today

We had our Kyungwon University life group today and finally had a good crowd again. Went to eat kalbi (pork grilled in front of you) afterwards, then I went market shopping. I went to Dongdaemoon (a market at the old east gate of Seoul)in search of cheap candle holders. I had heard there was an antique market inside the stadium, so I found that. It's not so much antiques as just a big flea market or strange outdoor Goodwill made up of individual stands. There was one guy who just had a pile of old cell phones. I guess people buy those. There were a few people selling large collections of brass stuff. I bought some candle holders, but they weren't especially cheap. I need to learn how to bargain more. I am proud to say that I did bargain him down some, though!

I trekked off to Namdaemoon (a market at the old south gate of Seoul)next and found a few random things like hooks for my door to hang stuff on and a little dress for my friend Robin, who is Korean size. Hope it fits. I ate some meat mandu (dumplings) for dinner, they were pretty tasty. Then, I met my friends Kelli, Roberta, and Darlene in Myung-dong, a trendy area really close to Namdaemoon. We had fun trying out makeup, sunglasses, and perusing the wares of the many street vendors there.

On the way home, it was only 11:00 (the subway closes at midnight)and everybody on the subway had to get off. I was sad because I had a seat and was enjoying reading my book. I thought I was going to have to take a taxi, but everybody just stood and waited, so I did what they did. Another train came and we crammed onto it. This guy who was asleep jolted awake and turned to me to ask what station we were at. I was so proud of myself that I understood what he said and could answer him. When he got up to leave a few stations later, he hit my arm and told me goodbye like we were good buddies now. Funny.

sabbatical journey

I started reading this book - Sabbatical Journey by Henri Nouwen this week. I've only read about 20 pages so far, but it's really incredible. I have read a few other Nouwen books, but it's been a while. This is one my mom got for my dad after the sabbatical they took a while back. It got passed on to me and I brought it with me to Korea. It's his journal of his year of sabbatical, which turned out to be the last year of his life.

One of the first entries he makes is about prayer. He admits that he's in a season of his life where he doesn't like to pray. What, Nouwen doesn't like to pray? I can't believe it. He says that at 63 years old, he feels like his prayer is dead as a rock. He remembers fondly his teenage years when he couldn't get enough of it, but says that his prayers now are not anything special. They are dark and dry. Yet, he still says this:

Prayer is the bridge between my unconscious and conscious life. Prayer connects my mind with my heart, my will with my passions, my brain with my belly. Prayer is the way to let the life-giving Spirit of God penetrate all the corners of my being. Prayer is the divine instrument of my wholeness, unity, and inner peace.

He examines his darkness and dryness as a way that God is speaking to him: "Are the darkness and dryness of my prayer signs of God's absence, or are they signs of a presence deeper and wider than my senses can contain? Is the death of my prayer the end of my intimacy with God or the beginning of a new communion, beyond words, emotions, and bodily sensations?"

Wow. It's amazing to see him obviously so close to God that he knows how important and life giving prayer is, even though he's not experiencing the joy of it at the time of his writing. I love having the ability to peek into someone else's mind in this very raw way - through a journal that he may have known someone else would read someday, but that he wrote for himself, as an outlet of what was on the front burners of his mind.

a boy in hanbok (traditional korean clothing for celebrations) peering into the ice cream freezer at the corner store 

woman selling flower lanterns in front of a buddhist temple 

lanterns strung up for buddha's birthday 

buddha's birthday

Today was buddha's birthday, so us working folk got the day off. There is supposed to be a lantern festival where they put them out on the water with some meaning involved, but I think that was Sunday. I didn't go, although I would like to sometime, if for nothing but the sake of taking some cool pictures. I spent the day getting some stuff checked off my to-do list (like my TAXES finally!) and then I rode my bike to Olympic Park and explored for a while and then sat down in the sculpture garden to read for a bit. It was really nice today - a little overcast and cool. I rode by a buddhist temple in my neighborhood and took some pictures of the lanterns. You can see them on my photo link on the right.

I came home, made some pizza dough, then decided I was too hungry to wait for it to rise and all, so I made some pretty tasty spaghetti. Then, Jason called and asked if I wanted to go to Costco. Yay! I got excited. He came and picked me up and I stocked up on diet coke, ground pork, cereal, and some other good stuff. I saw a little girl from my K6 class there with her mom and she ran up to me and jumped in my arms. That made my day! How cute!

here's a picture of the torturous hula hoop 

hula hoops and singing

I'm sitting on my bed, writing a little blog entry, and singing. When I first moved here, I realized I could hear a lot of what happens in the other little apartments around me (for instance, one of my neighbors apparently has no job, because I can hear him losing his cookies almost every morning after), so I didn't sing to myself so much. Now, I sing to myself a lot. I remember when Jason bought his car, he said he realized how much he missed singing out loud to himself in the car. I sort of sing out loud even around other people as long as I feel sorta comfortable around them, so my team has to suffer through that anyhow. Somehow, I think it makes me feel more at home here to listen and sing along to my music.

