News and Views

By Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

Bethany Korean Fellowship started just a few years ago, but on Feb. 7, they took a major step into mission, partnering with Meals on Wheels and BGE in an unusual outreach to the seniors in their Ellicott City community.

The small chapel, across the parking lot from Bethany UMC in Ellicott City, will serve as a staging place for home-style Korean meals to be prepared for 20 Howard County citizens. Members of the congregation, working with Meals on Wheels, which provides the food, will assist in delivering the meals to people’s homes.

BGE is paying $35,000 to Meals in Wheels to provide two meals a day for these 20 participants for the first year. 

It’s a big undertaking, says the Rev. Dae Sun Park, one that congregation had to prayerfully take time to discern how, and even if, they might participate. They were originally reluctant, but recently chose to join this adventure, the first for Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland to bring cultural meals to ethnic populations.

The food is being prepared by a Korean caterer, Who Chon, and will include a rotating menu of Korean meal standards, including soup.

Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman (left) stands with the Rev. JW Park, superintendent of the Central Maryland District (right).

Park is excited about the church’s participation, he told community leaders at a kickoff event in their sanctuary Feb. 7. Even more important than the food is the comfort and companionship the volunteers can deliver when they volunteer on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, he said. “Our church will do its best.”

This spirit of mission delights the pastor. It is, he said, a mark of growth. For its first two years, Bethany Korean had only about 20 people in worship. During the past year, they have been worshipping with 100 people in attendance, about a third of whom are young people. 

Also in attendance at the Meals-on-Wheels ceremony was the Rev. JW Park, superintendent of the Central Maryland District. Almost 20 percent of the population of Howard County are Asian, and a large percentage of that population is Korean, the superintendent said. “Meals on Wheels is doing a ground-breaking thing reaching out to this ethic group and it’s my prayer that they will extend their reach even further to other ethnic groups,” he said. “We pray God will help us to be mindful of all our neighbors.”

Yumi Hogan

Joining the two Rev. Parks at the kickoff ceremony were Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman and Maryland’s First Lady, Yumi Hogan.

Hogan, the wife of Maryland’s governor, recalled her days growing up in Korea in a time when rice wasn’t always plentiful. “Food is so important,” she said, before she and Kittleman set out to deliver the program’s first seven lunches at a nearby apartment building.

Every day in Central Maryland, Meals on Wheels volunteers deliver 3,000 meals. 

“We are all God’s children,” Hogan said. “We are all sons and daughters of God.”