Born in London to Korean parents, Yun Kyung was a fish out of water. The daughter of missionaries, she traveled often and spent seven years growing up in Egypt. While in Egypt, she attended a Korean school and later an American one. Boarding schools were a big part of Yun Kyung’s education and childhood, so time with family was precious to her. During high school, a door opened for broader education, but again somewhere far away. In the second half of sophomore year, Yun Kyung began attending a private Christian high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Since the opportunity arose from an Oklahoma-based missionary organization, she had to drive an hour to school.
After graduating high school, Yun Kyung took a gap year to spend time in Korea with her family. Traveling so much through her young adult life, friendships and relationships were not always easy. During the gap year, she had been encouraged to attend John Brown University where she eventually made life-giving friendships.
Yun Kyung said when she was in middle school and high school, there was a missing piece of her life. “Something was lacking in me, something only God can fill it up not people, but I was asking people to do that,” she said. “But now, I don’t expect anything from them. I just like them, and they do too. I learned to share things and not do something in expectation. Before it was give and take. ‘I did this for you but why didn’t you do this for me?’ These days I don’t really care, I just say I can do this for you! I don’t expect anything back, ya know.”
Yun Kyung also described what it was like every time she would move or leave a school. “I don’t think I ever felt sad or bad to leave. Back then, I think I liked the attention. And when I am leaving, I get all the attention. I think I enjoyed that.” Yun Kyung said she was never truly sad to leave her friends whenever she changed schools because she got bored and was ready to move on. “Till now,” she said. “Right now, I am having a good friendship.”
A pivotal change in Yun Kyung’s life happened while she was back in Korea. Due to the pandemic, Yun Kyung had to return home and attend all her JBU classes online. Switching to online was difficult because this meant Zooming while on Korean time. She did classes in the middle of the night, which took a toll on her physically and emotionally. “I think I had depression. It was so heavy and dark. I cried, wept, every single day and only one thing I could do was read Psalms.” Yun Kyung said it was Psalms that kept her alive.
During this dark time in her life, Yun Kyung heard a new song from a friend who was in a band. The song was titled “The Lord’s Prayer” and Yun Kyung said listening to the song felt like experiencing it new for the first time. She wondered, “What would the Lord pray about?” and got to experience it in the song. Afterward, she immediately prayed to God and realized something. She had been praying to God with the wrong perspective all this time. She had been asking Him for things, instead of listening to Him, like in a real conversation; similar to her relationship with friends in the past.
Yun Kyung said she asked God what He would say to her. What happened next, she said, was unbelievable. He called her name four times and asked what she was afraid of. Yun Kyung said she did not know until it hit her. She was afraid of failure. “It sounds really simple but that was everything to me at that time. And I was like, ‘You have asked me the exact question that I needed to be thinking about.’ It was not like ‘I love you’ and ‘I bless you’ but He asked the most necessary question to me personally. So, that was a change in my life.” Yun Kyung felt heaven was having a party that night, just like the verse in the Bible which says Heaven rejoices whenever a new sinner comes to Christ.
Both of Yun Kyung’s close friends Ember Brown and Annette Reyes attested to Yun Kyung’s dedication and faith. Brown said, “A lot of time throughout the day if she is in a bad mood, she will just be like ‘I need to pray’ or ‘I need Jesus in my life right now’ and she is always going back to Him.”
Reyes said, “Out of all my friends currently, I think Yun Kyung has such an intimate relationship with God, in a way I can relate to. I think her faith means life or death to her.” Reyes described Yun Kyung as a young woman who deeply values reading her Bible daily and worshiping God. Yun Kyung is someone who inspires her to do the same. “I’ve seen myself get overwhelmed or feel anxious because I am not filling myself with the good things that give me a sense of peace despite everything. With Yun Kyung she really focuses on those aspects of our spiritual life more than anyone I’ve seen our age, and I think that’s where she struggles.”
From her interactions with Yun Kyung, Reyes said it seems like it’s hard for Yun Kyung to empathize with those not as close to God. Reyes elaborated, “She finds it hard to believe in other people’s relationship with God. You know without this, you can’t be close to Him. And I think there is a certain truth to that.” Reyes continued, “Her faith has allowed her to live life, to be here in America without her family and do all things she does because God has helped. I think she feels a sense of responsibility, something I lack, to see people and be like ‘You know you should be doing this, are you doing this?’” Reyes said she understands a lot of people, even herself, don’t like to be “smothered” which can come from being in a Christian home. People tell you what to do and how to do it, with regards to their faith. It can be hard to be told time and time again to read your Bible, go to church, and praise Jesus. In the end, we all need to be held accountable. Reyes said she appreciates Yun Kyung encouraging her to live boldly with faith.
Brown spoke on Yun Kyung’s struggles with perfectionism and how she sometimes beats down on herself. But whenever Yun Kyung turns back to The Word, Brown said there’s a noticeable difference in her friend. Brown added, “She’s also very honest. She might tell you what you don’t want to hear but she always says it in a loving way. She only says something if she really cares and wants you to get better.” Brown said their friendship has made a deep impact on her. Thanks to Yun Kyung, Brown does her homework more, exercises more, and tries to reach out more to friends like eating meals with people in the cafeteria. Brown said it has also stirred a deeper desire in her to find a home church.
In getting to know Yun Kyung and her fierce faith, Brown and Reyes were also getting to know Christ a little better too. Christ asks His followers to be reflections of Him. While Yun Kyung is not a perfect person, she loves her Savior, and her friends can see God’s light in her.