My last trip to Seoul

(This is kinda long.... Check out the pictures in the "May" folder on my pictures link. Be sure to also see the ones I've added to the "April" folder from last weekend) And what a trip it was! :) Friday I got going a little late-ish, and got to Seoul in the afternoon. Once there I wandered down the underground shopping area which, I discovered, is absolutely HUGE. And I ran into Rainy from Dangjin, too. After seeing half of it, I jumped on the subway and found my way to Yoido Full Gospel Church. There I got on the bus to "Prayer Mountain"- a fasting and retreat center they run. I had heard about it back in September when Jason and I first visited the church. It's an hour bus ride North from Yoido. The bus played this really bad norebang-esque hymn music. Anyway, once there, some guy pointed at the little building by the entrance and said "Information!" So, I went in- all the Koreans who were also on the bus were filling out little forms with their names, phone numbers, etc, but nothing was in English. So, I waited for them to be finished and asked the people working there what they know in English. One woman knew a little, but she still didn't seem to know what to do with me. So, she called someone else on the phone and let me talk to him. He told me to come in to the "House of Love" where I could get accomodations. Usually they like you to make reservations in advance, but I hadn't been able to get any answers on email or phone before going. Thankfully, there was space for me :). Once I was checked in, I headed down to the prayer grottoes. They're little rooms where you can go and pray for as long as you want by yourself. They look a little like scary prison cells, though ;). Anyway, it was really nice. For a long while there was no one in the rooms next to me, so I could actually enjoy REAL QUIET. Very refreshing. I spent time there that night and then Saturday morning. Definitely good alone time with God. Friday night it started raining. And it rained ALL night and then most of Saturday. It finally stopped Saturday evening. I came back from Prayer Mountain just in time for the English Young Adults service at the church. It was a fairly small group, but it was still nice. I met up with the youth pastor I had met there a couple months ago, as well as a collection of new Korean friends. [Oh yes- and I can't leave out the Japanese pastor. For some reason he has been put in charge of preaching at the young adults service, even though his English isn't the best.... and his pronunciation is hilarious. "L"s don't exist for him. Thus, my favorite quote of his was, "Let's give a big crap to the praise team." ;)] After the service, we had "cell groups." As a newcomer, I was part of a group where we basically just introduced ourselves and shared prayer requests. It was cool to do that again. I love the global body of Christ. :) Once that was over, they asked me where I was headed. I told them that I was planning to stay in a jimjilbang that night, and they were really surprised that I was doing it by myself. But, they also said it sounded like fun. So, three of my new friends decided they wanted to go with me ("Christine", "Abraham", and "David")! First we went to "Abraham"'s office, which was near the church. While there, he showed me a little of a project that he's working on. He's some sort of business consultant. Anyway, the project he's working on is specs for a "ubiquitous" city- a super modern city with things that I think of as science fiction. It's hard to explain. Neat to see, though. Then he guided us to a jimjilbang on Yoido island near the 63 building. There we changed into our inmate uniforms and ate dinner. There was a rumor that there was a norebang in the building, and "David" decided he really wanted to do that. Then we found out that it wasn't in the jimjilbang, but maybe in another part of the building. So we got our shoes back, and wandered out, looking like escaped inmates. We even went outside for a bit to look. But we didn't find anything. Instead, we went back inside and ate ice-cream. During the course of the evening, we had some neat conversations about Korean culture vs. American culture, etc. All three of them speak English really well. David lived in the states for 5 years, Abraham got his masters at the University of New York, and Christine is an English teacher. They were really nice about speaking in English almost all the time. After ice-cream we split off to the bathing areas and then slept. Sunday morning I went back to the church with my new friends for the English service. Again, very nice. After all the rain on Saturday, the sky was actually BLUE! I've never seen a real blue sky in Seoul before- it's usually pretty hazy. And Yoido is a great area on a sunny day. Very new, by the river, nice trees, pretty park... :). And all over the city Azaleas are blooming. It's really pretty. May is a good month in Korea- no more dust, just flowers. After service I headed to another