At the end of the 20th century in Korea, volunteering was not considered desirable. At the time, the country was just coming out of the Asian financial crisis and, before that, the people were busy. So busy, in fact, that the nation was able to collectively work its way out of grinding poverty, national division and the Korean War in nearly just one generation.

In the earliest days of Service For Peace, an international service learning organization established by Dr. Moon in 2001, in Korea, volunteerism was not a part of the public psyche. For the nation’s youth and their parents, with growing concerns over test scores and job placement, service to others was not considered a priority.

Dr. Hyun Jin Moon talking to Service for Peace volunteers.

Service For Peace’s fledgling oversea projects began with a handful of youth visiting Thailand, Mongolia and other neighboring Asian nations during their summers. The projects brought conflicted communities together to address shared concerns like building local schools, planting trees, and rebuilding communities hit by natural disaster.

Since then, attitudes have changed dramatically.

These days, one would find Incheon International Airport perpetually flooded by Korean students during the summer holiday season. Yet, they are not on their way to a luxurious vacation, but rather on a mission to serve others in foreign countries. In the period from 2009 to 2013, the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) reported dispatching over 20,000 volunteers to offer assistance to those in developing countries.

Other civil society groups, including many religious organizations, likewise send out volunteers on overseas mission trips. Korea is now considered exceptionally notable for a large number of missionaries it sends out to countries all over the world. In another trendsetting move, Korean churches are now sending “silver” missionaries – retired, elderly people who wish to live out their retirement by serving as missionaries in other countries.

Service for Peace and Global Peace Foundation are also part of this wave of service, providing opportunities for Korean youth, businesses and elderly to volunteer abroad through projects like All-Lights Village.

International volunteers traveling aboard to support the All-Lights Village project.

In these and other creative and interesting ways, Koreans are finding the will to live out the spirit articulated at the founding of the Korean nation in this next K-wave. Hongik Ingan, translated as the will to bring “broad benefit to all humanity” is at the core of Korean national identity and is Korea’s greatest legacy.

As new generations re-discover this legacy through service abroad, we must not forget to live this out in the home. The practice of this spirit in one’s family, community and society will also renew the nation while deepening and strengthening any and all contributions to the global community.

This can take shape in the active engagement of Korean youth in the grassroots work of building the “Korean Dream” with practical programs and activities that advance Korean reunification and reconciliation. Together with their North Korean brethren, they might make the kind of lasting, global impact that truly allows all Koreans to bring benefit to all humanity.

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The footprints of the Twin Towers in Manhattan are now a memorial to the bravery and service of responders.

Even as the dust was still settling from the twin towers in Manhattan and the Pentagon in Arlington, Dr. Moon went on a 12 city campus tour to urge American young leaders to respond to the incidents of 9/11 not with violence, but with service, with love in action.

“I urge you to take the message of Service For Peace rooted in the ideal of living for the sake of others, to every single family and community in America and to every single nation and community throughout the world. If we do this, then the promises that arose from the ashes of Sept. 11 will not be wasted, for the true war against terrorism and conflict, in general, can only be won in the realm of heart. Only by breaking down the walls of hatred, vengeance and misunderstanding can the seeds of peace truly blossom. “

9/11 was a call to action for the American people to dig into their heritage of service to a greater purpose. It was a call for America to stand not just as an economic and military superpower, but a presence that brought the deeply divided human family together.

In his State of the Union Address in 2002, President Bush reflected on the events following 9/11. “In the sacrifices of soldiers, the fierce brotherhood of firefighters, and the bravery and generosity of ordinary citizens, we have glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like. We want to be a Nation that serves goals larger than self. We have been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass.”

A recent post on the www.globalpeace.org on the Global Forum on International Service hosted at the World Bank pointed out that service has been and continues to be a crucial part of America’s heritage and national destiny.

Service has been a integral part of America’s heritage.

The final lines of the Declaration of Independence calls on the citizens of the newly formed nation to, with reliance on Divine Providence, “mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor” to support of the declaration. The Independence war was fought largely with volunteers, farmers, bricklayers, and smiths, who put down their tools or trade to pick up muskets to fight for their liberty.

And although many calls to service were military, in 1960, President Kennedy made a national call to philanthropy and volunteerism as a means to fight back the spreading Cold War. Subsequently, Kennedy created the Peace Corps, a corps of volunteers who were America’s new ambassadors of goodwill to the far corners of the world. Service became the new form of diplomacy and peace-building.

The war against terror has yet to be won, as ethnic, cultural, ideological and religious divisions still spark conflict. Yet, the service movement continues to grow.

As the anniversary of 9/11 nears, it is good to make a renewed commitment to service, beyond one’s family and community, to include one’s global family and community. Service is a universal connector for it touches a deeply spiritual core in each person.

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Gundong Lee (right) with a local volunteer (left) from Sharili drive mobile libraries to circulate Dream Catcher Library books to remote areas.

Summer is well underway and the Global Peace Foundation, Global Peace Youth Corps and affiliate organizations like Service for Peace are sending young volunteers overseas.

Service brings out the best in young people:

• their ability to see beyond long-standing divisions,
• their innovation, 
• their hope
• and most of all, their power to dream.

In 2010, Dr. Moon challenged Korean youth, “What will your generation do with your capacity to dream? Will you dream a small dream or will you dream the greatest dream of all?” Serving abroad is the perfect way to expand one’s capacity to dream.

