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Indigenous Mission Beginning in Every Area of Life
We invite you to become a lay missionary.
A North American Indigenous mission network where anyone can participate,
prepare from anywhere, and stay connected together.
School Years - Forming identity through the Word of God and mission experiences
Young and Middle Adulthood - Recording and sharing short-term mission field experiences online, and continuing ministry by connecting the mission field with everyday life
Senior Generation - Turning life experience into mission,
and seeing retirement as the beginning of specialized mission service. Passing wisdom and expertise on to the next generation
“We connect short-term missions to sustainable missions.”
Preparing for Indigenous Mission
183 Canadian missionaries who were martyred for the gospel in Korea
https://visionfellowship.wixsite.com/vision-fellowship/visionfellowship-museum
True change does not begin with attempts to teach or change others,
but with deep mutual understanding and faithful companionship that walks together to the end.
With both a passionate heart and wise discernment, we pursue sustainable and thoughtful ministry.
1. Respect
We do not approach mission as one-sided evangelism.
We learn, honor, and deeply respect their history, culture, and language.
2. Listen First
We listen before we help.
We place people and relationships at the center—not programs.
3. Compassion & Patience
Like Jesus, we deeply empathize with their needs and walk with them at their pace with a heart of compassion.
We do not become shaken by short-term results, but remain with them to the end in unchanging love.
4. Walk Together
We share the love of Christ not merely through words, but quietly through our lives.
5. Prepared & Trained
All volunteers and ministry workers are thoroughly trained to develop cultural understanding
and practical competence.
6. Contextual Approach
We seek to understand the situation of each community deeply and serve through customized
strategies rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
7. Long-term Commitment
We aim not for short-term results, but for long-term trust and transformation,
walking with them to the end.
Small understanding gives birth to deep empathy. Empathy leads to compassionate action.
And when those actions come together, they create sustainable change.
“Please Help Us”: Why Canadian Indigenous Peoples Asked Korea for Help Instead of the Canadian Government
Why Are Koreans Well-Suited for Indigenous Mission?
Indigenous communities in North America have passed through deep wounds caused by colonial policies and forced assimilation over the course of 500 years.
That pain remains today in social tragedies such as high suicide rates and addiction,
and the wounds once inflicted in the name of God have become a high barrier to the gospel.
We aim not for short-term results, but for long-term trust and transformation,
walking with them to the end.
Small understanding gives birth to deep empathy. Empathy leads to compassionate action.
And when those actions come together, they create sustainable change.
But we believe this:
The historical experience of Koreans, who rose again after the pain of 36 years of colonial rule,
can become a bridge of empathy that helps us understand and
embrace the deep wounds of Indigenous peoples in North America.
We also believe this:
True change does not begin with attempts to teach or change others.
It begins with deeply understanding one another and walking together in faithful relationship to the end.
By communicating directly with Indigenous communities,
we seek to understand what they truly need and create solutions together -
not through one-sided help, but through shared partnership.
“Erased names, forgotten souls — now we seek to become their true friends.”
The Gospel of a “True Friend” Shared by Koreans
Today, Indigenous communities in North America live scattered across approximately 3,000 reserves throughout the United States and Canada, carrying long historical wounds and social isolation.
In spaces marked by confinement and separation, many are giving up the precious lives God has given them
amid addiction, helplessness, and despair. Their suicide rates are beyond easy measurement.
The painful history of colonialism and forced assimilation over the past 500 years, along with wounds committed under the name of the gospel, has left deep distrust and trauma within these communities.
In this context, the message brought by white missionaries often comes not first as good news,
but as a wound too painful to bear.
What they need is not another “leader,” but a true friend who will weep with them and
remain by their side for a long time.
Koreans have a unique language of empathy. We too have passed through colonial rule, war, and
poverty, and we have experienced recovery by rising again from that pain.
We believe that through this history, God has prepared us to understand Indigenous communities
deeply and walk together with them.
Now we seek to approach them with the heart of humble stewards. We will deeply respect their history and culture, and remain beside them not with temporary relief, but with unchanging love.
We will listen carefully to the voices from the field and, together with those who are professionally trained,
establish and carry out thoughtful strategies with sincere hearts.
The gospel is not a power that dominates others. It is love that suffers together and lives together.
In that love, we will let the heart of Christ flow through us as wounded healers.
"제발 도와주세요" 캐나다 원주민들이 캐나다 정부가 아닌 한국에 도움을 요청한 이유
The Mongolian Route and Koreans
Indigenous peoples of North America share many similarities with the Korean people.
Not only in appearance, but also in inherited cultural elements, there are surprisingly similar features.
For example, among the folk songs of American Indigenous peoples,
there are songs that are almost identical in style to the traditional songs sung in Korean rural villages during funeral processions.
The same is true as we move farther down the North American continent.
Among Mexicans and people from Central and South America, many have facial features, expressions, gestures,
and body types that closely resemble Koreans, including slanted eyes.
This is something commonly recognized by Korean immigrants living in Argentina, Paraguay, and other countries.
One Korean immigrant in Argentina said, “When I went to a highland region,
I met Indigenous people who looked exactly like us and had similar customs. Surprisingly, one of their family names was Kim.”
Indigenous peoples have as their ancestors those of the northern Mongolian lineage - the same ancestral stream connected to Koreans -
who migrated tens of thousands of years ago from Siberia, across the Bering Strait,
which was once land, into Alaska, North America, and Central and South America.
In the end, they and we are all descendants of ancestors who once lived together tens of thousands of years ago
somewhere near today’s Lake Baikal.
There has already been much research in cultural anthropology on the “Mongolian Route,”
which stretched from the Mongolian region toward the Americas.
This research on the northern Mongolian lineage is significant because Mongolian peoples were known for their strength
and resilience, leaving major marks on human history, including during the era of Genghis Khan and the Qing dynasty of China.
Among these Mongolian-related peoples, Koreans are among those who are most actively engaged on the world stage today.
Therefore, if research on Mongolian-related peoples is carried out not from a Western perspective,
but from a Korean and self-directed perspective, it may become an opportunity to move one step closer to understanding
Indigenous identity and establishing the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Koreans.
몽골리언 루트와 한국인
Education Needed for Indigenous Mission
How to Refer to Indigenous Peoples
To Indigenous peoples, the word “Indian” can carry a sense of injustice, anger, and being looked down upon.
The word “Indian” originated when Columbus arrived in what is now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, part of the Americas,
and mistakenly believed that he had landed in India.
Europeans soon realized that Indigenous peoples were not Indians, yet for the past 500 years they continued to call them “Indians,” often with a degrading tone similar to how Black people were dehumanized through racial labels. That usage has continued until today.
Now, Indigenous peoples with historical awareness, especially in Canada, have begun to find and use new terms to describe themselves,
such as Aboriginal, Native, Inuit, and Métis.
At the very least, those involved in Indigenous mission should avoid using the word Indian.
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