Remembering the Past through Art
Bible Women
Watercolor by Haesung Choi
A couple of years ago I ran across on the internet some old photos of the first foreign missionaries to Korea and the early believers. Since then I have bookmarked many websites that archived these missionary photos and even printed many out so I can paint them. It was a natural process for me to paint them as a way to express my feelings as I was learning about the early mission history in Korea.
My ever increasing collections of photos always have a way of bringing me to tears no matter how many times I have looked at them. I am forever grateful for the American, Canadian and Australian men and women and their children, who gave their lives to bring the good news to my great great grandparents’ generation of Korean people. I’m also very grateful for the first believers, especially the Korean women, who after receiving their new identity in Christ, embraced a totally new lifestyle that had not existed for generations. I always wonder what it was like to be the first female believer in your entire generation of family. The first woman in your family to be given a real name, first to be educated, and the first to be an important member of the community.
Some of my favorite photos are of older women. There are many photos of older women carrying bible tracks going door to door on foot sharing the gospel. The missionary communities called these women Bible Women. One very well known among them is Grandma Samduk, who was a concubine of a rich man in Pyongyang, North Korea. After her conversion, she is known for bringing 600 people to Christ.
Grandma Samduk
Watercolor by Haesung Choi
I find Dr. William Baire’s words best describe the Christian women of this era. He was a young graduate of seminary who arrived in Korea in 1901 and was at the center of a major revival that broke out in Pyongyang in 1907. “We never have any difficulty in recognizing a Christian old woman. All her life long she has been in ignorance and virtual bondage, scarcely as valuable to her husband as the ox that ploughs his field, rising in the dark to cook the meals for her lord and master, eating whatever remains after he has finished, toiling, often with a baby on her back, not only in the house, but frequently in the field with the men. Unwelcome at birth, unloved through life, and with no hope of a better world beyond, she lives continually in fear of the demons that populate earth and sky; afraid to live and still more afraid to die. When to such an old Korean women, just about to pass out into the unknown terrors beyond, comes the message of God’s love and forgiveness and of a home in heaven, and she understands enough to know that God loves her and gave his Son in her stead, all the glory of it fills her soul to overflowing. It shines forth like sunshine, beautifying her old face with the love of Jesus.” *
* William Blair & Bruce F. Hunt, The Korean Pentecost and the Sufferings which Followed, Banner of Truth, 1977
Walk to Church
Watercolor by Haesung Choi
About the Author: Haesung is a water-media artist who loves to paint people in their ordinary environment. Her desire is to capture the beauty and sacredness of seemingly mundane moments of human experiences. She and her husband Young served in Taiwan for 10 years as All Nations field workers.
(Instagram @c.haesung)
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Lessons from the Least, the Last, and the Lost, All Nations Weekly Devotion by Blake Staton, M.Div.
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