Transitions in ECKCM
The summer of 2023 was a momentous one for me. For one thing, I was part of the Administrative team that oversaw the English Ministry portion of the East Coast Korean Camp Meeting. This was the first post-Covid camp meeting that was in-person since 2019 As the Admin team planned throughout the year, we all asked ourselves, what’s it going to be like? Will people still come, will the same spirit be there, will the program be good? It was hard to even find the coordinators and leaders for many of the departments, it seemed as if the pandemic years had negatively impacted the momentum of growth built in 44 years of ECKCM.
There were changes to the admin team as well. Not only did we add Sid Lee and Pastor David Kim (Pastor of Good Hope Fellowship) but Pastor Jimmy Kim, the head of the admin team for 12 years, stepped down. How could we run ECKCM without Jimmy? He was the administrative genius that knew the ins and outs of camp meeting. Julie Kim, Julie Kang, and Esther Kim were the other members of the Admin team. Besides Esther and me, none of the other 4 Admin members have ever been in leadership for an actual in-person ECKCM. Would we be able to manage the running of the EM ministries with all its minutiae of tasks that was required?
If we depended on our human efforts, I don’t know what results we could have gotten. But we put the plans in God’s hands, and we saw the Holy Spirit move through ECKCM in a mighty way. On Monday as we kicked off the camp meeting, we saw that the Heritage Hall, our old venue, was packed. As the praise team sang, “Deep, deep, down, down” the VBS kids filed in and sat on the floor as we ran out of chairs. I had a lump in my throat as I saw that the ECKCM spirit had not left but was renewed by the Holy Spirit.
On Wednesday we had the Battle of the Ages (BOTA). It’s a field day event of games that pitted different age departments against each other. This year was the first that English Adults and Hansamo would join in the games. It was a beautifully sunny day and the field was nice and dry, even after the heavy rains that had drenched the lawn previously. As each group sounded off their group chant, the field was alive with laughter and expectation. Sid Lee and Julie Kim did an excellent job of leading out BOTA and there was so much fun and good fellowship. English Adults coordinator, Tom Kim, said this event was the highlight of ECKCM for their department. It brought everyone together in a wonderful spirit of togetherness and friendly competition.
Performance Night on Thursday was another high point in the week, although it didn’t feel like it was going to be successful as we were planning it. Pastor Mark Kim was coordinator and throughout the year, he had been worried about the event. Admin team had decided we needed to make changes to Performance Night. We were going to make it voluntary for groups above juniors. Previously all departments had to do a performance. We tried to recruit people to perform throughout the year - we put ads in our social media pages, we asked pastors to nominate their church members to perform. But even as of Wednesday we didn’t have enough acts. But somehow when the curtains opened up on Thursday night, it turned out to be the best Performance night ever! One pastor’s wife said the music was so moving that it brought tears to her eyes. There was also a skit that had everyone in stitches even while it had a wonderful Christ-centered message. One west coast parent (first time ECKCM attendee) commented that if we had asked for donations right after Performance Night, he would have opened up his checkbook and would have written a large check right then and there. He was that moved by Performance night.
So different from what had happened that Thursday morning, that put all the good feels of camp meeting to a skidding halt. The KM admin team called for a meeting with the EM admin team and we realized that we were in a very bad situation financially. Although we had good attendance considering that we had a four year gap, the numbers were still down about 30% from 2019. We had priced the meals and lodging expecting that we were going to get similar numbers as before. With rising prices from UPJ, the hosting school, we were in a big deficit. We needed to bring in an offering of six figures to offset the deficit. With an aging and dwindling KM attendee population, it seemed impossible to make up the shortfall. We needed a miracle.
No, we did not get a miracle of a windfall offering. The offerings were good but not good enough. But what happened was something more miraculous. There was a momentous meeting between the pastors and EM admin and there was a big change. The KM leadership handed over the financial controls to the EM with a unanimous vote. The EM admin suggested that we create a separate financial board made up of fiscally adept EM lay people that would help manage things like - pricing, registrations, and budget. We will create a non-profit status for ECKCM (401c3), this had not been done before. Pastor David Kim and Esther Kim spoke confidently and competently to the pastors about the need for change to the way finances are handled.
As of writing this article, I am not sure where we are with the financial standing for ECKCM 2023, but I am confident that God will provide. If anyone is moved to donate, you can go to Adventistgiving.org and search for Andrews Korean Church and donate to ECKCM. You can also send a check to ECKCM c/o Jane Chung at 14 Locust Crest Court, Poughkeepsie, NY 12603. But I know that something special happened at ECKCM, and that spirit that we felt moving among us there will not be stopped. The dates for ECKCM 2024 will be June 23-30. Please make plans to come, you will not be disappointed.
I need not have worried about ECKCM 2023’s EM admin team. It turned out to be a wonderful Admin team. I am awed how God brought this team together. Julie Kim and Sid Lee were the liaisons to the coordinators. Since they were actually coordinators themselves for many years, they fell into the role very naturally. Julie Kang handled all things for social media and graphic design. Pastor David planned the 5K and was the point person to create the 401c3. Esther Kim turned out to be a master administrative point person besides being a financial whiz. It just goes to show that when we let Jesus take the wheel, everything falls into place in unexpected and wonderful ways.