I am the fruit of Ohio mission. I never thought of my own faith journey being related to Ohio. I grew up a Korean Methodist. When I was 16 years old, I first met Jesus through Rev. Sung Chan Kim, a local preacher who was building a church next to my family’s home. 

He changed my heart in a strange and warm way and my course has been set since then. I had to take a strong stand as an early Christian to challenge my family’s long, long Buddhist-Confucian tradition. But Methodism was strong in me and that Methodism came to Korea from Ohio. 

Mary Scranton and her son William Scranton arrived in Korea from Ohio in 1885 with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They were the first missionaries to the country, which was a poor and darkened place under Japanese colonial power. Mary was a 52-year-old widow with a servant’s heart. There were circuit riders in her ancestry, and she was a person devoted to God. She was also committed to educating women. William Scranton was a 29-year-old doctor who had finished medical school in New York and practiced in Cleveland. When he became very sick, he prayed to God and said that if God healed him, he would dedicate his life to the mission of the Church. 

Mary and William became a significant foundation of Korean Methodism. They were supported in their ministry by Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Cleveland. That church merged with Epworth Memorial Church in 1919 to become Epworth-Euclid Methodist Church. The church was called Epworth-Euclid United Methodist Church in 2010 when the congregation merged with First United Methodist Church to form University Circle United Methodist Church. I am claiming that church as sacred ground.

Mary Scranton founded Ewha University, the largest women’s university in the world which has raised many global leaders. The epitaph on her grave in Missionary Cemetery in Seoul reads: "Today, the education of women in freedom, love, and peace bears fruit in this land, because Mrs. Scranton sowed the seeds in the garden of Ewha School." 

William Scranton was a man of Jesus who lived with the Koreans. He participated in their lives and culture and opened hospitals for the poor and the abandoned everywhere. I have deep respect for his spirituality and devotion and his nurturing of leaders who are committed to the cause of independence and liberation. 

The mother and son team from Cleveland also planted several churches in Korea and instilled an amazing scriptural heritage. Now the Korean Church has become the largest mission-sending country in the world.

I have been nourished by what Mary and William Scranton began. From 1979-1982, right before coming to the United States, I was the associate pastor of Eastgate Church, which is Scranton-planted. What a wonderful gift to now serve as bishop of the Ohio Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church.

Life is full of mystery. So, when I say rise-up sisters and brothers, all my siblings, it means I am saying rise-up with that vision that Ohio missions is such an amazing influence on worldwide Christianity. Ohio is the center of the missional movement in the world.

My humble prayer is serving Ohio, deepening our spiritual roots and the passion and love for Jesus’ gospel begun so many years ago. I have so much pride and love for The United Methodist Church in Ohio.

Let us commit again to missionary passion and leave the walls of our church buildings to be the hands and feet of Jesus Christ in the world.