let me participate in that task to witness how greedy our society is… But now I feel like I ran away from it; I feel sorrow and pain for having left behind the nine who are still missing.” In despairing tones, he added, “I don’t understand why the government had to call it off, when the search in the SP1 (multi-bed passenger room) section, crumpled when the ferry sank into a mud, was not impossible.” He also pointed out that the government’s response “hasn’t changed at all” throughout the search process.
In response to a question, he questioned me back, “Look, there may be one Christian among every four persons throughout the world. But didn’t this greed-induced Sewol Ferry incident happen because we Christians neglected to live as “light and salt” in the world? Isn’t that the reason those kids, those early blossoms, had to die?”
I met him on December 1, 2014 at Paengmok Port in Jindo. A windy snowstorm was sweeping the port that day, but the bereaved families’ booth still stood near the ocean, awaiting the missing persons. Efforts to light the prayer candle were useless in the storm.
On this day, Rev. Jeong prayed for a long moment in front of a cross that someone had stood by the breakwater. For both the praying one and the one who watches, the hurt continues. It is not something we can forget, or call off, because nine persons are still somewhere under the ocean.
[On December 1, 2014, Rev. Jeong stands at empty Paengmok Port upon his return there. (Photo by senior reporter Kang Min Seok, from Paengmok, Jindo)]
- This place must be heartbreaking for you, more than anyone, but you’re back again after only about 20 days since the pullout.
“It hurts very badly that we left the missing nine and withdrew from the search operations. I feel like we abandoned them and ran away. It was not impossible to find the rest…”
- Are you going to go back in the water if you’re given another chance to recover the nine persons?
“Of course, I will. In fact, there are sections in the ferry that we ‘cleared’ (meaning, completed the search in a particular area) several times during the past few months. But we never got to search the SP1 section even once before we had to end the search. That particular section was crushed when the ferry hit the ocean floor, and the mud that piled up made it difficult to search. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean the search is impossible. It is a section we can’t give up, but we couldn’t disobey the order to pull out.”
The words “search is not impossible there” were the faith confession of a shepherd traveling in search of the one lost sheep. He added that most of his fellow divers at that time agreed, “There’s no ‘impossible’ if we just have enough time.”
“As we entered October, some of us began to suffer from diver’s sickness. Everyone was very tired. People worried particularly about the civilian divers. The Coast Guard and other organizations worried too much, without cause. And that ‘oversensitivity’ appeared as a media play. The divers, however, all felt, ‘We’ve come this far, so why stop now?’ But the command group had already recognized the will of the government and the Coast Guard, and started pulling out. That is why we didn’t get to search the SP1 section. These days I include in my prayers the spirits of those who may be left in SP1.”
- What do you feel sorriest about? Though you surely did your best…
“I have a seven-year-old son. I would go home to Gunsan when the weather was bad and the boats were moved to nearby ports. Every time I saw him, my son asked, “Dad, how many are left?” Now I’m back home, but my son asked me again several days ago, “How many are left?” I answered, “There are still nine.” He asked, ‘Then how come you’re not going?’ I couldn’t answer him.”
- You are a pastor; how did you come to participate in the search operations? Even though you were qualified, it must have not been an easy decision, due to your ministry.
“In 2010, I earned a ‘skilled diver’ license from the Human Resources Development Service of Korea. I’m from the remote island of Eocheongdo, off Gunsan. My grand-uncle and my father were Meoguri (divers who harvest seafood). And I was preparing to become an overseas missionary, so I thought having a skilled diver’s license might be helpful for my mission in the future. When the Sewol Ferry disaster occurred, one of the senior divers at the Gunsan branch of the Maritime Rescue and Salvage Association asked me to go with him to the disaster site. I just went; I didn’t need to think twice about it. Later I persuaded the head pastor and members of the young adults group of my church (to accept my decision).”
- Around April 29, by the time you were put into the actual rescue operations, there was almost no possibility that the missing persons had survived. And people were reproaching God for what had happened.
“Yes… The day I arrived there, a barge owned by the company ‘Undine’ (Undine Marine Industries Co.) was newly added. The 100 some divers, exhausted from the continuous search operations, had been sleeping at night on flattened boxes on the floors of the Coast Guard’s patrol boats. Owned by a commercial company, the Undine barge was equipped with lodging facilities, so our circumstances were greatly improved. The divers went underwater about four times a day. The current was fast, churning up the water so that visibility was no more than 50 cm. And when we moved around in the water, it became opaque to the point of no visibility at all. Every day we found corpses. Because we had to work whenever the current slackened, we got just three or four hours of sleep a day, at most. As those with Army experience will understand, we were ‘the group ready to move in five minutes, 24-hours a day.’ We had to go and search as long as we had any energy left.”
