From: "jbfox" <jbfox@is.com.fj> To: <jbfox@is.com.fj> Subject: 'austraLasia' #407 Date: Friday, 18 August 2000 9:45 PM DON BOSCO MAKES HIS MARK ON EVEREST Seo Jeongkwan SDB SEOUL: 18th August -- A member of the Korean team to reach the summit of Mt Everest, the first such group of the new millennium, has acknowledged his debt to his Salesian education as one of the factors which gave him the inspiration and the strength to do it - and gave the Salesian Family a distinctive achievement in this Jubilee and Millennium Year. Heon Ju Park, or 'Andrea' by Chrstian name, is an alumnus of the Salesian High School in Kwangju. He is now a journalist with the Kwangju Daily News. He had already made two unsuccessful attempts 1993 and 1996 on the world's highest mountain at 8,200 metres and was determined to succeed on the third try. This time, on 3rd May, just three days before his 33rd birthday he found himself near to the summit but initially had to turn back. Almost ready to give up, he thought of his wife, his earlier failures at some things, including an important examination, and of the meeting he had had at the airport by chance with his past Salesian teachers Fr. Klement Vaclav and Robert Folk. "They promised to pray for my expedition and that word gave me great strength" Andrea said. "I had a good feeling about it". So on he went with a colleague and finally reached the summit. Andrea's experience at Dominic Savio Salesian High School was one of warm acceptance: "The principal would welcome us warmly at the school's front gate; our RE classes had us ernestly and frankly discussing the meaning of life. Those unique school programs have coloured many aspects of my life since". And yet he struggled as an adolescent and at one stage became wayward. Mountain climbing enabled him to focus on the achievement of goals through difficulty and even fear. To other youngsters who ask him 'why mountain climbing? Why this mountain?' his answer is that the greater the fear, the greater the vision possible when one sees things differently - from the sumnmit of the world!
