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Over the Strife
Over 100 years ago, living in the United State was much more different then as of current. Only about 6% of the entire nation had graduated high school, and the life expectancy was only up to 47. Only 14% of the families had bathrooms and every woman washed their hair once a month. Minimum wage was only 22 cents, so any labor worker’s yearly salary would be $300 dollars. When the first generation of Korean immigrants worked all day in pineapple farms, they were only paid 69 cents despite the intensity of the labor.
In the city of Los Angeles, currently a super-diverse city, in the year 1871, about 20 Chinese immigrants were beaten to death or lynched (hanging) by the white Caucasian mobs. The reason was outrageous. It was because the Chinese were so “dirty”. Korean immigration had started in this weak, powerless nature.
January 13th, 1903, the first 102 immigrants landed in Honolulu’s 2nd harbor. After getting off the merchant ship, USS Gaelic, it has become the 100th year when Korean immigrant life had started. In the newspaper article via the Washing Post, it was written, “After 100 years, the Korean merchants change”. In this special new report, in the Korean immigrants, as the 2nd and 3rd generations slowly take over, there were many changes in the lifestyles of Korean immigrants. Instead of the mom-and-pop run mini shops, there are many superstores and shopping centers rising in the Korean immigrant towns. There was also an estimation of rise in churches to find. Instead of finding traditional Korean churches, many of the younger generations would seek out multi-cultural churches or American churches instead.
There are over 3,000 Korean immigrant churches in United States. But after about 100 years, if the blueprints of how these churches operate disappear, there is no turning back in losing many more of these Korean immigrant churches. The “American Dream” is the symbol of wanting for self, and the success of immigrant life. The goal is not of greed but to go against that, by being risen properly in God. Our descendants should be properly raised as children of God and become dynamic and be of good influence to everyone. When a survey was done in all major Korean Churches and the most popular by far of the votes were: “raising a 2nd generation pastor (28.6%)”. There is no denying how important immigrant churches lead in the immigration culture. We are hereby, to check and see what our blueprints in our future for the individual Korean immigrant churches, and see what future it will lead us.
(January 25th, 2003)
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To Fly Over 
Over the Strife