Pastor redefines what a church can be

Key points:

• The Rev. Misook Park, pastor of Sammool Korean United Methodist Church, has spent more than three decades building a ministry that extends beyond Sunday worship.
• In 2013, she established Sammool House, a transitional guest house that has helped nearly 200 women regain stability and rebuild their lives.
• Members describe the church as a congregation with an outward-looking mission. Despite limited resources, it has continued caring for neighbors.

The house has no sign.

Nestled in a quiet neighborhood outside Chicago, it looks like any other home. There is no plaque by the front door identifying its purpose. Its address is not publicly advertised. That is intentional. For women escaping domestic violence, financial hardship or sudden crisis, privacy can mean safety.

For more than a decade, Sammool House has quietly opened its doors to women who have nowhere else to turn. Since opening in January 2013, the transitional guest house has helped nearly 200 women regain stability while rebuilding their lives. Some found jobs and permanent housing. Others completed school, earned professional licenses or simply found the time and encouragement they needed to begin again.

 

UM News is spotlighting thriving congregations and ministries that embody The United Methodist Church’s vision to “love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.”

The ministry reflects the life and calling of the Rev. Misook Park, pastor of Sammool Korean United Methodist Church, who has spent more than three decades quietly expanding the meaning of what it means to be church.

“I’ve simply gone wherever people needed me,” Park said.

For Park, ministry has never been confined to Sunday worship. It has taken her into hospitals, courtrooms, prisons, nursing homes, immigration offices and government agencies. She began gathering Korean immigrants for worship in the living room of her own home. That small fellowship eventually became Sammool Korean United Methodist Church, formally organized in 1996 and officially chartered by the Northern Illinois Conference in 2024. The Korean word “Sammool” means “spring water,” a reference to John 4:14, in which Jesus says that the water he gives is “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”

Planting a Korean immigrant congregation as a woman pastor was uncommon at the time. Remaining with the same congregation through decades of change was even more unusual.

“The value and impact of Rev. Park’s ministry are immeasurable,” said the Rev. Hwa-Young Chong, Prairie North District superintendent. “She planted a new Korean congregation — that’s almost unheard of. Then she continued her pastoral leadership for three decades. She did something almost impossible.”

Members say Park’s consistency became the foundation of the congregation.

“There has never been confusion about our pastor,” said longtime member Misun Hollimon. “We trust her, depend on her and follow her leadership. Our church feels like a family.”

That family has never been large. Even so, members describe Sammool Korean United Methodist as a congregation with an outward-looking mission. Despite limited resources, it has continued supporting mission projects while caring for neighbors facing some of life’s most difficult circumstances.

That vision found a new expression in 2013 when Park established Sammool House.

Sammool Korean United Methodist itself has never owned a church building or parsonage. Today, the congregation worships in the building of Trinity United Methodist Church in Mount Prospect, Illinois. Yet despite its modest size and limited resources, the church has continued investing in ministries beyond its own walls, believing that the church’s mission is defined not by what it owns, but by whom it serves.

Park intentionally calls it a guest house rather than a shelter.

Residents stay free of charge, typically for three to six months. Housing and utilities are provided while they search for employment, attend school or prepare for independent living. Residents provide their own food and personal expenses while sharing responsibility for maintaining the house and working toward self-sufficiency.

“We’re not simply giving people a place to stay,” said Hae S. Shin, who has chaired the Sammool House board for 13 years. “We’re helping them move forward.”

Supported by local churches, individual donors and the Northern Illinois Conference’s mission ministries, Sammool House operates without government funding. Women are welcomed regardless of ethnicity or religion, and the house’s location remains confidential to protect those escaping abusive relationships or other dangerous situations.

The stories Park remembers most are not about the house itself but about the people who passed through it.

A young woman, identified by the pseudonym Hope, arrived after a painful conflict with her father. After spending a little more than a week at Sammool House, she returned to college in Texas, reconciled with her family and later contacted Park to donate part of her first paycheck.

Another resident arrived after escaping North Korea through China and Laos. Years later, the woman who once had nowhere to go stood in the backyard of the home she had purchased after completing her studies and asked Park to officiate her wedding.

“I cried during that wedding,” Park said. “Watching someone who arrived with nothing begin a completely new life reminded me why this ministry exists.”

Park’s ministry has always extended far beyond the guest house.

She has helped immigrants obtain driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and bank accounts. She has stayed overnight with patients in public hospitals, visited members in federal prison and accompanied people to court hearings. She once traveled across the country to bring an elderly church member back to Chicago after family living arrangements fell apart.

The Rev. GaHyung Kim, pastor of Church of Incarnation United Methodist Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois, believes those ordinary acts define Park’s ministry more than any program or title.

“She poured everything she had into the church. She loved boldly, served joyfully and led courageously,” Kim said, referring to The United Methodist Church’s new vision statement. “Even when she had opportunities to move to larger churches, she chose to stay with the people God had entrusted to her.”

That sacrificial spirit shaped the congregation as well.

Members volunteer at Sammool House, support mission projects and have expanded their outreach through Sammool Community Services, assisting men facing housing insecurity, medical expenses and food insecurity.

“Our pastor would tell us that if the church was struggling, she didn’t need a salary,” said Jungja Shin, president of Sammool Korean church’s  United Women in Faith. “But she always insisted that we continue supporting missions.”

The Rev. Victor O. Melad Jr., Lake North District superintendent, believes sustaining those ministries over many years may be Park’s greatest accomplishment.

“She has done it joyfully and out of love for women who need help,” he said. “Rev. Park is a gift to this church.”

The house still has no sign.

Women still arrive carrying little more than a suitcase, uncertainty and hope. Sammool House continues to offer what many need most: a safe place to stay, time to regain their footing and a community that believes they can begin again.

For Park, that ministry has never been separate from the church’s mission. It has simply been another expression of it — a conviction that the church is called not only to worship, but also to accompany people through their most difficult seasons until they are ready to move forward.

Chong, Prairie North District superintendent, believes that is the legacy of Park’s ministry.

“I deeply appreciate the way Rev. Park’s ministry and leadership have given hope and strength to the Korean immigrant community in Chicago, the Northern Illinois Conference and The United Methodist Church,” Chong said. “Rev. Park is an example par excellence of loving boldly, serving joyfully and leading courageously.”

Kim is director of Korean and Asian news at United Methodist Communications. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.