Instructor Michael Lee from Sangmukwan New York has been busy starting up a new school in Haiti. Michael shares his story with us in the following article.
Haiti
We have established Haiti Sangmukwan HKD Mission Team in Cite Soleil, which is the poorest area in the Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In 2014, Missionary Seung Don Kim asked All Nations Church for help to develop a program where young people can learn to establish something on their own in such poverty with no hope. The senior pastor of All Nations Church, Rev. Hy Kwon Anh, asked me if I am interested in teaching Hankido to people in Cite Soleil, so I decided to give it a try.
Instructor candidates
When I first arrived in Cite Soleil on October 2014, nearly 80 people gathered to learn Hankido. With language barrier and limited time, I realized that in order to open up a school and grow, we need have good instructors first before we gather more people. Out of 80, I chose 6 instructor candidates who can grasp principles quicker than others. Since then, another mission center joined us with 4 instructor candidates and a seminary joined us with 3 more students. We now have 13 instructor candidates in total.
Training
I made my promise to visit them as often as possible and in 2015, I have traveled 4 times so far. Each time I visit, we have very intense classes. The morning class starts at 9am till noon and after lunch we have our afternoon session from 1:30 to 4:00pm. At night from 7 to 9pm, I chose a captain who can oversee all the students and had a special class just for him each night. And during my absence, the captain gathers the students at least three times a week and continually train themselves at least three hours each session.
Vision
Our vision is that one day when they earn their black belt and be able to teach, each instructor will join with a local pastor in a village and start their own school. We are envision a school where they will practice Hankido and establish worship on Sundays giving hope to the poor villages as well as discipline them to live a better life.
Help
We can use all the help we can get to make this project as successfull as possible. If you want to help, please contact instructor Michael Lee for more information.