There is a drama unfolding at work with one of the other teachers, so it's a little stressful there as of late (although, not so much for me as for the people who actually have to deal with it). Today after work, I went for a little jog around the lake/park near my house, then to dinner at the local food court. I did some post-workout hula hooping on my bed (it's the only place in my apartment where there is enough space for hula hooping.) I bought in to the Korean workout trend of painful hula hooping for fitness. My hula hoop has these plastic knobs on the inside that are supposed to stimulate your circulation or something. It must be really healthy, because it is really painful to use. I am totally crazy for buying it, but I'm getting better and I don't get bruises from it anymore.

rich mullins

I just "rediscovered" my Rich Mullins CDs and loaded them onto my computer and then onto my new MP3 player. I hope all of you know the beauty of Rich Mullins music. Some of it is a little cheesy, but some of it is so sweet and profound. I owe some of my love for Rich Mullins to my friend Paul Kelsey. (Paul, do you read this? If so, thanks.) We spent a summer in Romania with the Richardsons and the Honakers in Brasov. I probably owe much of the fact that I am here in Korea to all of those people because that was my first experience with real overseas missions. God did a lot in me that summer to give me a heart for missions and give me a desire to be sent out from my home church. Praise God that He is fulfilling those desires! Anyway...where was I going with this post? Not sure.

My Dad is coming to visit! Yay! He just decided this week and is coming June 1st through the 7th. I am really excited, but I have no idea what I will show him. He'll have some free time on his own while I work during the day, but hopefully we can spend some good time together. My schedule isn't too bad.

I didn't take this picture, but I love it....Usually, it's sorta taboo to sit on the floor, especially on the subway, but these girls don't seem to care! 

i went to everland on saturday with free tickets from my friend kelli...this was in front of the western theme roller coaster.  

work and glorifying God

Tonight, on my subway ride home, I was reading John Piper's book Don't Waste Your Life, the chapter called Making Much of Christ from 8 to 5. It spoke to me for a few reasons. Here's part of what I read: True personal piety feeds the purposeful work of secular vocations rather than undermining it. Idleness does not grow in the soil of fellowship with God. Therefore, people who spend their lives mainly in idleness or frivolous leisure are rarely as happy as those who work.

I guess that might not mean that much to anyone reading this, but I have been thinking lately about the time my work at school takes up. I really enjoy my job at the hagwon, but it also takes away from some of what I could be doing. One of those things is learning Korean. Today was my morning off, so I went to a few places to check into learning Korean. Two of the places only offer classes in blocks of 10 weeks (4 hours a day, 5 days a week). Well, that's not gonna work with my schedule. Another place offers a class every Saturday morning until 1. That's almost possible for me - except we have our Kyungwon University life group starting at 1 about 30 minutes away from there. So, I am looking into private tutoring. I have been trying to learn on my own since I got here, and I can get across what I need, but not really have much of a conversation so far. I want to be able to really talk to people at the very least!

So, back to the work thing. I think it's really fascinating that God has made us people who are made to work. Of course, He has made us as people who rest, too, but real rest comes after real work. I want to be one who glorifies God constantly through my work, both my "secular" work and my "missionary" work.

raw fish

Tonight after work, I went over to my Korean co-workers apartment where we waited for her kids to get out of tae kwon do and then we went to eat at a raw fish restaurant. I have eaten japanese style sushi and sashimi before in the states, but I hadn't experienced it in Korea yet. She chose a really good place. The side dishes alone were more than enough to fill us up. They were so good - cheese corn, caviar rice in a hot pot, raw tuna in wrapped in crispy seaweed (kim), fried shrimp, fried potatoes, boiled quail eggs, salted fish, kimchi, clam soup, baked figs and squash, plus more...that was all before the main dish of raw fish that you wrap in lettuce leaves with garlic and hot pepper paste. Wow. It was pretty expensive, but she insisted on paying. So tasty. After dinner, she took me to Wal-Mart in her car. It's not much like Wal-Mart at home, but they do have a little better selection than your average store of more American style foods. I'm thankful anytime someone takes me to the store in their car anyway. It makes it so nice to just put your stuff in the car instead of lugging it onto the bus, subway, or walking home with big grocery bags in both hands!

a picture of the apartments of suji, where the rest of the team lives 

on the way home

I started a new life group with two of my foreign friends and one Korean girl introduced to us through another foreign guy. It's in Suji, which is where the rest of the team lives (where I used to live before I started working full-time). It's an hour plus some to get there, but that's where we want to focus our church outreach at, so I don't mind going there. Plus, I really enjoy spending time with those girls. I think there's the making for a really great life group there.

I decided I like traveling on public transportation at night. It's much more peaceful and you have a much better chance of getting your own seat. On the bus (to get to the subway), I was the only one for a while. When I got on the subway, an old guy who had lived in San Marcos came up to me and talked the whole way home. He kept apologizing for his English because he said he had too much soju (like I couldn't tell). In spite of the soju, his English was still very good. He told me all about the woes of having a 29 year old daughter not intrested in marriage and a granddaughter who didn't want to be a school teacher like he thought she should.

