Family opens house to homesick students
11/24/2003 News media contact: Tim Tanton · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn. NOTE: Related television reports are available at www.umtv.org. By Nancye Willis* A
United Methodist family in Claremont, Calif., is opening its home to
college and university students this holiday season, offering meals and
fellowship for those unable to go home for the holidays.
Sung
Sohn, who is studying to be a United Methodist minister, understands
feelings of isolation and homesickness, and knows they can intensify
during holidays. When he and his family left Korea for the United States
15 years ago, they experienced the same feelings.
In an effort
to help students feel more secure, he and his family invite students to
their home for food and fun. "Myra House," named for Sohn's wife, is a
10-bedroom home and retreat center surrounded by a pond-dotted
landscape.
Claremont, with seven liberal arts schools, has
thousands of students. Becky Ford is among those who gravitate to Myra
House for "a lot of meal preparation, laughter, a lot of talking," she
says. "It's a wonderful atmosphere to come to."
The Sohns
appreciate such simple pleasures. During their early years in
California, Sohn studied architecture, while his wife, a pharmacist, put
in 10-hour days at work.
A visit to the peaceful setting of a
Minnesota monastery inspired the couple to change their lifestyle. "We
realized we were not living properly; we were slowly dying," Sung Sohn
says.
Sohn's architecture training came in handy when they spent
several years - and most of their money - designing and building Myra
House. Meanwhile, he began studying for the ministry at nearby United
Methodist-related Claremont School of Theology.
He now conducts
special worship services for students. After church, everyone's invited
to the pastor's home for food, conversation and "intimate family
support," Sung Sohn says.
Student Robert Felix believes
providing food is another way of showing concern for the whole person.
"Cooking and spending time with people is really an ongoing way to show
love for them," he says.
A home-cooked meal, gentle conversation
- for students far from home, it's a recipe for love. "It provides a
family that I otherwise wouldn't have, and that's what's so valuable and
that's what's so magnetic," Ford says.
Myra House, which has
ties to the United Methodist California-Pacific Annual Conference, also
attracts visitors from within the United Methodist and Korean-American
Methodist communities. It offers educational opportunities through
live-in communal practices or weekend eco-spiritual awareness classes,
and Claremont School of Theology holds its spirituality prayer class in
the main prayer area.
Houseguests and retreat participants join
in morning and evening prayer and meditation, household chores,
gardening and communal meals. More information is available at the
center's Web site, www.myrahouse.com.
# # #
*Willis is editor for the Public Information Team at United Methodist Communications in Nashville, Tenn. |
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