Speaking Truth: An Interview with Kathy Khang

“It took about ten years to get enough courage and enough confidence to believe that I had something worth saying and that what I would say had any value for other people.”

My first recollection of meeting Kathy Khang was in 2002 at a retreat center somewhere in Illinois for a meeting of InterVarsity ministry staff for the Chicagoland area. At the end of one of the first days about 100 of us sat in a circle on metal folding chairs discussing the events and aftermath of the Los Angeles race riots of 1992. As a young 22-year-old from rural Ohio, I knew relatively little about these events and even less so about the impact they had on the Korean American community. I listened as Kathy Khang raised her voice and shared about her own experience as a Korean American woman, as well as part of the larger Korean American community. By taking the risk of raising her voice, she inadvertently mentored many of us in learning to do the same.

Fast-forward 16 years, I am grateful to be part of the team at The Well offering this interview with Kathy Khang, as the final installation of our summer special highlighting her new book, Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up. In today’s interview, we are invited to consider how to raise our voices, how to meet Jesus when we fail in the process, and to have hope in the midst of the challenges we face as women. We hope you enjoy this conversation with Kathy Khang and glean wisdom for your own journey of raising your voice.

You can listen to Caroline's interview with Kathy Khang on iTunes or through WAP's podbean page. We hope you enjoy listening to the conversation as much as we did.

Links mentioned in this interview:

• Kathy's website
• Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up by Kathy Khang
• The Next Worship: 
  Glorifying God in a Diverse World by Sandra Van Opstal
• More Than Serving Tea: 
  Asian American Women on Expectations, Relationships, Leadership and Faith edited by Nikki A. Toyama-Szeto and Tracey Gee; 
  Consulting Editor Jeanette Yep; 
  by Kathy Khang, Christie Heller De Leon, and Asifa Dean
• Dr. OiYan Poon's profile at Colorado State University

You can read about the good news of speaking out and the struggle of credibility in these two book excerpts from Raise Your Voice at The Well.

Consider purchasing Kathy's book using the 40% off discount code (including free U.S. shipping) that InterVarsity Press is offering readers of The Well: WELL4513. (Good through August 31, 2018 on the title Raise Your Voice.)