Grace-Filled Moments

I have finally achieved celebrity status. Consider my childhood dream accomplished. However, it has not been because of anything I have done.

I am a tall, white, English-speaking person of European descent. That makes me stick out. Children point and whisper at me as I ride the subway. And if I open a map to make sure that I am at the right station, someone will offer to assist me in less than five seconds. I am 1 of 22 million Seoul residents, yet random people on the street stop to make small talk with me. Sometimes they take my picture. Sometimes they ask for my phone number. And sometimes they start to tell me their life stories. The other day a little girl even leaned out of a car window to wave and yell "hi" as I walked past on the sidewalk.

But my favorite celebrity story is about the time I was waiting for the elevator inside Soon Jae's apartment building. Another person was also waiting, and he suddenly decided to start talking to me. His English wasn't very good, and he surprised me as he asked if I like potatoes. I thought he was simply struggling to make conversation, so I smiled and said "yes." That's when he reached into his bag and pulled out a potato to give to me! I was so shocked that I forgot to receive it with two hands, which is the polite thing to do in Korean culture. But he didn't seem to mind too much. I put the potato on the kitchen table when I got upstairs, and the next morning Soon Jae asked me if I had a craving for potatoes.

Sometimes it's annoying to be such a celebrity here. Foreign = famous, I guess. And there are times when I just want to blend into the crowd. It's easier to go quietly along and not have to put any energy into others. But someone recently told me I should take these moments as they come and recognize them for the grace they bring into my life. These awkward conversations are moments of welcome, and this wide-eyed curiosity is an opening for me to share. Uninvited interruptions will inevitably happen, but it does not have to follow that they must be unwelcome. So I will try to welcome them. There is enough grace to help me, I think.

The Biggest Church in the World

Yoido Full Gospel Fellowship is the biggest church in the world. It has over 837,000 members--that's about 200 times the size of my entire hometown, give or take a few hundred! The church building alone takes up a whole city block. Police direct traffic around the building. And when I visited the church last Sunday, I had to arrive about 1/2 hour early just to be guaranteed a seat in the auditorium. There's a special foreigners section for those who are not Korean, and depending on the service (there are 7 per Sunday), you can choose to listen to headsets with translations in nine different languages.

But in my own opinion, the best part about sitting in the foreigners section was the usher who walked up and down the aisles with a sign on a long pole which read "NO PHOTOGRAPHY PLEASE." It may be wrong of me, but at the moment I first saw him, I desperately wanted to take a picture. The church building didn't interest me that much; I just wanted a photograph of the man with that sign!

Yoido is an interesting church. I'm not sure I can quite wrap my brain around it. Imagine church as a sporting event, and you might be able to more accurately describe the experience. TV cameras everywhere, big screens showing the televised worship service, loud applause, ushers in uniform, color-coordinated worship leaders, and...a symphony orchestra!

I wonder if this is what the Hebrews author meant when he talked about "not forsaking our own assembling together...but encouraging one another." Somehow I'm not quite sure it is. I may perhaps have some personal issues with this church's theological assertions and its self-presentation/outreach style, but there's still the nagging voice in the back of my head that tells me this church is about as far away from the early church as it could possibly be.

God uses all different kinds of churches to do his work. That much is for sure. But I wonder about the institutionalization of church and how it affects the way that people perceive God. It makes God seem like a CEO, I think. Or perhaps more like a a government leader. Either way, a little less than accessible by the common human...

I suppose that makes me wonder about what God's church should look like. What does it mean to "assemble together"? And what does it look like when "assemble" and "encourage" intermix?

Dr. Fish

I absolutely defy you to try to tickle my feet when I get back! They are no longer ticklish. I have mastered my ticklishness! Hehe...

I took a drastic step forward a few weekends ago. I went to Dr. Fish. {gasp!} That means that I stuck my feet in a tub with a bunch of baby piranhas. This foot treatment is from Mongolia. It's supposed to be really good for your health. (Koreans are more than crazy about health!) I guess the fish eat the dead skin or something... Anyway, it tickles! Ahhhh! The worst part is when they get between your toes and start to chew. {shudder}

However, what's really funny is that Dr. Fish is now an American doctor, too! Someone sent me an online article about it. I don't think it's exactly the same, but it seems similar. Take a look-see:

TINY CARP NIBBLE YOUR TOES IN FISHY PEDICURE

Luckily for me, Dr. Fish only costs about $3 for 1/2 hour here. But I think it may just prove to be a once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience!

Chuncheon Ice

I finally got to go skating for the first time since I've been in Korea. I visited Chuncheon last weekend. (One of the KAC workers is from Chuncheon, and he invited a group of teachers to visit him and his family.) This ice rink is really close to his house, so a bunch of us went to a public skate together. It was really fun. It had been about 2 months since I was on the ice, so there were a few shaky moments (see below), but all in all, it just felt really good. I miss my stress-relieving sport!

(Oh, and the Korean-speaking voice in the first video is Marvin, a teacher from Canada.)

Soccer Game

North Korea vs. South Korea! I saw this soccer game a few weekends ago.
The final score was 0-0. Seems like the only politically correct outcome to have...

Hanoori Church

My latest fan club:

There's always something good that comes out of something bad. At least according to an optimist... {wink, wink} For me, that something has been a fan club. Seriously. Well, at least kind of seriously...

After my original host family kicked me out, I temporarily moved in with Soon Jae, a Korean English teacher at my school. She is likely one of the most gracious people I know. We've been sharing just about everything over the past few weeks: work, home, weekend activities.

Three weeks ago she introduced me to her church. That's where I met my fan club. I am a great curiosity to them. They are fascinated with me because I am tall, white, and speak another language. (They were surprised to learn that brown is my natural hair color.) And they treat me like a star. But that's not why I go to church there now.

I go there because Soon Jae's church, Hanoori (“one flock”), fascinates me. They meet in a multi-story apartment building in an upper room with a white walls and blue cushions on the floor. There is a large shoe rack by the door where everyone takes off their shoes at they enter. It's Korean tradition, but as I remove my shoes I can't help but wonder what Moses felt like as he took off his sandals to stand on holy ground in the presence of God.

The people at Hanoori sit in a large circle on the long wooden floor. Children come and go from a smaller room off to the side, and several mothers have their laps full of baby. Everyone else balances a songbook or Bible on their knees. People look at each other as they worship, and they laugh at the babies and smile at the latecomers. The musicians take turns calling out numbers to songs, and the big circle of people tends to sway back and forth depending on the rhythm. Music seems to have the same rippling effect on them as when the wind blow across fields of soybeans in the Midwest.

There is no pastor in this church. The people take turns speaking and sharing what God has been transforming in their lives. They pray for long periods of time, and sometimes everyone prays out loud at the same time. The sound of everyone speaking different words to God seems so real. One of my co-workers calls it popcorn prayer. Voices pop out of different corners of the room. And they are hungry for God.

After the worship service is over, smaller groups of people meet to teach and pray together. They talk about being a church with an apostolic ministry and wanting to follow God more than anything else in their lives.

Meanwhile, a group of married women prepare lunch in the kitchen. When lunch is ready, everyone fills their plate and sits together in bunches on the floor around small tables. Then coffee is brought out and more visiting begins. That's when my fan club decides to grab both my hands and drag me off to play. We play all sorts of games.

Hanoori is not a big church. It just started a few years ago as a church plant from another church in a different area. But it's the real deal. And I'm guessing that they might not stay small for long. :)