ACA Student Newsletter

Issue No. 68

Inside this issue

Cover Story, 1-2 Seollal New Year, 3 GO Team, 4 Devotion, 5 Debate, 6 Student of the month, 7

March Calendar 6-7: California Achievement Tests 11-15: Educational Program with Peoria Christian School Mission Team 18-19: Middle and High School Retreat

February 2013 1

A m e r a s i a n C h r i s t i a n A c a d e m y S t u d e n t N e w s l e t t e r

Star

Star

light

“Living Testimonies” By Maryam Malik (11th Grade)

“Y ou have to speak out your story. You need

to let everyone know what has happened and is happening to you. I want the Japanese gov-ernment to know that they have committed a crime against us and that they have to be respon-sible for their actions. That’s why I’m telling you my story,” says the 85-year-old Kang Il-chul “halmoni” (Korean word for grandmother). Kang Il-chul

halmoni is one of the few living survivors of the sex slavery un-der Japanese occupation during WWII. The victims of this atro-cious act of sex slavery were teenage fe-males who were forcefully taken by Japa-nese soldiers to work as “comfort women” or, in a modern term, “sex slaves.” Today these strong survi-vors are broadcasting their over-

whelmingly cruel story and want people to acknowledge the violation committed against them. However, Japan still does not accept its crime and seek for

forgiveness. Efforts are made to reveal the testimonies of these vic-tims; House of Sharing, lo-cated in

Gwanju City, Gyeonggi-Do, is one of them. On January 8, few

(Continued on page 2)

February 2013

February 2013 2

Living Testimonies Starlight Staff

Members

Writers: Danny Choi David Choi Sergey Churkin Daniel Kim Elina Lee Maryam Malik Beyker Muente Artom Newell Minkie Porter Juhyun Son Daniel Sinclear Hajung Yang Paul Yu Editor:

Mr. Hamby

Publisher:

Mr. Kang -McCann

Kyonggi-Do, Dongducheon City P. O. Box 22, Republic of Korea Tel:031-868-2579 amerasian@mac.com

of the ACA students had the privilege to meet these living testimonies of sex slavery and hear their sto-ries in person. The students even got to visit the art ex-hibition where the paintings of the sur-vivors were displayed. According to a psychologist, these paintings were a process of mental treatment to let out their anguish of their past. It was also another way of testifying the callous experi-ences they went through. In re-turn of their in-trepidity and existence, ACA students prepared a song to show the appreciation and honor we have for them. “Seeing how this tragedy left lasting scars on these women and brought so much change in their be-haviors convicts me to help these women spread their testimo-nies,” says Daniel Kim(10th grade). “It amazes me how strong those women are to survive such tragedy and how willing they are to fight for it even today!” adds Beyker Muente (12th grade). Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, once said “I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to

the dead. And anyone who does not remember betrays them again.” This is what these halmonis are doing ever since Kim Hak-sun, another survivor

of the Japanese sex slavery, started the move-ment of spread-ing their testi-mony. Despite their old age, these halmonis willingly gather in front of the

Japanese embassy every Wednesday, demonstrating for an apology from Japan for the pain they have caused. By visiting them, ACA students have showed that their painful history will be remembered and honored. These

halmonis don’t want any money or sympathy from the Japa-nese govern-ment; all they want is an offi-cial apology and recognition for

their unfair past. As the song ACA students sang to the living testimonies goes, these people were “born to be loved”;; and their existence is an inspi-­ration to us all.

February 2013 3

Seollal New Year

S eollal, January 1 of the lunar calendar,

is one of the most celebrated national

holidays in Korea. While many people recog-

nize Sinjeong, the Solar New Year or January 1

of the Gregorian/Western calendar, most Ko-

reans consider Seollal a more important holi-

day than Sinjeong. Seollal lasts for three days

(the day before, the day of, the day after) and

during those days, they visit their hometown

where their parents and relatives are.