Meet, Gundong Lee, featured on Chosun.com in 2011. At the time, he was 28. He initially came to Nepal as an international volunteer with Service for Peace Korea. He told Chosun, “The Nepalese staff thought I was too meddling, especially because they thought I would not stay here forever.” Contrary to the Nepalese staff’s assumption, he stayed and become project director of the Children’s Center and Dream Catcher Library in Sarlahi, a district about 12 hours from Kathmandu.

In 2012, Nepal ranked 157 out of 186 nations in the UN Human Development Index. According to Hon. Ram Hari Joshy, former Secretary of Education and Secretary of Tourism of Nepal, the key to development is “Education…Unless people change, this world will not get any better.”

The Service for Peace projects in Sharili focus on education. Behind book covers, and within the warm shelter of the Children’s Center, dreams are taking flight.

The Dream Catcher Library houses 6,000 books and a computer lab that offers computer classes. After school, children and college students gather at the library to study and read. Local volunteers support a mobile library system that circulates the books by bicycle and car to families in remote areas. A women’s literacy program also operates from the Dream Catcher Library. To date, hundreds of women have learned to read and write through the program.

The Children’s Center offers a haven for orphans of the 14 year Nepali civil-war. The brunt of violence passed through the Sharili region leaving many children parentless and homeless. Chosun.com wrote, “The children of the center call Gundong Lee “Appa” or dad in Korean.”  He come as a foreign volunteer, but remained to heal and raise his adopted Nepalese children. Today, international volunteers frequently join local program coordinators for months at a time to care for the orphans. They forever remain a part of the Children Center’s growing extended family.

Experiences like Gundong Lee’s, forge deep bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood with communities abroad. Young volunteers are placed on the job and immediately expected to find common goals while working and learning with people who speak different languages and come from different cultures, religions and lives. What manifests is the dream that pulses through every human vein.

The world’s current and future leaders dreams are expanded to “the greatest dream of all”.

This video by Service for Peace Korea highlights the dreams of people who use the Dream Catcher Library and Children’s Center. Your Dreams, my dreams, our dreams.

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Bright faces of young volunteers gathered for a youth forum.

Today was an exciting day in Korea. On May 5, Korea celebrates Children’s Day.

For Children’s Day, instead of being at a picnic or amusement park, hundreds of young students gathered at Jeon Nam University – Yeosu Campus to open their youth forum.

The forum focused on the theme “Youth Volunteerism for a Sustainable Marine Environment.” Over the next two days, the students will:

–          learn about the ocean and its related issues,

–          discuss what it means to become a “sea-tizen,”

–          do a study tour through the Yeosu Expo,

–          and brainstorm projects they can launch in the coming months.

We hope the young leaders can walk away with a greater vision for the world’s oceans and seas, and become advocates for volunteer service opportunities connected to the marine environment.

Sharing laughs with a young student.

I applaud and strongly encourage sea development programs and global volunteer opportunities such as those offered through Service For Peace.

Today I wanted to encourage all the young people to DREAM BIG and connect all their volunteer efforts to greater goals for their nation and for this world.

Enthusiastic youth shout YES! We want to DREAM BIG!

The young people are growing up during a time of globalization and their minds are not divided by nation or by culture. Many spoke English, some had lived in America.  I see so much hope in this younger generation leading the way to building a world of peace.

It was an enthusiastic group.  Many are actively involved in service activities.

I asked if any have been to North Korea.  Some had for projects, some as tourists. Some raised their hands when I asked if they had relatives in North Korea.  I asked the group, “Do you want to join a service project in North Korea, and will you bring along all your friends?”  They enthusiastically responded, “YES!”

I am excited to see what they will post in the coming days. I am eager to read their pledge slogans on how to become responsible stewards of the ocean, and I want to spread their marine environment volunteer projects ideas.

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A beautiful shot of Yeosu. On the southernmost tip of Korea, it has a fantastic view of the ocean.

Today I arrived in Yeosu. It’s a beautiful coastal city on the southernmost tip of South Korea. It overlooks the ocean and numerous outlying islands. The Yeosu International Expo 2012  will officially open next week May 12, 2012. Its theme is “The Living Ocean and Coast”.  The Expo will bring together the global community to address the most pressing issues of the ocean. It will celebrate the beauty and biodiversity of the ocean and feature cutting edged research and technological advancement in ocean sciences. For more information go to: eng.expo2012.kr.

Here is the program we received: Volunteer Forum at the 2012 Yeosu Expo “Conservation and Regeneration of the Marine Environment”

I was moved to see that the Expo has been a national effort. The national and local governments have been working closely together. Moreover, grass-roots volunteer efforts have provided significant support. More than 14,000 Korean citizens have volunteered their time and expertise to ensure the Expo’s success. The Korean Council of Volunteering is responsible for the enormous task of organizing, educating, and preparing all the volunteers. I am happy that Service For Peace Korea could assist. I am here a week before the Expo opens to attend a forum hosted by the Korean Council of Volunteering, The Korean Forum of Volunteerism, and Service For Peace Korea. They saw the Yeosu Expo as the perfect opportunity to discuss the advancement of volunteerism in Korea and its contribution to managing the ocean. Korean volunteers, service organization leaders and professionals all interested in the future of our oceanic resources came together to study and discuss the theme, “Conservation and Regeneration of the Marine Environment.” Starting next week, millions will start coming to Yeosu Expo 2012 from all around Korea and the world. I hope this forum can be a part of building solutions for preserving and managing the ocean and spreading a wave of international volunteerism.

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