- You must have felt many different things, particularly when you, a pastor, had to retrieve the bodies yourself.
"The first corpse I recovered was a girl student, on April 29. You know if it’s a female because of the long hair. When you touch a corpse, the body feels like a completely soggy mattress. I would hand the corpse to a No. 2 diver because I’m a No. 1 (an experienced diver on the frontline of the search), then the No. 2 would bring the corpse near the water surface, about 20 cm underwater, and hand it to another diver. That diver would pay homage to the deceased person, embrace the corpse, and board the boat. Each time, I would repeat to myself, ‘God, this person is innocent.’ What sin could they commit? They were just like the youth group kids I used to teach in Jeju or Yongin in Gyeonggi-do. Several days later, I recovered the body of a teacher from a passengers’ room on the fourth floor.”
- The site around the barge must have been the most horrible scene under the sky. How were you able to bear the miserable sight?… If I’d been in your place, I think I would have been speechless with shock.
"All the student corpses had some things in common: They were wearing life vests, and all their hands were clenched. There were no scars on their hands. I think they all faced death suddenly, while waiting for the next announcement as they had been told to do. It seems that they clenched their fists in the effort to hold their breaths as they went under the water. In mid-May, the corpses began to decay… [I do not have the heart to write down what I heard.] Whenever the divers came together, we cursed the captain… saying he deserved to die. If only he had ordered them to get off the ship, all the passengers wearing life vests could have survived...”
- Haven’t you suffered from bad dreams?
"The reality itself was a bad dream. You know, the round-shaped windows on ferries… those windows are really thick, and not easily breakable. But one girl student was found with her head stuck in one of those thick, small windows... She had tried to break through it to escape. We all cried at the horrible scene. My body still shakes whenever I think of that youngster fighting for her life. That very night, I read Psalm 23 over and over again. It says ‘(we) shall dwell in the house of the Lord (our) whole life long.’ It reads, ‘You (the Lord) prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.’ I believe in the resurrection of those who were victimized and died innocent deaths, including those kids.”
- There are persons near you who have been directly affected by the incident. Didn’t your family try to stop you?
"One of the missing was the niece of my school senior (a pastor)’s wife. She was the youngest of four daughters. Their family used to live in Jejudo, but moved to Ansan four years ago. For the niece, it was a school field trip to her own hometown. The parents requested that adults with children not come to her funeral. And one of the divers in the search operation, someone I know well, had a nephew missing. He searched here and there trying to find his nephew, in the passenger rooms on the fourth and fifth floors where he might be. Then later he had to leave the search operation, because he had to be with the bereaved families’ group. I took over the area where he used to search, and maybe two days later I found the corpse. My wife didn’t disagree with my involvement in the search operations. Because I had already told her before we got married that I was going to become an overseas missionary, I guess she thought this, too, was something she was capable of enduring.”
-The endeavors by the divers must be beyond imagination.
"Hwang Ji-hyeon, the 295th victim out of the 304, was found and recovered in the central women’s restroom on the fourth floor. Just since July, however, we had already searched that very space three times. Probably, the Navy, the Coast Guard, and the civilian team altogether went into that room 10 times. All those times, she was beyond our fumbling hands. That tells how difficult the rescue operation was. The challenging situation also increased the number of victims among the rescuers.”
[On the command barge, Rev. Jeong (right) communicates with an underwater diver. (Courtesy of Rev. Jeong Gyeong-wan)]
- How was the divers’ group composed? I heard it was a mixture of Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian divers.
“There were about 60 civilian divers and another 60 some divers from the Navy and the Coast Guard including the Sea Salvage & Rescue Unit (SSU) and Underwater Demolition Team (UDT). On the barge, there were about 200 in total, including the assistant workforce and others. The Navy and the Coast Guard were on a three-shift system, and the civilian team was on a 24-hour system. When the underwater rescue company changed from ‘Undine’ to ‘88 Underwater Development,’ they adopted ‘nitrox diving’ to make the diving time longer. The nitrox increases the proportion of oxygen, and can double the operation hours from the existing 30 minutes. Civilian divers adopted that technique and increased their operation hours, but the Navy and the Coast Guard refused, saying the technique was not properly verified. The Coast Guard’s attitude throughout the search operations made me think a lot. Firefighters don’t hesitate to run into fire even though they know it is dangerous. How is it that no one (from the Coast Guard) jumped in, using the improved method in this incident? Because it was not ‘proved’? No, because they were untrained. I felt that these public officers were not capable of guarding the citizens.”