For Koreans, Seollal is more than a

holiday just to mark the be-

ginning of the year; it is a

special day for them. During

this holiday, Koreans usu-

ally wear hanbok (Korean

traditional clothes), perform

ancestor rites known as

charye, play folk games and eat traditional

foods. Before the actual day of Seollal, they

prepare about 26 various kinds of Korean foods

for the next day’s ancestor rites, and then on

the early morning, they set the table up with all

those foods. Around 8:00 a.m., or earlier, they

start the ancestor rites by bowing down and

take turns offering the drink to the ancestor.

Usually, only men and children bow

down and women don’t. They mostly

participate by preparing all the foods and

standing beside during the rites. Al-

though not all families celebrate the

same way, this is the usual routine of a

typical Korean family on Seollal.

Every Seollal, people spend a huge

amount of money to buy food ingredients for

the ancestor rites and to give children money

when they bow down to the elders according to

the Korean tradition. As the time goes by,

people rarely keep the tradition of Seollal and

many choose to spend less money. However,

others worry about the future of Korea without

all these tradition rites and they are truly will-

ing to keep their traditions.

Here in ACA, many stu-

dents are from international

families or are in a Christian

family so they don’t actually

celebrate the Seollal in the

same way as other Koreans

do. However, regardless of

the cultural differences, many students spend

busy time with their family during Seollal.

Justin Chang (9th grade) said,

“Since my family is a Christian

family, we did not have the ances-

tor worship but we did have an

awesome time together.”

Seollal New Year (February 10th)

By HaJung Yang (11th grade)

Global Outreach Team By Artom Newell (11th Grade)

I n about a month and a half, the ACA Global

Outreach (GO) Team will be boarding a plane

to the Philippines. There is still a lot to be done

in such a short amount of time. The biggest obsta-

cle is fundraising. This year the GO Team has to

raise five million

won. The ACA GO

Team, five teachers

and eleven students,

should not have any

trouble achieving all

their goals.

On the 4th of

February the team

met for the first

time in 2013. The sixteen members were broken

into five different groups: Drama (Bible Story),

Games, Bible Activity, Arts and Crafts, and Kin-

dergarten, each led by a teacher. Also, Ms. Triphan,

who was the 2nd and 3rd grade

teacher last year at ACA, and

Mr. Diggs, who is the president

of the MACK (Movement for

the Advancement of Cul-tural-

diversity of Koreans)

Foundation and a good friend

of Mr. Kang, are joining us this

year. Ms. Triphan will be com-

ing from US. She will join us in

the Philippines.

ACA will have multiple fundraisers until the

deadline to help us reach our goal of five million

won. Maryam’s favorite fundraiser is the sale of

snacks and drinks during lunch time, but this alone

will not reach the goal. The GO Team is also plan-

ning events like bowling, ping pong tournament,

and an art exhibition to name a few.

Ha-jung Yang, the Student President and a

three time GO team member, said, “ I have been

looking forward to this mission trip since I came

back from the last

one!” The first

time member,

Anya Marchenko

said, “I am really

nervous, but really

excited at the same

time.” There are

many obstacles we

have to overcome. That is one of the reasons why

the whole team will be meeting every Monday for

prayer and preparation until we depart. We are also

asking all of our readers for prayers as well.

February 2013 4

Global Outreach Team

Sun-jung Yang (9th Grade) will be helping out at the Arts and Craft Station with Anya and Ms. Lindsay.

You can help! -Please pray for our team members. -You can donate funds. Make a check out to ACA (T. H. McCann). Send the donation to: ACA Gyeonggi-Do, Dongducheon City P. O. Box 22 483-600 Republic of Korea Thank you!

