Pastor Lee's "baby box" ministry began in 1999, and currently, he and Jusarang Community take care of 21 children.
One Los Angeles Times article that put a man's journey of love into words led to a feature-length documentary to put it into motion: "The Drop Box."
The film is on the story of Pastor Jong-rak Lee, who has been taking in babies abandoned by their parents by having set up a small, warm, "baby box" in which parents in desperate situations could leave their children, rather than leaving them out in the cold streets. Ever since 1999, Pastor Lee and Jusarang Community, a non-profit, non-governmental organization with a small number of staff, have been taking care of these children, most of whom have disabilities.
"I realized I couldn't live without doing this. And the reality that was laid out in front of me was simply that I couldn't not do this work," Pastor Lee shared, referring to the fact that many parents and families"”much more than he expected"”resort to abandoning their children, or have thoughts of killing themselves and the children, due to desperate circumstances.
So far, there have been 629 children who have come and gone under his care through the baby box. Many parents have come to Pastor Lee telling him that if it weren't for his ministry, their children may not be alive today.
Other than adopting and taking care of children himself, Pastor Lee's ministry also involves providing resources for families so that they would be able to raise the children without having to turn to abandoning them. His ministry does not intend to make it easier for parents to abandon children; rather, he hopes that parents could find that there is hope for themselves and for their children.
Over 600 children have come under Pastor Lee's care through his baby box on the street near his church in Seoul, South Korea.
Bryan Ivie, the director of The Drop Box, came across Pastor Lee's story through a Los Angeles Times article published in 2011. Though he wasn't Christian at the time, Ivie was attracted to Pastor Lee's story because in it, there was a love that he couldn't comprehend and a love that he hadn't experienced in the world. And he wanted to find out what that love was.
And while filming the documentary and visiting Pastor Lee in South Korea multiple times, Ivie himself became a Christian.
"I saw all these kids come through this drop box with deformities and disabilities, and eventually"”like a "heaven flash'"”I realized that I was one of those kids too; that I have a crooked soul, all this brokenness inside, but God still wanted me," he wrote on the film website, sharing the inspiration for the film.
"I hope that people will come to know how great God's love is through the film, that He loves you even in your brokenness," Ivie said. "I want our culture to see that love in a movie, and to know how precious each life is."
"The Drop Box" will be shown in 700 different movie theaters all over the nation for three days on March 3, 4, and 5. For more information, visit www.thedropboxfilm.com.
