Remembering Rev. Dr. Jean Kim (HR)
Seattle Presbytery
Rev. Dr. Jean Kim (HR, Northwest Coast Presbytery and formerly Seattle Presbytery) passed away peacefully on July 3, 2021.
Her memorial service will be held on Saturday, July 17th, 10:00am (PST) 1:00pm Eastern at Maplewood Presbyterian Church in Edmonds. 19523 84th Ave W Edmonds, WA 98026
Online viewing of the memorial service will be available.
Use one of these linked buttons to connect at the time of the service:
To honor Jean's wishes, please do not send flowers or cards. Instead, please wear something purple or bring a purple balloon to the service.
The family requests that memorial gifts in memory of Jean Kim be sent directly to one of the following homeless missions:
1) Jean Kim Foundation. Jules Butler, PO Box 1835, Lynnwood, WA. 98046. jules.butler@butlerllaw.org
2) Nest Mission. Rev. Deuksil Jung. PO Box 5782, Lynnwood, WA. 98046. (206)255-0676 dsjung12@yahoo.com
3) Mary’s Place. Marty Hartman. PO Box 1711, Seattle, WA. 98111. (206) 383-6262. marty@marysplaceseattle.org
4) Interfaith Task Force on Homelessness. Rev. Bill Kirlin Hackett. 1847 F St. SE, Auburn, WA. 98002.
(425) 442-5418. kirhac@comcast.net
5) Operation Nightwatch. Rev. Rick Reynolds. PO Box 21181, Seattle, WA. 98111. rick@seattlenightwatch.org
6) WHEEL. Michele Marchand. PO Box 2548, Seattle, WA. 98111 (206) 817-3918. marchand@speakeasy.net
7) Hope in Color Purple Fund Samuel Kim, 15228 - 72nd Drive SE Snohomish, WA 98296 (425) 789-8290
Tribute to Rev. Dr. Jean Kim by Rev. Jinsuk Kim (Northwest Coast Presbytery):
Several days ago before her passing, my wife and I visited Jean Kim along with her co-workers. She hadn’t eaten anything for three days only being able to sip water aided by her son Sam and family. She signaled to see me, and I could barely hear her speaking to me. I thanked her for modeling a good faith for us. She replied “I thank the presbytery.” I told her that we shared about how she was with our presbytery members and prayed for her. Then she said the same thing twice “I give thanks to the presbytery” seemingly to make sure that I heard.
It was apparent that she was full of gratefulness for her presbytery (NWCP), where she was ordained (1987) and then founded Church of Mary Magdalene in Seattle which grew to Mary’s Place, now serving hundreds of thousands daily for the vulnerable women, children and families. After a long time serving as a GA commissioner to the End Homelessness project, she founded Nest Homeless Mission and the Jean Kim Foundation which is now a mission partner of NWCP.
Jean deeply impacted me by how she led her life. Her purpose of life was clear as she was often explicit about it: to live for the homeless and vulnerable. And she was fully committed to it and did all she could with everything available to her, until the last day marked by writing her 13th book to educate us of the root cause of homelessness and what to do about it.
Her works are now being firmly continued by those who have been inspired by her life, weekly and daily. And I am confident that this will not stop, as Jesus said “For you always have the poor with you…”
She was a humble and grateful person who had attributed all her works to God. She had expressed often how she was looking forward to unite with Christ soon, but even during those time of enormous physical pain, she did what she was committed to with all her energy, passion and grace.
Thank God for her.
By Jinsuk Kim
Associate Executive Presbyter for Korean Ministries
Seattle Times: The Rev. Jean Kim, a ‘mother’ to the homeless community in Seattle, dies at 86