February 2013 5

Devotion

“3 Seconds Of Hope” By Ju-hyun Son (10th grade)

“and the God of all grace, who called you His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm

and steadfast.” (1 Peter 5:10 NIV)

A re there times when you felt like giving up on life? Living in this world is stressful. Bad things happen constantly and I never thought my life was “good.” Many times I doubted and questioned God. Ever since I was little, it seemed like nothing good happened. My parents

divorced when I was 8 years old and I had to live with my dad and sisters. Living with them was really hard for me. I remember when my sisters ran away from home, because of our family situa-tion. There was this anxiety and fear that we lived with, while we were still living with my dad. I never understood him. It was like we were in prison; I had no idea what was going on. We were so careful with our actions. I had no one to rely on or someone I could talk to about this situation. One day, one of my sisters took me to church. The people there were so kind, and they showed it by giving gifts to me, wanting to talk to me, and even smiling at me. Everything was so new. That’s when I started going to church. Every night, I remember praying and talking to God about everything, literally “everything.” My life went on like that. Once, my dad allowed me to live with my mom, but my mother was had her own problem. Then my father decided to take me back with him. I lived with my dad only because my sisters had already gone to Australia. A few years later, I went to Australia too, right after finishing third grade in Korean school. Even in Australia I had a hard time. I had to constantly move from house to house. But it was not like I did not have good times there. I loved my friends and school. After all that, I came back to Korea by my sister’s request. When I came back to Korea, I didn’t know which I was going to attend. One of my father’s friends knew about Amerasian Christian Academy, and that is how I came to this school. Even in this school I had difficulties with religion, friend-ships, and studies. As I became a high school student, it got worse. A lot of things happened in my life. I always complained about my life, I always asked why my life had to be so difficult, why did I have to go through all this? Why me? I even thought about ending my life. But there was this one verse that stopped me from doing what I thought about. 1 Peter 5:10 says that when hard times come, He will restore us and makes us strong—firm and steadfast. He knows how much we are suffering and what we are going through. Just imagine how amazing it will be being with God in our eternal life. God showed me that I should be like Job in the Bible, that even when he lost everything, he still trusted God whole-heartedly. So my point is, “trust in God, and trust in Him no matter what happens to you. I know it’s hard and takes a lot of faith, but remember, He was, is, and will always be the One that you can go to.”

“So my point is, ‘trust in God, and trust in Him no matter what happens to you.’”

Student Debate

Yes No

N o, I do not think the Korean government is doing enough to help

multicultural students. Although it seems like they are doing a lot to help and provide what multicultural students need, they are merely getting rid of the apparent problems. They need to look ahead and create some meaningful programs. Let’s take a look at our own school. ACA was established in 1999 for purpose of educating the multicultural students. However, there never has been any involvement of the Korean government helping our school. Many multicultural students still struggle with many needs.

6 February 2013

By Elina Lee (10th grade)

As Korea’s economy improved, the country became more international. Immigrants from other parts of the world, especially around Asia, have increasingly come to Korea. This has led to an increase of multicultural families and students. The Korean Government has taken part on helping international students, because of the increased population of multicultural students. However, the question is: “Is the Korean Government doing enough to help multicultural stu-­dents?”

Y es, I think the Korean government is doing enough to help multicultural

students. According to the news, around 90% of multicultural students attend a Ko-rean public school and there are some edu-cational benefits for them. Moreover, the Korean government provides special cul-tural programs and some funding to help out these multicultural students and fami-lies. I get to hear a lot from news about what the government is doing to help them.

Is the Korean government doing enough to help multicultural students?

Ha-jung Yang (11th Grade) Minkie Porter (11th Grade)

7

Student of the Month

Name Grade Favorite Subject

Favorite Actor/Actress

Nationality Favorite Color

Kyle Tyler K Art Spider man Filipino Red

Gurnoor Kaur 2nd Math Rapunzell Indian Blue

Yusie Kikuchi 4th Art Sul Kyung Koo

Korean/Japanese Blue

Obed Osei 6th Science Jackie Chan Ghanaian Sky Blue

Evgeny Cheremisim

8th History James Bond Russian Red

Beyker Muente 12th Bible Denzel Washington

Peruvian Blue

February 2013