Sion Kim
Sion Kim (김석연) is a Korean beekeeping expert with extensive knowledge of traditional beekeeping methods and the healing properties of bee venom. Having practiced for many years, he is experienced in natural healing effects. His expertise includes caring for bees and using bee venom therapy, a practice valued in traditional medicine.
He is a retired pastor who made a living as a handyman. Now, he is busy gardening, raising chickens, and keeping bees.
Stings That Heal: The Power of Bee Venom Therapy
Interview by Alexander Perez Callahan, Jonah Lee, and Timothy Lee
What is your name, age, and place of birth?
I am now 87 years old, and I was born in 1937 in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, Korea. My Korean name is Kim Seokyeon, but in America, I’m Sion Kim.
How do you identify by generation, race, ethnicity, gender, or preferred pronouns?
I don’t know, really. I’m the old generation. People say I’m the old generation in common parlance. I’m Korean and a white-clad person (백의민족 — a traditional term for the Korean people, referring to the white clothing historically worn by Koreans).
Did you grow up in Icheon?
My hometown is Icheon. I lived there until I graduated from middle school. I then went to Seoul and attended Gyeongseong High School.
What was your childhood like?
I lived in the countryside as a child. I was born in a rural area called Daewol-myeon, Icheon, Gyeonggi Province, and my family were farmers. I grew up helping out with the farm work.
Tell me about your family. How many family members did you have, and what were your parents’ occupations?
Since I grew up in a rural area, my parents were farmers. I had two older brothers, two older sisters, and a younger brother, so I was the middle child.
Did you come to Koreatown when you immigrated?
Yes, when I first came to the United States, I lived in Koreatown.
Have you lived in Koreatown this whole time?
Yes, I’ve lived in Koreatown ever since.
What year did you immigrate?
I came to the United States in April 1980.
You’ve been living in Koreatown for almost 40 years now. What’s the memory you hold dearest about it?
During the April 29th riots, we had a really hard time. At that time, the unity of the Korean people was great. Seeing all those Koreans from all over the world coming together, shouting slogans, and dealing with the April 29 riots, I felt we were really united.
What is your favorite place in Koreatown?
Even now, I usually go to Koreatown Plaza and Galleria Market in Koreatown. When I go there, I meet my friends. That’s where all our meetings take place.
When and why did you move to the United States? How is living in the United States different from living in Korea?
I felt uncomfortable with the social structures while living in Korea. When I came to the States, everything felt so comfortable. It was much better than Korea.
Do you remember the Korean War?
Yes.
How do you think the Korean War and its aftermath affected you?
I was in elementary school when liberation came. Soon after, the Korean War broke out. I am from the generation that experienced liberation and the Korean War. Amid the Korean War, we fled during the January 4 Retreat and rebuilt our lives. We lived through the war in many ways — a very difficult and hard life.
Did you have a Japanese name by any chance?
Japanese name, yes. I lived during the Japanese colonial period, so I changed my name to a Japanese name then. I didn’t use the “Kim” surname. I changed my name to Kaneoka, a Japanese name. My Korean name is Kim Seokyeon, but I went by the Japanese name Kaneoka Seken during that period.
I started elementary school during the Japanese colonial period and had to pass an exam to get in. The test was in Japanese, and I passed, but they put a rock down and asked me what it was, and I couldn’t answer that. However, I passed and went to school.
When I was in first grade, it was wartime. I was a very young child, but [teachers] were quite strict with me. We had military training. Going to school during the Japanese colonial period was very difficult.
Do you have any medical experience in Korea?
I never obtained any medical experience in Korea, nothing like that.
What traditional healing practices do you engage in?
When I came to the United States and was doing ministry, there was an oriental medicine doctor among our church members. He performed apitherapy with bee stings. That’s when I learned about bee venom treatment. I still perform this treatment using bee venom on several people every week.
Where do you think your motivation for healing work comes from? Is your motivation of a religious nature, or is it related to your childhood memories or experiences?