On the walk home from the subway station, I got to say hello to the woman who works at one of my favorite Korean restaurants in my neighborhood. She was outside enjoying the cool night air. I love that neighborhood feel of saying hi to people! Today on the way to work, I saw one of my G1 students who apparently isn't benefitting much from my class. All he could say to me in English was "hello!", even when I said goodbye. Gonna have to work on that kid!

new look!

I just changed the look of my blog, because they have much cooler templates with the new version of blogger. I also changed the comments, because now blogger supports it. I think I lost all of the old comments. Not sure if there was a way around that, but probably too late now. I also have to re-type all my links, but that's ok. I don't think it'll be too much work.

Jeju

Wow. We took a trip to Jeju island, the famous island (said to be the Hawaii) of Korea, for two days as a team with our pastor and an overseer from Cypress Creek in Wimberley. It was absolutely wonderful. We had the privelege of staying right on the beach. We had some good team time, refocusing our church, and some good individual time, refocusing our relationship with other team members and what we're doing here. I was blessed to get one day off of work for the trip, which was really nice. We already had one day off for children's day, so it worked out well. It was still a little chilly with the wind, even though we had bright, sunny days. Jim Bob and I were the only ones to take a swim in the beach, but it was really worth it even though we started to get numb after a few minutes. We took a "deep sea fishing trip" which turned out to be not so deep sea. The only fish we could catch with the bait and hooks supplied were five inches at the longest. Well, at least we got a boat ride. Shannon and I went to see the famous seven nymphs waterfall and the guys went ATVing. It was just really nice to be out, away, and to get to see the beautiful beach! (I have a few pictures online.)

The night before we left, I wanted to go to the beach, even though it was chilly. I walked out and sat down to enjoy the waves, the stars, and the peace. Since I was alone, I sang out loud, thanking God for all kinds of stuff, and of course, asking for lots of stuff, too. I began to be overwhelmed by the infinity that is in the sky, the ocean, and the sand. God is infinitely huge, and to me the sky and ocean are also infinitely huge, even though of course God is much bigger. The stars and how far away they are...in contrast with the sand, which I could sift through my hands, but impossible for me to count. God is as far away as the stars and even closer than the sand, and He can count and understand all of it. I think part of why all this infinity was so amazing to me is that in Seoul, some things seem so finite. Space is not abundant...apartments are small and close together, the stars can't be seen in the sky, time is limited. Vacations, even short ones, are good, eh?

lanterns

There are these great lanterns all over the city, especially around buddhist temples, because the last Wednesday of the month is buddha's birthday. There is a temple in my neighborhood. Last night some people came over to play a round of yahtzee and hang out for a bit at my apartment. We were walking from the subway station, it was dark and the lanterns were all lit up along the sidewalks and then concentrated around the temple. It's really nice looking. I want to take some pictures soon to post before they take the lanterns down. Too bad I don't really want to celebrate buddha's birthday. Can we redeem this holiday?

This Wednesday is children's day in Korea. Today, we had almost 20 kids at our worship gathering at the apartment in Suji. They mostly came because we had a reporter there who's videoing two twins who won some kind of English speaking contest. The mom told the reporter that they learned English at our church (they already knew English before we met them) and so I guess the reporter came to check us out. Anyway, grace and mercy to Shannon and Jim Bob who took the kids together for children's church. They had a rough go of it this morning, but handled it beautifully.

In other news, Rob, our pastor from Cypress Creek, and Bob, who came to help us with the logistics of setting up a business (to be self-supported and help with our visa situation) are here this week. So, we are going to take a trip to Jeju island (the Hawaii of Korea) this week to spend some time with them. I am excited about that!

The Heavenly Man

I finished reading this book I was talking about in the last post. It's really incredible. It made me think about a lot of things. This guy is in his 50's maybe, which makes all of what he writes about so real, because it didn't happen that long ago and he would still be subject to it if he ever goes back to China. He's now living with his family outside of China - they escaped in the late 90's, I think, and were reunited as a family after September 11, 2001. He endured amazingly horrible torture in prison, and tells of so many miracles, including escaping prison by just obeying God and walking out the gates after his legs were beat so badly he couldn't walk.

The Western idea of christianity many times is based on the idea that we get to receive all these blessings for being Christians, and if we are undergoing persecution, maybe we're doing something wrong. Yun, the author of this book, knows that when he was imprisoned for his faith, it wasn't usually because he did something wrong, but because he was doing what God called him to do. He knows that God sent him to prison at times because of the people he was supposed to reach there and because of the things God wanted to teach him. He even warns about using human efforts to free people from prison: " There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison. Perhaps it's so they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives. But if we use our own efforts to get them out of prison earlier than God intended, we can thwart his plans, and the believers may come out not as fully formed as God wanted them to be."

He also talks about the vision he and many Chinese house churches have to go to the most unreached Buddhist, Muslim, and Hindu countries in the world. "We have also come to understand that the past thirty years of suffering, persecution, and torture for the house churches in China were all part of God's training for us. The Lord has perfectly fitted us to go as missionaries to the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu worlds." Wow. Trained through persecution to be ready for more persecution. That's commitment to God's calling!

"You can never really know the scriptures until you're willing to be changed by them."