July 4th

After I last posted, a friend who's leaving the country (going back to Canada after 4.5 years here!) called and asked if I wanted to go to the bath house with her. She lives in Suji, so I took the bus there, we met and spent a most relaxing three hours or so in the baths, the saunas, the steam rooms. It was great. They have some outdoor baths there, and it was raining, which made it all the more fun. I spent the night at her apartment, met Jim Bob for brunch the next morning, then he convinced me to go bowling with him since we still had a few hours left before we needed to get ready for church. Actually, he bowled and I read and wrote a letter. He was OK with that, because he's interested in getting back into bowling shape. (Writing that makes me smile.)

We went back to Donnie and Shannon's apartment, where all the girls are staying. They had decorated the apartment for the fourth of July, just for fun. We hung out for a bit before church, then walked down the hill in the rain, had some prayer time under our umbrellas while we were waiting for the doors to be unlocked, then got set up for church. Donnie said we had 100 people there! It was full with all the kids, then when the kids went to childrens' church, we had a lot more room. Oh, God, bring us more help with the kids when the summer team leaves! They have been SO incredibly helpful with the kids.

After church, we had dinner at a Korean food court in the basement of a nearby supermarket. Jim Bob and Casey bought some fireworks. We found an open, relatively deserted space not too far from the apartment to shoot them. The rain stopped for the evening, but the ground was safe and wet from three days of rain. It was fun. We were entertained with a bottle rocket war, sparklers, and a few other small scale fireworks. We capped off the evening with smores (Liz brought the makings with her from Texas)and a game of big booty. No campfire, but the marshmallows were almost as good roasted over the gas burners inside. Fun times!