Pastor Kim Seon-tae (69) is chairman of Siloam Eye Hospital. His life story of overcoming tribulations through dedicated service has inspired not only the blind but all people with courage and hope.


Ramon Magsaysay Award Recipient

Kim is the 19th Korean recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. Of the past 250 award winners, he is the first Protestant pastor. Previous Korean award winners include Jang Jun-ha, Kim Hwal-lan, Kim Yong-gi, Catholic priest Oh Ung-jin, Yoon Hye-ran and Park Won-sun. Called the Asian Nobel Peace Prize, the Magsaysay Award was first established in 1958 with donations by the Rockefeller Foundation to commemorate former Philippines President Ramon Magsaysay, who died in a plane accident the year before. Award recipients are selected each year in six categories including public office, community service and global cooperation.

Kim went to the Philippines in Aug. 2007 for the award ceremony. He had a hectic schedule. The Magsaysay Award Foundation designated the award period as the Magsaysay Festival and held various events to celebrate the late president and congratulate the award winners. Kim gave a lecture, was invited to numerous parties, met with missionaries and Korean residents in Manila, toured church and facilities for the blind, spoke at a university and even held a book publication ceremony. His lecture “A Personal Journey of Hope” delivered at the foundation’s auditorium instilled a dream of hope to Filipino students.


Despair equals hope

Kim went blind at age 10 when he touched a blind shell during the Korean War. He also lost his parents to the war, became a beggar and himself had several near death experiences. But he always went to church on Sundays. Of the money he begged for, he picked out the new bills and gave them for church offering. He already has his mind set to serve in the church. He learned Braille for 8 months and attended ordinary middle and high schools.

But political turbulence at the time, including a military coup, barred him from going to university. This was due to the new education policy rewritten by the military regime. Students needed to take the state exam to enter college but there was no way a blind person could take the exam. Kim pleaded his case to the Education Ministry but was rejected every time. He visited the ministry 32 times but officials wouldn’t listen to him. He made up his mind then and there to devote his life to helping the blind who desired to study, like himself. In despair, he marched into a ministerial office and waved a rod he held at people. Reporters who happened to be on the site were intrigued by the blind pastor. They brought Kim to the minister’s office and the minister granted him the right to take the state exam.

He finally entered Soongsil University after which studied at the Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary in Seoul and received a doctorate at McCormick Theological Seminary in the U.S. Later, he also earned honorary doctorates in philosophy and theology to become the first blind person with three doctorate degrees since Helen Keller. But he didn’t live only for himself and did not forget his vow to live for others. He strictly offered church tithes. Another tenth of this income he gave to church to help the needy and another tenth he used as a scholarship. Since that time, he always wakes up at 3:20 a.m., praying for an hour and studying English for an hour, which explains his fluent English. To this day, by 6 a.m. every morning he arrives at his hospital or school and continues praying and studying.


Helen Keller of Asia

From then on, Kim was devoted to serving the blind. In 1970, he built the first church for the blind in Korea and distributed Braille Bibles and hymn books. He also provided scholarships to 980 blind teenagers to foster them as leaders. In 1986, with help from various sources including the late pastor Han Gyeong-jik, Kim founded the Siloam Eye Hospital in Deungchon-dong, Seoul. He has treated 27,000 people so far and also works on prevention, delivering free treatment to 350,000 patients.

The Siloam Eye Center will soon be complete under the belief that “the blind may not see the world but they should have spiritual vision.” The eye center will go beyond a mere clinic as an all-round treatment center for the body and mind. Kim will have the name of sponsors inscribed on the entrance wall of the center and leave the possession of the building to posterity. He has also treated patients for free in Yienbien, China, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Kenya and donated a bus called “the moving Siloam Eye Hospital” to North Korea.

Kim always smiles and creates happiness. The secret, he says, is the belief that hope comes from despair. He says that if he didn’t turn blind at 10, become an orphan and suffer abuse at a center for blind children in Busan, he wouldn’t have been able to dream. The center director’s dreams gave him hope, and he was able to enter an ordinary school and study with non-disabled children. He habitually says that a hopeful heart turns despair into hope.

Kim has done so much in life but he’s far from done. Through the eye center, he hopes to restore the sight of blind Asian children and spread the Christian faith. He continuously prays that the eye center will do many good deeds for the world as a deliverer of hope.