Jung Sun Park packs up more than teriyaki, sushi and the house special bibimbap into her to-go orders at her Korean restaurant Happy BiBim Bap House in downtown Salem. The petite owner, who looks younger than her 55 years, sends people off with a blessing.
Park and her husband, Dueg Soo, 62, have owned the small restaurant two years this month. Born in Korea, they spent 32 years in New York, where they also ran a Korean restaurant, before moving to Salem three years ago.
The “blessings to go” started in New York after Jung Sun Park became a Christian four years ago.
Using an interpreter — her pastor, David Jeon of the Korean Church of Salem — Park said that while she was praying one day, “God moved her heart” to write a message to her customers. It started with her writing on her take-out boxes the Bible verse “Love your God with all your heart and with all your mind and also love your neighbor as yourself.” Since moving to Salem, she has changed it to “I send God’s love to you” with a big happy face, though she sometimes will put Bible verses, too.
“Most people respond with thanks,” she said through Jeon. “Many customers say they are moved.”
The notes may lead customers to think that Park, with her friendly smile, speaks English better than she does, but it has taken practice getting the English words she writes just right.
“Even though there are language barriers, they like to show constant love to their customers,” Jeon said.
In addition to the written blessings, the Parks also said they pray every morning before opening for business, and Jung Sun Park describes her customers as angels sent by God, of whom they try to greet and treat as such.
Planting a seed
Like the Parks, other business owners say their faith is an integral part of their work week.
Aren Jensen said he’s learned how to mix business and sharing God’s treasure from his dad, Arne Jensen, who started the Salem company Arne Jensen Landscaping nearly four decades ago.
“He’s done something neat that has affected me,” the younger Jensen, who now co-runs the company with his dad, said. “Live by example on the job site. I learned how to serve people by watching him.”
Aren Jensen, like his dad, carries around his story of faith typed out on a neat, crisp sheet of white paper that contrasts with the landscaper’s mud-striped pants and dirt-caked fingernails.
If at the end of a job, it feels right, he will ask customers if he can leave them his story, a short testimony of how he said God restored him and how he believes, because of the Bible, that the same is available for everyone. But it’s always at the end of a job, he said. And he encourages them to call him if they’d like to know more.
“I know the only way they will receive it is if we have backed it up with our work ethic, how we live, our character,” he said.
A singles/young adult pastor at People’s Church, Aren Jensen said his landscaping job can open a door, build a bridge.
“I’ll tell them I’m a pastor and talk about Jesus early; it forces me to come up to that standard,” he said. He also said he looks for opportunities to help customers beyond their plant and lawn needs, including praying for people when life hits.
“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” he said.
Room to study
And it’s not just business owners who are finding a balance between work and worship. When Fred Swain joined the City of Salem’s Information Technology Department 37 years ago, he joined a lunch-hour Bible study. A couple years later, he was facilitating it.
Though the group has fluctuated over the years from a few to more than a dozen, it has consistently met weekly in a conference room at the department during the noon hour.
Swain said they have been privileged to be allowed to use the space and haven’t had problems with management or received any complaints over the decades.
“You have to be careful in how you invite people, not print invites on work printers or use work email,” Swain said. “Usually, it’s word of mouth, ‘If you’re interested …,’ very low key.”
He added low key also means not being pushy or annoying, which can cross a line and push people away.
He said another reason the group has worked could be because, while being Christian-based, it is open to all faiths and accepting of their thoughts. Swain said now the group consists of him — a member of Salem Alliance Church — a Jew and a Mormon. In the past, Swain said, Hindus also have attended.
The group opens in prayer but focuses most its time on reading a portion of a book of the Bible or a book on a specific faith topic, then discussing it and hopefully, Swain said, finding application for their daily lives. Right now, they are reading Galatians.
“People are afraid that they might run afoul of separation of church and state, but maybe it’s worth that risk to see if it will work,” Swain said, noting their lunch group is on the work site but not on the clock. “It’s always strange to be part of the secular workplace and bow your head, but after awhile, it becomes natural. It’s good for the workplace to have a spiritual element.”
Tell us if you have any faith-based story ideas. Contact hrayhorn@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 589-6920 or follow at twitter.com/hrayhorn.
Details
Happy Bibim Bap House
Where: 635 Chemeketa St. NE, downtown Salem
When: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m Mondays-Saturdays; 10 percent off after 2 p.m. for students and, after 5 p.m., 10 percent off for 2 or more people and 20 percent off for groups of four or more
Information: (503) 585-1530 or happybibimbaphouse.com
Arne Jensen Landscaping
Contact: arnejensenlandscaping.com or (503) 363-4706
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