Denver Seminary

ENGAGE 17 HAROLD PARK WAS WORKING ON HIS DOCTOR OF MINISTRY IN THE MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY TRACK AT DENVER SEMINARY, WHEN GOD BEGAN TO NUDGE HIM IN A NEW DIRECTION. "I WAS GOING TO FOCUS ON MARRIAGE AND FAMILY COUNSELING AS MY FUTURE MINISTRY," HE SAID. "WHEN I STARTED THE PROGRAM, I WAS A PRISON CHAPLAIN. AS I SPOKE WITH THE GUYS IN THE INSTITUTIONS AND LISTENED TO THE CORE ISSUES, I REALIZED A LOT OF THEIR CHALLENGES STARTED WITHIN THEIR FAMILIES OF ORIGIN. THEY HAD TRAUMA AND ATTACHMENT ISSUES. SO, I BEGAN TO WONDER, HOW DO YOU HELP THOSE FAMILIES, THOSE CHILDREN?" With this in mind, Harold continued his track toward counseling and marriage enrichment. But a family trip to South Korea in 2011 changed everything. Harold's family had moved from South Korea to Vancouver, Canada, when he was a child, and he wanted to introduce his own children to his relatives in Seoul. "While we were in South Korea, we visited Onnuri Community Church," he said. "It was an hour drive from my relative's house, and it was a rainy day—we could have easily gone elsewhere. But I had heard about this church from a friend and wanted to check it out." As it happened, the Sunday Harold and his wife, Wendi, visited Onnuri was orphan Sunday. "A Texan ministry leader from Hope for Orphans was speaking," he explained. "He shared about adoption from a theological perspective, as well as his own experience adopting children from Korea. Neither my wife nor I had ever heard a sermon related to adoption." As Wendi and Harold listened to the message, conviction stirred in their hearts. That night they had identical dreams about adoption. "We were amazed! And the next day we wondered, Is this something God wants us to do?" For the next year, Harold and Wendi prayed and researched what they would need to do to adopt. This brought them face to face with many issues in the Canadian foster care and adoption process. "We realized there were gaps in Canada as far as needs of parents and children," he said. That was when they felt God's call for them to go beyond their own family unit in the adoption world. "We knew we were called to adopt into our own family, and two-and-a-half years ago, we adopted a teenage girl. She's adapting wonderfully. But we also felt God's call in caring for more vulnerable children in Canada. We gave up our jobs to research the current state of foster care and adoption in Canada. We talked to different government leaders, church leaders, and anyone involved in child welfare across Canada. We met them in person; we wanted to get a landscape for what the child welfare system was like in Canada." AN ACADEMIC SHIFT As Harold's personal life shifted toward the realm of adoption, it only made sense for his academic life to shift as well. For years he had struggled with his thesis topic, which was originally about marriage enrichment. "In 2014 I took a year off from the program to consider my future plans," he said. "During that year, it became clear that I needed to do my thesis on foster care and adoption. I came back to Denver Seminary reenergized in 2015. After speaking to my advisor, Dr. Fred Gingrich, I realized, if I can do something relevant and helpful to my current ministry, a lot of positive things could come from it. Dr. Gingrich was very supportive and patient. I had stalled here and there, and he stuck with me. He is an adoptive parent too." Harold's research at Denver Seminary was not strictly tied to quantitative research. This enabled him to dig deeper into the lives and stories of adoptive parents. "I used grounded theory methodology, which allowed me to create a theory based on what people were presenting, not on predetermined concepts or prior models," he said. "I was able to listen to the stories of the participants. If I had done a quantitative study with questionnaires, I probably wouldn't have heard the stories. I would have gotten numbers and ratings. I needed to really listen to issues of the heart. At Denver Seminary, you tailor your thesis to your ministry involvement. That's the great thing about the doctor of ministry." TAKE IT FROM HERE

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