Back to the Field

Recently, I watched a Korean Netflix drama called 'Teach You a Lesson.'
In the series, there is an organization called the Teachers' Rights Protection Bureau, created to protect teachers. As I watched, one question kept coming to my mind:

Who is protecting the athletes in our sports culture?

Most of our FCA Korea staff are former athletes.
Whenever I listen to their stories, I am often surprised.

Verbal abuse, Profanity, Personal humiliation, Violence.

Many tell these stories as if they were simply a normal part of being an athlete.
But every time I hear them, my heart feels heavy.
Sports should be a place where people grow.
Why do so many athletes remember their wounds before they remember their victories?
Why do places where dreams begin sometimes become places where fear is learned?

A Dream a Young Girl Had to Give Up

Mia Park was one of those athletes.

As a young girl, her dream was simple:
She wanted to become a soccer player.
She loved the game.
She loved being on the field.
So she enrolled in a school with a girls' soccer program, believing she was one step closer to her dream.
But the reality she encountered was very different.
She witnessed older players being physically abused.
For a young girl, it was shocking.

Eventually, the fear became so overwhelming that she abandoned her dream of becoming a soccer player.

The very field she entered to pursue her dream became the place where she laid it down.
As I listened to her story, I found myself wondering:
Was this only Mia's story?
Or was it simply one chapter in the long history of pain that has existed within Korean women's soccer?
And another question came to my mind:

What if God sent someone back into that broken place?

A World That Is Only 5%

The reality of women's soccer in Korea is not easy.
Today, there are only about 4,000 to 5,000 registered female soccer players in the entire country.
Compared to the men's game, that is only about 5-7%.
The player pool is small.
Teams are scattered throughout the nation.
To meet athletes requires constant travel.
Hours of driving to visit one team.
Then more hours to reach another.

If efficiency were our only goal, this would not be an easy ministry to choose.
But this is a field God has placed on our hearts.
So we could not walk away.

A Bigger Stage: The AFC Asian Cup

But we did not want to simply place a ministry leader in the women's soccer world and stop there.
We believe that when God expands a person's vision, He often expands their ministry as well.

One of our priorities has been helping Mia experience a broader world.
Leaders dream according to what they have seen.
They develop vision according to what they have experienced.
Because of that, we intentionally invested in opportunities for Mia to experience international sports ministry.

Last year, she attended the AFC Women's Asian Cup.
This year, she has the opportunity to return once again.
There she has connected with athletes from across Asia.

She has met sports ministry leaders from different nations.
She has witnessed firsthand how God is working throughout the Asian soccer community.

Some might ask:
"Why does a ministry leader need experiences like this?"
I would suggest the opposite.

If someone is called to serve Korean women's soccer, they cannot only see Korea.
They need to see a bigger Kingdom.
They need a broader vision of what God is doing around the world.
And that vision becomes fuel for serving athletes back home.

We Simply Provide Support

Perhaps the most remarkable part of this story is that Mia has only been with FCA for one year. Just one year.

Yet during that short period, ministry has already begun in five of the eight women's professional clubs in Korea.
Athletes are gathering together.
Listening Scripture together.
Praying together.
Wrestling through life together.
And Gospel-centered communities are being formed.

Honestly, we have not done anything extraordinary.
We have simply tried to support a faithful ministry leader so she can run freely.
The person doing the hard work on the ground is Mia.

Our role is much smaller.
To encourage her when she is tired.
To help open doors.
To provide the support she needs so she can focus completely on the calling God has given her.

Perhaps that is our role.
And perhaps it is yours as well.

Back to the Field

When I step back and look at Mia's story, it still amazes me.
As a young girl, she was so afraid that she gave up her dream of becoming a soccer player.
Because of the hurt she experienced in the soccer world, she left the field behind.
Yet God brought her back.
Not as a player.
But as a ministry leader.

Not as someone carrying wounds.
But as someone helping others heal.

The field she once left in fear is now the very place she walks into carrying a Bible.
Today she gathers with female athletes and opens God's Word.

Maybe what Korean women's soccer needs most is not another superstar.
Maybe it needs the story of one wounded person who was restored by God and is now helping restore others.

That is why we believe in Mia's ministry.
Or perhaps more accurately,
we believe in the God who is working through Mia.

And today, on the very field she once left in tears,
God is writing a new story.

- Steve Ko