An Alien Experience

Have you ever felt like an alien? Are you an alien? For the first time in my life I both feel like an alien and I am one, too. Well, that's what the folks at the local Korean Immigration Office call me. I was taken there today in order to apply for my "Alien Registration Card." In Korea, if you're an alien, it is, without question, the card that you don't leave home without -- move over American Express! My experience being an alien, though, provided me yet another opportunity to meet and get to know a new colleague, Prof. B. Harry Jee (that's him in the photo at right).

Though a native of Korea, Prof. Jee has been in the States for many years and is a U.S. Citizen. So like me, he had to come to the Immigration Office and obtain an alien registration card. He had applied for his last week, so as I was filling out the paper work and submitting yet another passport photo of myself, Prof. Jee was picking up his new card. It looks a lot like a driver's licence, but it opens so many more doors in this highly regulated land. Without it, you can't open a bank account or even go to see a doctor -- but with it, all the benefits of living in Korea are afforded you -- well nearly. Prof. Jee explained that Korea, though a democracy (technically), is a closely regulated and guarded country. All of the various governmental agencies share information about citizens and registered aliens alike.

Prof. Jee teaches management, finance and business ethics. Before starting his academic career at Penn State and then serving as Dean of the School of Business at The King's College in New York City for the past six years, Harry had worked for both J.P. Morgan and an international investment banking firm based in Seoul and New York. He was quite the jet-setter, sometimes even traveling around the world in a week as he transacted business in Seoul, New York and London along the way. While waiting in line at the local bank, we shared experiences from our professional lives and realized that both of us had encountered similar challenges as Christians in the throws of the business and legal arenas. Harry's deep concern for imparting a strong sense and practice of business ethics to his students grows out of his own admitted failures to stay true to the path of integrity in the midst of heavy pressures in the business world.

What an encouragement to meet a brother in Christ who is so authentic and genuine! It is exciting for me to realize that I will be benefiting from the devotedness of Prof. Jee as well as his outstanding academic background and professional experiences. Harry truly embodies the spirit and vision of Handong University and, by God's grace and mercy, I hope to be formed and shaped by my service here into a more devoted and responsible follower of Christ in the midst of the concrete realities of life in the here and now -- even though I be an alien in this new land.