No. When I was a pastor, there was a doctor who performed bee venom treatments. My tooth was hurting because of periodontal disease. The doctor told me to try bee venom treatment for that pain, so I did. The tooth that was hurting fully recovered the next day after receiving the treatment. My tooth was very loose, but after the treatment, the pain disappeared, and the loose tooth stuck. That’s when I realized that bee venom treatment was amazing. It was quite effective and worked in mysterious ways. From then on, I became interested in bee venom treatment and have treated many people with it.
We want to know about the bee venom treatment process. Can you tell us how the process works?
Well, the bee venom treatment process is quite easy to use because it doesn’t require any great skills or specialized knowledge. It’s just a traditional folk remedy that’s been passed down from generation to generation. It doesn’t require specialized knowledge like that of Western medicine, and anyone can do it easily, which is an advantage. No side effects are associated with the bee venom treatment, and it is not addictive. The most effective thing about it is that it purifies the blood, so the more you get it, the clearer your blood becomes. When your blood becomes clearer, your body gets better. That’s why I think bee venom treatment is the most convenient and effective healing method.
Is bee venom therapy a type of acupuncture?
Yes, we could say that it’s almost the same as acupuncture. Acupuncture has a physical effect because the needle is inserted. Bee venom therapy has a physical impact like acupuncture, but unlike acupuncture, bee venom treatment involves injecting bee venom into your body, so there is a chemical effect as well. Also, acupuncture has a physical effect only when the needle is inserted, whereas when bee venom is injected, the area where it is injected becomes hot, so the healing effect is much better. Bee venom treatment is three or four times more effective than acupuncture. You can see it that way.
How did your life experiences influence your decision to start performing bee venom treatment? How do you feel your life has changed since you started practicing it?
Well, the important thing about bee venom therapy is that as people live, as they get older, they naturally start to experience pain in various places. Their hands and feet hurt. They feel pain here and there. Whenever that happens, if they get bee venom treatment, it magically gets better. As they get older, if people get treatment with bee stings whenever they get sick, it will be quite effective. Even now, when people complain about pain, I perform bee venom treatment and get a lot of positive feedback.
What lessons have you learned from practicing bee venom therapy?
Yes, bee venom contains histamine, which can cause problems for people allergic to it. There will be side effects if you perform bee sting treatment on someone allergic. For example, a person came to get bee venom treatment because of a toothache. After getting bee venom treatment, that person immediately got hives and a fever, and the side effects were severe. We took preventive measures, and it got better, but the person came back a few days later for treatment again. I told them they couldn’t [get treatment] because they’re allergic, so they took allergy medicine and came back. I performed bee venom treatment on them and saw the pain go away. It’s a bit risky, but bee venom treatment is relatively safe if you can avoid allergic reactions.
How do you balance traditional and modern healing methods?
Yes, modern medicine now, so to speak, treats symptoms, but this traditional treatment — the bee venom treatment — is not that kind of treatment. It’s a fundamental treatment. Hence, if we combine traditional medicine with modern medicine, the effects and results should be better.
As you said, people nowadays don’t know much about traditional healing methods. What do you think would happen if this became more widely known and more respected?
Yes, bee venom treatment has been popular since ancient times. I know that, compared to the rest of the West, bee venom treatment is still preferred in the United States. Here, bee venom treatment is illegal. It cannot be legally practiced. In the U.S., bee venom treatment is practiced; Americans also have bee venom treatment unions, and members of those unions receive bee venom treatments, thereby avoiding the illegality of practicing it. I think that if the U.S. legalizes this traditional medicine and traditional treatment method and combines it with modern medicine, and we practice both simultaneously, the overall treatment effects will improve.
When you feel like you need healing, who do you turn to?
If I want treatment, I must go to my primary care doctor.
Can you tell me more about that?
When I get sick, I have my own doctor. When I go to the doctor, he will send me to the right place. That’s how I get treatment.
Okay, so this might be a little tricky, but what was the proudest moment in your life?
I am most proud of being a pastor. As a pastor, the most rewarding and valuable moments are when I am doing ministry.
Can you tell me more about being a pastor?
I originally had no intention of becoming a pastor, but one day, I suddenly wanted to go to a prayer center. After going to the prayer center, I wanted to go to the seminary. I went to seminary and became a pastor. Before becoming a pastor, I only attended church once or twice a year. When I think about it, I didn’t become a pastor on my own; God forced me into pastoral work. So that’s why I became a pastor. I’ve never regretted becoming one. Pastoral work is the most rewarding and valuable work for me.
