A Call to Love Our Neighbors with No Reserve
Dear Justice-Seeker,
I had just been commissioned to serve as a Global Mission Fellow US-2 with the United Methodist Church. Having no connections or family in the midwest, I landed in Detroit to begin my time working at Methodist Federation for Social Action. For my tired mind, body, and soul, the words “Welcome, Yeo Jin” quickly scrawled on a makeshift poster was exactly what I needed. As a newcomer with nothing but excitement and anxiety, those words embraced me like a much-needed hug, and for the past two years, I’ve been shocked and amazed by the continuation of genuine and wholehearted welcome. And in many ways, my experiences of this genuine, and at times overwhelming, welcome embodies the Church’s calling to be a living institution of welcome and love. We as members of the Body of Christ are called to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
Tragically, the Church has failed to live into its responsibility and role in this world. How can we claim to be the Body of Christ when we are actively or indifferently harming and hating our neighbors? How are we loving God and others when we reject the realities of our Black and Brown neighbors? How are we loving God and others when we reject women from following God’s call to lead and serve within and beyond the Church? How are we loving God and others when we reject the humanity and dignity of our undocumented neighbors? How are we loving God and others when we reject our LGBTQ neighbors? How are we loving God and others when we refuse to reject the evils of imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, and white supremacy that serve as foundations to the Christian religion?
As a young person who followed God’s call to serve as a missionary within the Church in 2019, I engaged with these questions directly through MFSA and have discerned that my personal call at this moment is to continue to hold the church accountable where it falls short and to love our neighbors. I am thankful to have been placed with MFSA and to have had the experiences, the conversations, and the opportunities I’ve had. I’m thankful that my time at MFSA and in Detroit, Michigan is synonymous with that welcome. From a small “Welcome, Yeo Jin” poster at the airport to working on anti-racism to talking through hardships to planning a virtual worship service on grief, lament, and hope to an email checking in on me after the Atlanta shootings, my MFSA community welcomes me, embraces and encourages me, and reminds me of the Church as it is called to be.
This fall I will be starting graduate school at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary to study Pastoral Care and Counseling. In my final month at MFSA, I pray that we continue to reimagine how the Church expands its radical welcome, that the Church might transform to embody God’s core which is love and embrace all God’s beloved with no reserve. May we be God’s Church and truly be loving of our neighbors. Please join us in this important work by making a gift to MFSA.
You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving.
Seeking-Justice Together,
Yeo Jin Yun (she/her) was commissioned as a 2019 Global Fellow (GMF) US-2 the General Board of Global Ministries. She served the past two years in the position of the Development and Communications Coordinator at the National Office of MFSA in Detroit, MI. Yeo Jin finishes up her time as a GMF and her time at MFSA this month and will head to Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL to pursue a Masters of Arts in Pastoral Care and Counseling.