-During the search operations as well, I’ve heard that you experienced constant problems due to the confusion between the Korean Coast Guard and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF).
“On behalf of some 20 divers, I prepared paperwork for them to submit to the Coast Guard. During the process of submitting the papers and getting confirmation of their receipt, the staff in charge of the matter was changed four times. Each time, the new staff asked me to submit the papers. When I told them that I already had, they replied that they didn’t have the papers anymore because the staff had been changed. So I would send in the papers again. Once, they asked me the same question again within the space of just one week! They said it was because the job was a rotating duty. On the level of director alone, transfers took place three times. Even if that was the case, they could’ve handed the papers over to the new staff and given them an update. With MOF, it was the same. When we inquired about medical treatment for the divers, the Coast Guard told us to go to MOF, and MOF directed us to the pan-governmental countermeasures headquarters. None of them took the responsibility, but just forwarded us here and there, round and round.”
- How are you doing physically? You should be preparing yourself to prevent aftereffects such as decompression sickness.
"At the disbandment ceremony, a high-ranking person in the Coast Guard thanked us for our efforts and told us to get a pre-arranged physical examination. This is another long story, but anyhow, I happened to be the first one to go to the hospital in Samcheonpo, Gyeongsangnam-do, which is equipped with a hyperbaric oxygen therapy center. Then and there, they said they had never been contacted about any such thing, and told me to make inquiry at an underwater rescue business. And the Coast Guard and MOF continued sending us back and forth between each other. The Coast Guard finally said, ‘If you need treatment, get it, pay for it out of your own pocket first, and wait.’ I haven’t heard anything from them for the past two weeks. We felt as if we had been used only when necessary, and that was it. What if divers get seriously ill? There is already a serious shortage of Coast Guard divers.”
- You followed your duty according to emergency rescue regulations, but went beyond that, jumping immediately into the rescue site. As a pastor, I guess you must have relied on the Holy Spirit.
"During that work, I didn’t clarify that I was a pastor, because teamwork is what counts. But people around me asked me if I was a church deacon or elder because they saw me praying and reading the Bible when I was up on the barge or taking a rest. And fellow divers asked me to ‘pray hard’ so that we could retrieve the (missing) kids quickly. I would then pray for the divers’ safety. I thought several times about quitting. The church’s young adults’ summer camp was coming up. My young adults group encouraged me continuously, but as their pastor I felt sorry. At the same time, I couldn’t leave my colleagues who were struggling with diver’s sickness, or the nine missing persons. My Sunday worship service had to be in the sunken ferry. I don’t think I would have been able to do that work without the Holy Spirit leading the way.”
- You didn’t want your left hand to know what your right hand was doing, but we seem to have caused trouble for you.
“My story became known when I talked on the phone with the senior pastor of my former church. Then my denomination’s social service division heard the story. I decided to speak out to let the public know that the Korean church had always been there, throughout the rescue operations, ever since the disaster. For the divers and bereaved family members at Paengmok Port, and for volunteer caregivers and relief service providers, the Jindo-gun Christian Council and the Korea Church Relief Team were there until the very last day. During the earlier days, right after the disaster, the divers complained a lot because only three side dishes were provided with each meal, despite the fact that they were exhausted from caloric depletion due to their work. Luckily, we received encouragement as well as physical energy when the Korean churches brought snacks all the way to the search barge. They also brought daily necessities. People tend to remember only those who hold loud events. But the Council and the Relief Team were the ones who stayed on after all the others had left the port. I responded to the interview request because I wanted to let Christian believers know the efforts of the Korean church. We believe that one life is more precious than the world, don’t we? The Korean church has always put its efforts into saving that one life.”
Senior Reporter Jeon Jeonghee (jhjeon@kmib.co.kr), from Paengmok, Jindo, with Yeara Ahn-Park (yap@kmib.co.kr)
Click here for the original article in Korean
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