The story of The Drop Box starts out in 1987 when Lee Jong-rakis’ son is born in South Korea. Lee soon learns that his child was born with a life-threatening cyst on his cheek and cerebral palsy. To pay for the medical bills, Lee sold the family’s house and belongings.
The family spent the next 14 years essentially living in the hospital and waiting for their brother and son to be released. This led to Lee getting to know the other children in the hospital ward. The family eventually adopted another child in the ward by request of the child’s dying mother. Things started looking up for the family when Lee was able to save enough money to buy a house.
This is when Lee and his family began adopting children without homes in their local neighborhood. By inviting orphaned children into their small home, Lee began to realize the severity of the problem.
This excerpt from Kindred Image explains what Lee decided to do next:
Then, on one frigid winter night, a woman abandoned her baby outside the gate of Pastor Lee’s home. The disabled baby girl would nearly freeze to death, before Pastor Lee found her. But in that moment, Lee knew that those children were not safe. He knew something had to be done.
So in December 2009, Pastor Lee built a box.
Downstairs Lee cut into the wall of his laundry room and constructed “the drop box,” fitted with a motion sensor and an alarm. While upstairs, Eun-man still lay in bed, reminding Lee of why he began to care for the vulnerable in the first place. Of course, he never thought any other children would actually arrive.
UNTIL A FEW DAYS LATER, WHEN THE ALARM BELL RANG.
The bell continued to ring and over 600 children (and counting) have been placed through the drop box.
These children are taken in and raised as part of the family.
Lee makes a powerful statement in the trailer, pointing out that the unique aspect of their ‘orphanage’ is that the children have a mother and a father. They are neither single nor double orphans because they are part of a family- Lee’s family.
The Drop Box hit theaters March 3-5 Nationwide.
To learn more about this film please visit Kindred Image.
