Reverend David Jungdo Park
Reverend David Jungdo Park was born in Madeok, Hwanghae Province, in 1936. Raised in a family that had been early adherents of Christianity on the Korean Peninsula, David became accustomed with both the Korean alphabet as well as the Christian faith through bible readings with his mother, which, at the time of Japanese occupation, was considered an illicit activity. He recounts how his father, beaten by Japanese authorities, did not survive to see liberation on August 15, 1945, a day he distinctly remembers as being filled with trumpeters marching throughout the streets as townsfolk cheered “manseh!” Yet after only a couple months of liberation, David’s life was again thrown into disarray when the North Korean government enacted policies which disrupted Christian life.
In the winter of 1950-51, the Armed Defense Unit which had held the line against encroaching Chinese and North Korean forces splintered and was forced to retreat; David’s uncle, who had been a member of the unit, warned his family to flee before the soldiers arrived, though he himself was killed in combat. As David’s grandfather, an elder of the town, would have been unable to make this journey, David’s mother and sister opted to return to their hometown to be with him.
On January 14, 1951, David was evacuated to Chodo Island off the coast of Hwanghae, from which he fled to South Korea in June of 1951 as a refugee. He got by as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant which could not give him days off on Sundays due to the influx of weekend customers—a shock to David, who had largely fled from his hometown in fear of religious persecution. Committed to his faith, however, he decided to instead attend dawn prayer meetings before work, which eventually led to him becoming a church custodian, attend seminary, work in the chaplaincy for KATUSA, and immigrate to the United States to nurture budding churches. Having worked as clergy in Charlottesville, Austin, and Atlanta, David continues his service to ministry by teaching Hebrew and the Old Testament in Catonville, Maryland.