I’m curious about what prompted you to choose this field of work, whether it’s related to bee venom treatment or pastoring. Was there someone who guided you, or was there an event that prompted you to go down that path?
No, I became a pastor without intending to, but God led me there. I can’t help but think so. It wasn’t my will but God’s will that led me to become a pastor.
As for the ministry and bee venom treatment, as I said before, when I was a pastor, there was an oriental medicine doctor in our congregation, and he performed bee venom treatment. That’s where I learned it. After I retired, I considered it my mission and have been doing ministry and performing bee venom treatments since.
Let’s go back a little bit. I’d like to hear more about your past career and other experiences.
I grew up in the countryside, so I was very interested in farming and livestock. When I was young, I really wanted to do well in livestock farming. My family were farmers when I was young. We raised pigs, chickens, and rabbits, and I started doing livestock farming. At some point, the Gyeonggi Provincial Office asked me to learn how to raise dairy cows. I thought I’d go to Japan and learn how to raise dairy cows. The Gyeonggi Provincial Office sent me to Hokkaido, Japan, for dairy farming training.
I studied at Hokkaido Agricultural University. Also, there was a junior college abroad. I went there and studied. I mainly visited livestock, chicken, pig, and cattle testing centers and studied during field trips. Then I came back to Korea and wanted to [expand] that business on a large scale.
I wanted to make money, and my family had a big mountain, but my father sold it, and I lost the place where I could raise livestock. I couldn’t do livestock farming, so I came to Seoul and did this and that business, and eventually, I came to the United States.
Do you remember exactly when you immigrated to the United States?
Yes, it was on April 30, 1980.
You remember the exact date. Do you also remember anything about that first day? The memory of April 30.
My first memory is getting off the plane and coming to Los Angeles. Some kind of grass was on the side of the road, like sweet potato vines. I thought, Hey, in America, they grow sweet potatoes on the side of the road. But it wasn’t a sweet potato. Now that I think about it, it was a tree grass. As I was entering the country, from the airport, there was this oil gushing out from oil drilling. I can’t tell you how amazing it was. It was like this thing going back and forth, and they said they were selling oil. I thought, Wow, America is truly a blessed land.
Before coming to America, you must’ve made plans for what you wanted to achieve here. Looking back, did you live up to that plan, or is something different from what you planned?
When I came to the U.S., I was invited by a Christian newspaper here. I first went to work at that Christian newspaper, or, in other words, in the media business. However, when I came here, it wasn’t that easy. As a pastor, I had no choice but to go straight into ministry. I started to work at a church right after I immigrated. I didn’t go after it.
Someone came to the church and asked me to be their pastor, so I took over that church and pastored it. It was a Presbyterian church — a sister church — and I worked there for about five years. I graduated from a Methodist seminary in Korea. I was a Methodist pastor but thought it wouldn’t work out. After about 5 years, I started a Methodist church called Hanbit Church. After a while, I went to a Lutheran church in the U.S. and worked as a pastor there until I retired.
Is it safe to say that you have lived as a Korean American for over 40 years?
That’s exactly right.
What do you think about your experience living as a Korean American?
I don’t know, really. Maybe I feel that way because I’m a first-generation immigrant, but I’m a citizen of the United States, and I just live like a Korean. Whether it’s in Korea or America, I just live as a Korean.
Do you have any advice or lessons to share with us? Please tell us if you do.
Now that I’m older, health is the most important thing in the world. Money is important. Fame is important. Everything is important. But as I age, nothing is more important than health. I had a lot of friends, but they started passing away one by one, and almost all of them are gone now. There are only a few left.
Always take care of your health and stay healthy. When you go to church, people usually tell you to pray, but more than that, we need to live positively. What I mean is that what happens to you in life is a reflection of what you say and think. If you live positively, you can live a successful life. That’s my point.
What kind of person do you want to be remembered as?
When you die, you shouldn’t hear people say, “Oh, no, he died!” When you die, you want to hear people say, “Oh, he was such a good person.” I want people to remember me as a good and kind person.