Pastor Joey and his wife, Hee'a, have been serving at Kake Memorial Presbyterian Church on the remote island of Kake, Alaska since 2011. They have two daughters, named Maria & Lydia. For the first 7 years, Joey had been working full time as a maintenance mechanic at the local school as well as simultaneously serving as pastor until God called him to be the full time missionary through The Antioch Partners in 2019.
Kake is a unique place with majority of the population being Native Americans who have lived there for hundreds of years. This community of 550 people faces many challenges including high-cost living, isolation, depression, substance abuse and domestic violence. Joey and Hee'a are especially burdened by the passing of people who died without having salvation in Jesus.
Joey started a soup kitchen “Peace of Kake” which has served lunch to the whole community every Friday for the past 9 years with a delicious meal, devotions and fellowship. He also started a recovery program for the people with addiction issues. Hee'a helps with “Good News Club” and “Youth Café,” outreaches to younger children and teenagers, respectively. They are now hoping and praying to train the young adults to become future Christian leaders for their own community.
Joey and Hee'a both grew up in Korea, but met each other at King College in Bristol, Tennessee. Then they got married in 1999 and went to Moody Aviation School to become Missionary Pilots. In 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, they both went on to complete Master of Divinity degrees at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. In time, as their call to be missionaries remained strong, God brought them to Alaska to find lost souls.
Agency: The Antioch Partners