Valentine cookies are a sweet reminder to pray for peace

​Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher's children frosting Valentines Day cookies. Photo by Jae Young Lee.

​Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher's children frosting Valentines Day cookies. Photo by Jae Young Lee.

Travis Duerksen

​Travis Duerksen is a writer and multimedia producer for Mennonite Mission Network.

Valentines Day, with its themes of love and compassion, is an event celebrated around the world.

Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher are mission associates with Mission Network in Namyangju, South Korea.

Spicher wrote that for Valentine’s Day, their family made sugar cookies. "Hearts, dinosaurs (Lena insisted), and the Korean peninsula, because it’s so easy to forget about North Korea in our daily lives, and we need to remember to pray for unification."

Unfrosted cookies, and a frosted, Korean peninsula cookie. Photos by Jae Young Lee and Karen Spicher.

Spicher serves as the communications coordinator for the Northeast Asia Regional Peace Building Institute (NARPI). Jae Young directs the Korea Peacebuilding Institute (KOPI) and provides leadership to NARPI. Lee, Spicher and their four children work and live in community with other families at Peace Building in Namyangju. For more information on their ministry, click here.