Our Story

Yong was born in Incheon, Korea. He immigrated to the US when he was 9 year old and grew up in the Greater Los Angeles Area. After graduating from UCLA, he spent time working in various Korean settings. He re-dedicated his life to Jesus at a retreat with a Korean church his family began attending. Since then, he’s had an opportunity to work in many different Korean ministry settings with his audio technician skills, including at his Korean church, with a Korean children’s choir, as well as at a large Korean radio station. He was even a co-host on a radio show!

Ann grew up in the SF Bay Area and attended Home of Christ church throughout her childhood. After attending UCSD and being greatly impacted by the Intervarsity ministries there, she returned back to the Bay Area to get her teaching credential, where she then taught in public school for the next 6 years. After taking a Perspectives on the World Christian Movement class, she felt an invitation to be further involved in the mission of God around the world, and moved to Pasadena to continue her training at Fuller Seminary. There, she connected with Epicentre Church.

Yong and Ann met in 2015, shortly after Ann had returned from a year-long overseas assignment in Malawi with Epicentre. They married in 2016 and both continued to serve in the church, Ann as a training school pastor, and Yong as the technical director. Yong continued to work with his Korean ministries.

God was gracious in giving the Choes Joel in 2020 and Annabelle in 2022. In 2022, at a World Mandate Los Angeles conference, Ann felt God highlighting East Asia, and Yong heard the Lord say, “Go back to the place where you first started.” With these two words, the Choes took two different vision trips in two different years, where they caught a glimpse of God’s heart for Korea and an invitation to go.

For us, this is a simple act of obedience in following a good Father. We believe in particular, God has a unique role for Yong in returning back to a place where he will have a unique impact as a Korean, and where he can share what God’s taught him about being a father. This also fulfills Ann’s long-time dream of wanting to reach East Asia, as we believe we will have opportunities not just for Korea, but in the larger Asian region, impacting Taiwan and Japan as well.