Underwood Missionary Award Ceremony Held On October 9th, the 12th Underwood Missionary Award Ceremony was held at Luce Chapel. Kim Sung-joon and Kim Cheul-ki received the award for their devotion to missionary work in remote areas of the world. Kim Sung-joon is involved in missionary work in the Amazon, and Kim Cheul-ki spent 21 years in Brazil spreading God’s love. The Underwood Missionary Award was established in 2001 to commemorate the spirit of Dr. Underwood, Yonsei’s founding father. Kim Sung-joon went to the Amazon in 1968 to reach out to tribes there and his work still continues. He spent a year in 1969 in Amazon to learn languages, emergency medical training and everything that has to do with survival in the jungle. He started missionary work in earnest in 1970 starting with a tribe in Kwapore Valley. By 1974, Chosun Ilbo carried a special serial story about Kim. His story encouraged Korean churches to send more missionaries to foreign remote lands. Kim fully supported a 2-year program that taught children from tribal groups Spanish and helped them adjust to school life so that they could attend a Christian school in the region. In 2008, 17 native Indian students were sent to the Christian school and among them 4 now remain as missionaries and teachers helping the local Christian community. Kim Cheul-ki was dispatched to Brazil in March 1991. He has been devoted to his missionary work near the Amazon for over 21 years and is still passionate about carrying out God’s work. The first 4 years, Kim and his wife Huh Woon-seok, worked in Tabatinga, then, in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira from 1995 until now. With the help of a church in Seoul and another in São Paulo, Kim bought a plot of land to build a school. Construction began in August 1996 with funding from a church in Los Angeles. The school opened in March the following year. At the same time, he started medical mission work in July 1996 bringing in doctors from Korea and other countries. In 2007, he bought an abandoned ferry and renovated it into a hospital and provided medical service to some 2,500 people so far.