Crash Landings and Divine Appointments
Storytelling Lessons from a K-Drama Heart
By Redina Kolaneci, a fundraising strategist who helps Christian ministries worldwide craft compelling narratives that inspire generous giving. With an eye for storytelling honed by her passion for K-dramas, Redina teaches ministry leaders how to transform ordinary mission stories into unforgettable narratives that stir hearts and inspire action.
On a balmy September evening, as my friends and I strolled along the Han River watching Seoul's lights dance on the water and Lotte Tower pierce the twilight sky, I found myself thinking about stories. Not just any stories, but the ones that brought me here – the K-dramas that have become my unexpected teachers since the Covid lockdowns and the biblical narratives that have shaped my faith journey from Albania to the UK and now to South Korea.
As an Albanian Christian serving as Fundraising & Communications Consultant for faith-based organisations, I'm often asked how I came to love K-dramas. The answer lies in many parallels between Albanian and Korean cultures, as well as the profound way storytelling in K-dramas can speak to the human heart.
I recognize many familiar elements in K-dramas because like Koreans, Albanians too place immense value on family honor, respect for elders, and community solidarity. When I watch K-drama scenes where characters navigate complex family obligations or struggle with choosing between what they desire and familial duty, I am reminded of my own cultural experiences.
The multi-generational households, the joy of shared meals, the weight of parental expectations – aren’t simply plot devices in K-dramas; they're cultural touchstones that feel deeply familiar to someone raised in an Albanian household.
Moreover, both cultures understand the lasting impact of political division. Just as Korea remains divided, Albania’s communist past created its own separations and traumas. Therefore, themes of longing for reunion and healing resonate with historical wounds that many Albanians still carry.
Beyond cultural parallels, K-dramas have captured my heart through their emotional intelligence. Unlike many Western TV series that rush through emotional moments or veil them with irony, K-dramas take their time to explore every nuance of joy, pain, longing, and hope. I believe that such willingness to sit with feelings mirrors the depth and complexity of real life and provides a powerful connection to universal human experiences.
When God Uses Netflix for Professional Development
My love for K-dramas started in April 2020, when I discovered Crash Landing on You on Netflix. I expected a few hours of escapist entertainment. Instead, I found myself drawn into a story that brought comfort, inspiration, and a masterclass in storytelling.
This drama is a fateful love story that transcends borders. The love story between the heiress of a South Korean conglomerate and a North Korean male soldier.
In the first episode of Crash Landing on You a freak tornado sweeps South Korean CEO and heiress Yoon Se Ri across one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. If you are among the millions of people who have been captivated by this K-drama, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't watched it yet (no judgment!), imagine the most unlikely meet-cute ever: a glamorous CEO literally drops from the sky into the arms of Captain Ri Yeong Hyeok a North Korean military officer.
Sounds crazy, right? But here's the thing – this "crazy" setup brilliantly illustrates something we Christians think and talk about all the time: divine appointments.
You know, those special moments in our lives when God orchestrates what looks like coincidence into something meaningful. It got me thinking: what can this phenomenally successful K-drama teach us about sharing God's story?
A powerful inciting incident in pastoral storytelling acts like a spiritual defibrillator - it jolts your listeners out of their comfortable assumptions and creates an immediate emotional investment in what happens next. When chosen carefully, does much more than grab the listener’s attention; it creates a bridge between their own experiences of upheaval and the deeper spiritual truth you want to convey.
The Power of the Inciting Incident: Finding Sacred Disruptions in Our Stories
Se Ri’s spectacular crash landing in the DMZ serves as the perfect inciting incident. In a single chaotic moment, this successful and beautiful CEO is stripped of every privilege and protection her South Korean life afforded her. She is plunged into a world where her wealth, her connections, and her carefully crafted identity mean nothing.
As she dangles precariously on the branches of a pine tree, she's initially convinced that she's still in South Korea, making the moment she realizes the truth even more impactful. There's a particular poignancy to her literally being caught between earth and sky, between two Koreas, perfectly capturing her state of being trapped between two contrasting worlds.
