MISSION YEAR FOR ASIAN-AMERICANS

(This is an excerpt from an email I sent to a friend of mine who works for Mission Year.)

Just wanted to report that I had a great time at the L2 conference in Chicago. It was nice to meet like-minded Asian-American Christians, particularly in my Community Development Affinity Group sessions. On that note, we were commissioned to write up a project idea (I knew my Business Boot Camp training would come in handy!), and our idea ended up sounding a whole lot like Mission Year, except focusing on Asian-American participants. It was particularly interesting for me, because:

1) I think Asian-Americans by and large are less inclined to such career trajectories, and so recruiting them for an Asian-American type of Mission Year activity would be good for the Kingdom, and

2) Asian-Americans have unique challenges and opportunities in the field of city service and its related race issues, which a supportive community type of situation like a Mission Year would really provide participants with the camaraderie and wisdom they’d need to navigate these dynamics, and

3) Despite the “model minority” myth, there are as you know pockets of great economic and social brokenness in predominantly Asian-American ghettoes. Not that I’d want to send such teams to just Asian communities, but also not that I’d want none of the teams to serve other Asians.

Anyway, thought I’d pass these musings along to you. One of my fellow conference participants and affinity group teammates has already reached out to me in the hopes that our project ideas can actually be implemented in some tangible way in the Chinatown neighborhood in Chicago where he works and lives. I’d love to include you in this running dialogue.