What is Ezemiah?
our vision
“Ezemiah empowers young people to reclaim their diasporic identity and cross-cultural calling through the word, so they can rebuild the homeland and transform the world.”
Mission Statement
Ezemiah Movement exists to empower diasporic youth by teaching the Bible as a unified story, fostering a deep understanding of their identity through Scripture. Emphasising “teaching as learning,” we provide both education and opportunities for outreach, preparing young leaders to bridge generational gaps and sending them out to lead and serve faith communities worldwide in obedience to the Great Commission.
Greetings from our Founder
In 2006, I received God’s calling to launch the Ezemiah Movement. While serving a Korean church in the States, I saw the infinite possibilities of the second generation Korean-Americans along with the dreams of the future generation Koreans in rural areas. Since then, I have hoped to join these two groups in friendship and bind them together with the Gospel, preparing them as future leaders in its mission. The Lord has brought together faithful servants from all over the world to join us in the movement. I believe the work we put in today for these children will bear fruit as they grow up to follow in the footsteps of leaders like Daniel, Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah for the global Kingdom of God. I also believe that they, together with the future generation of North Korea, will work to rebuild North Korean churches and society.
Today, Ezemiahs of another kind are growing in Korea and beyond. They are the children of multicultural families, many of whose mothers come from southeast Asia. Along with children born to Korean fathers and first-generation immigrant mothers, there are about 15,000 youth who have left their original homeland to come live with their mothers and Korean stepfathers in Korea. Although these youth are sometimes portrayed as potential “troubled youth” in the Korean media, we believe that these biracial and multicultural children have the potential to contribute to the building up of both Korea and the homelands of their mothers. Our dream is to see these children grow up into leaders who will bridge Korea and their native countries for the prosperity of both these nations and for the sake of the Gospel. As the Ezemiah Movement met its tenth year, there was a small but significant change: change in the content that we teach at the Vacation Bible Schools.
For the first ten years, Ezemiah used the VBS material published in the States and used by many American churches.
However, we found that this content was not necessarily a good fit for our Korean audience and that and the message was increasingly simplistic and repetitive. Therefore we tried out making our own VBS from scratch on our tenth anniversary, and we have been trying again every year since! We found that we not only were capable of creating and using our own content grounded firmly in the Bible and more geared to our ESL audience, but that a new generation of young leaders in South Korea and the United States was stepping up who enjoyed making this material! We have also found that in partnership with 생터 사역원 Life Place Bible Ministries, this material is in high demand among Korean churches in Seoul as well – and have now translated the material into Korean as well! We pray that this process of making and teaching our own VBS programs will not only bless children in Korean rural churches but also children and youth across the 6,000 Korean churches in 180 countries.
We are hopeful and prayerful as we see that the Ezemiah Movement is moving beyond borders – to the Philippines, Myanmar, England, and Jordan – through small pockets of youth and Sunday School teachers who are interested in using this material. We are seeing that missionary kids and their families in these areas have also responded to this call to use their unique third-culture background to serve the lands that they grew up in. Therefore I personally have great hope that God will be using the Ezemiah Movement to efficiently facilitate the next generation of people called to spread the Gospel. I invite you to join us! We are praying and waiting for the next generation of youth in the global Korean Diaspora church to respond to God’s holy call on their lives – beyond borders, beyond race!
Rev. Soon Keun Lee
Founder of the Ezemiah Foundation