Journal Entry #24

A Pioneer of Korea: Minister. Henry Gerhard Appenzeller

Henry Gerhard Appenzeller is a pioneer of Korea. He was born in Pennsylvania on February 6th, 1858. A hundred years ago, He came to Korea and he has made great things. When he came to Korea, we did not know about a new culture that modern knowledge, religion, clothes, sport and so on, and he brought them for us. Originally, His purpose was to introduce Christianity so he preached to people, and he established church in Seoul and it was first church in Korea but Christianity was not easy settle down because Korean government were persecution for Christianity. Then, Korea had only two religions which Buddhism, Confucianism because those were country religion so almost people believed them, but Christianity has been legality after sovereign power. And than he was established schools that 'Pai-Chai high school' and 'Yon-Sei University' those were also first modern and Christian schools and they could have had education. Before, a lot of people were illiterate because Korea was agriculture society so almost people did farming. When he opened school, it was free for anybody and it was like revolution of education. After then he brought up a lot of talent people various field and those of them who were president of Korea, scientist, artist, musician, writer, politician and so on. And we did not know how to play a lot of sport but he introduced that soccer and baseball. These days, Korea has a lot of soccer and baseball teams, and we play good at soccer so we had good job at the 2002 World Cup.
In conclusion, he has made a lot of great things for us, and I am Christian and graduated Pai-Chai high school, so I really appreciate and respect him.