When we moved to Montclair in 1991, we started attending a church called KUPC. My husband wasn’t a Christian at the time, but a customer of his fish market let him know the church had a Korean school. He thought teaching the kids Korean was important, so that’s how our family’s journey into Christian fellowship began.
We ended up attending that same church for 24 years, and by 2010, we were serving by hosting the college group’s monthly fellowship. I cooked for the students but didn’t always know exactly how much to make, so they tried to be punctual in order to secure their plate!
One day, the pastor in charge of the college group asked us for a bigger favor. The student president, Hosuck, couldn’t afford his rent and needed a place to stay for a month. Hosuck was a student from Korea attending a school in NJ to become a physical therapist. My in-laws weren’t thrilled with the idea because Anne was still in high school. To them, taking in a male college student in the same household didn’t seem appropriate. As always, though, my husband and I had a hard time turning away someone in need; we decided to risk it and let him stay for a month.
I thought offering someone a room simply meant giving them a bed to sleep in, but I quickly realized I’d signed up to provide room and board, because in our culture, we can’t exclude anyone who lives in the same house during mealtime. I felt the pressure to put a bit more effort into the menu than I was used to doing when cooking for just my family. Fortunately, Hosuck was not at all picky and adjusted well to our dinners.
One month became four months by the time he had to go back to Korea. When he came back to take the board exam a couple of years later, he stayed in his old room and studied before the exam. We celebrated with him when he successfully passed the exam and became a physical therapist.
A couple of years later, he married Mikyung. He’s now the father of three children. My husband always refers to Hosuck as “the one who represents the true American dream.” He came to America with no money but now lives in a house in the suburbs and cuts the grass on weekends. When he first brought Mikyung to our house, we were as happy for him as we would be for our own son. We told them that we would like to be their guardians in the U.S. since both their parents live in Korea. Hosuck even invited us to sit in the family seats at their wedding since their parents could not attend.
After the wedding, we received a card from the couple that warmed our hearts. It said, “We would like to pay it forward and serve others as you have helped us.”
My mother used to complain that people she helped out over the years mostly forgot about her care. She thought we were lucky because the people we cared for still remember us. I agree. We are lucky. I feel very grateful people we’ve helped a little seem to remember us and try to repay us. Hosuck still sends us gifts on every holiday.
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