This disruption forces Se Ri to confront the challenge of survival in a hostile territory, and deeper questions about who she really is when everything familiar is torn away. It sets the stage for telling a profound story of transformation, redemption and love that transcends boundaries.
The Bible is filled with powerful inciting incidents too. For example, take Saul's dramatic encounter on the road to Damascus in Acts 9. In one blinding moment, a powerful Pharisee who had built his entire identity around persecuting Christians found himself literally and spiritually knocked off his path, stripped of his status and sight.
Just as Se Ri's crash-landing forced her into a world where all her definitions of self suddenly become meaningless, Saul's sacred disruption compelled him to rebuild his purpose and identity through the lens of the faith he had sought to destroy.
Whether it's Se Ri dangling from a tree in enemy territory or Saul lying blinded on the road to Damascus, powerful inciting incidents share a common DNA - they thrust a story’s main protagonist into a crisis that dismantles their carefully constructed worlds.
However, in both these stories, what appears at first glance to be an unwelcome disruption becomes the doorway to emotional and spiritual transformation: Se Ri’s crash-landing leads her to discover authentic love and purpose, while Saul's blinding encounter redirects his passion toward spreading the Gospel he once sought to destroy. These moments remind us that sometimes the most profound journeys begin with what looks like a messy disaster.
So, what can we learn from Yoon Se Ri’s and Saul’s transformative disruptions? Are there any unwelcome interruptions in our own stories that contain hidden invitations to new beginnings or growth?
When God Writes the Script of Our Stories
A powerful inciting incident in pastoral storytelling acts like a spiritual defibrillator - it jolts your listeners out of their comfortable assumptions and creates an immediate emotional investment in what happens next.
When chosen carefully, it does much more than grab the listener’s attention; it creates a bridge between their own experiences of upheaval and the deeper spiritual truth you want to convey.
Here Are Some Questions to Help You Find Your Story's Se Ri or Saul Moment:
As you prepare to share stories with your congregation or audience, use these questions to identify powerful inciting incidents that will resonate:
What precise moment shattered the sense of control or identity of the main protagonist of the story you want to share? (When Se Ri's parachute landed in forbidden territory, when Saul was struck blind on the road to Damascus.)
How did God use circumstances that seemed like failures to redirect their path? (Se Ri's ‘accident’ led to authentic relationships, Saul's ‘defeat’ birthed his true calling.)
What impossible choice did the disruption force the protagonist of your story to make? (Trust enemies or die, surrender cherished beliefs or remain in darkness)
Which false securities or comfortable illusions had to be stripped away? (Se Ri's wealth and status, Saul's religious accomplishments and authority)
How did this inciting incident, this moment of crisis reveal God's redemptive purposes that were invisible before? (God using North/South division for love, using persecution to transform the persecutor)
Next time you're sharing a story with your congregation or your ministry’s supporters, don't skip the messy parts. Because those "crashes" in our lives might just be God's inciting incidents – divine appointments in disguise. Your community needs to understand that God doesn't just work through our chaos; He often uses that very chaos as the opening scene of a redemption story.
May these thoughts and reflections reshape how you frame both your personal and biblical narratives. Every crash landing can become holy ground. Every unexpected detour might be the Spirit's choreography. When God writes the script, even our most awkward entrances can become the beginnings of something beautiful.
Redina is the founder of Christian Fundraising Consultancy based in the UK. She is passionate about helping church and ministry leaders see stewardship and fundraising as part of God’s plan for their ministry and raise more funds for their mission causes.
For over two decades, Redina has taught and trained hundreds of local church and ministry leaders on biblical principles of stewardship, on growing generous givers in the local church, and much more. She was the first-ever Stewardship education consultant serving with Stewardship Services (now Stewardship) and is the author of What Does Love Require?, a series of Bible studies on generosity. She also created a stewardship resource pack for local churches titled Re-discovering the Joy of Giving.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Tirana, Albania, and a master’s degree in theology from Spurgeon’s College in London.
Redina lives in Colchester, UK, but is often travelling to Europe and Australia providing training, consulting, and coaching to ministry leaders and fundraisers.
I hope to begin applying these practical insights into my teaching, preaching, and storytelling. Thank you!