Korean-American Church Helps Kids in L.A.

For the fourth year Gracious Ark Christian Reformed Church in Los Angeles has partnered with others in the Korean-American community to help children in poverty during the summer.

The program—with a motto of “Today’s Healthy Children, Tomorrow’s Healthy Community”—is run by donations and by volunteers, especially young adults of high school and college age.

Rev. Enoth Kim, an assistant pastor and director of the program, said, “We are happy that we could meet smiling children in enjoyment through this whole program and happy to see youth and young adults volunteer as well as parents.”

Rev. Dong il Kim (second from right) with volunteers for Gracious Ark CRC’s summer program.

Parent Grace Seo said, “I am mother of two kids. My children enjoyed a lot with good discipline.”

Another parent, Yun Jang, became involved as a volunteer. “The program was so good even for the parents.  They learned so much through parenting classes and practical volunteering.”

Enoth Kim said the program has grown to the point where it  cannot accommodate all the children. “Because of the limited spaces and resources, we cannot accept all of them who are interested. This year we had to limit to 170 students and about 50-60 had to be declined.”

Joshua Kim, coordinator of the program, said, “This is an excellent experience for volunteers from ninth grade and above to learn leadership and volunteerism.”

In 2010, the program was selected as a beneficiary of a “2009 Love Bazaar” award hosted by Korean Daily Newspapers.

“As we know, Jesus said, ‘You are the light of the world.’ Following his words, we are delighted to learn that our program is establishing a new loving, serving community,” said Rev. Dong il Kim, a pastor of Gracious Ark. He believes this project is important and wants to partner with other Korean-American Christian Reformed churches in California.

The program always needs financial support. In 2009, Kim ran the L.A. Marathon to raise funds for it.