area in Seoul where I was supposed to find a church were Molly Holt was. I got to the subway exit, but then I wasn't able to find the church. But, I called Molly, and she came and found me. She brought me back to the church where the sermon was still going. It's not a traditional church- it's a big room where everyone sits on the floor, and they were watching this pastor on big screens. Apparently he's out of town. Molly translated much of the sermon for me. I haven't had that much at all. Her Korean is excellent (I'll tell you more about her in a bit). After service, we loaded into a van with a bunch of people and food. The plan was to have a picnic on the way to Ilsan. The traffic was pretty bad, but we still had time to stop near a patch of grass for our picnic. We had sandwiches and watermelon! Very picnic-esque. I was very happy. We even had a large collection of ants ;). After eating we finished our trip to Ilsan. (I don't know how to organize all this info!) Side Molly... she's an amazing woman. She's 70 years old, and the past 50 years of her life has been spent in Korea. Her parents were the founders of Holt International. She is one of their 6 natural children (they later adopted 8 other kids from Korea). She's been here and watched Korea modernize at an amazing rate. She's been part of rehabilitating and caring for countless patients. She loves Jesus. I feel really blessed to have spent the time with her that I did. She has so much wisdom and information about Korean culture, development, and government, not to mention her insight into working with the disabled, and ministering to people in general. She's been offered a place to live by herself, but she'd rather keep on living in the house with residents that she's still helping. When a resident is misbehaving, has just been discharged from the hospital, or needs "training" (to eat by themselves, use the bathroom, etc), they live in Molly's house. I ate dinner with them and watched how she is still working hard with these residents- teaching them to eat, and helping them feed them, etc. Simply amazing. I hope when I'm that age that I'm still that active in ministering to others. As we entered Ilsan, Molly told me about how she's watched the city change.... how it used to be dirt roads, how they had problems with electricity, etc, and now how modern it is. Around 15 years ago the government bought out the land, basically bulldozed the land, and turned it into a planned city. It's a really nice city. Very clean, with lots of nice trees and stuff. It made me think of parts of the Madison or Chicago areas (the nice, clean parts ;) ). And Molly's not sad that the country is gone. She's very happy for the convenience of a bus stop right by the complex, and a Wal-mart nearby, etc. I was very impressed with the Holt Ministries campus. It's beautiful. Lots of space for walking. tons of Azaleas blooming, trees, birds singing, etc. I'm certainly going to miss something in this explaination... The facility there is devoted to the care and training of the disabled. When Holt ministries first started up, the disabled was a very overlooked and ignored population in Korea- no special services. They're still working on changing the system here. Slowly things are becoming more handicapped friendly. Nowadays there are many more facilities and much more government support and basic awareness than there was before. Anyway, at the facility in Ilsan, there are around 270 residents, all at different levels of mental and physical ability. Their aim is to make as many of them self-sufficient as possible. And they're doing a really good job. I was impressed to see how the residents take care of each other. For example, there are two girls of similar mental age living in Molly's house- one, however, has serious physical problems, so the other one feeds her. I saw other examples, too, of residents taking the initiative in caring for each other, cleaning up, etc. And Molly shared stories of the residents who have become independent and gotten married and stuff. While there, I finally got to meet Kim Dawit. He was found abandoned in 1982, with scabies, and curled up in the fetal position. From his teeth they estimated that he was 3 years old. I know of Dawit from Bible Presbyterian Church- the church I grew up in in Wisconsin. We've sent him support for quite some time. I've seen his picture about once a year, and seen as he's gotten bigger and bigger. Anyway, it was neat to meet this boy who I've known of for so long. He doesn't speak much at all- he communicates mostly in gestures and grunts. He smiles a lot, though. He likes music, and he walks really fast. I spent a few hours with him, walking around, showing him my camera, etc. I really didn't know what to do with him- I didn't know how to get reactions out of him, etc. But, I think he enjoyed our time, nonetheless. After dinner there, I headed on the bus to a subway stop- the last one on the line. I took that into Seoul, and decided to have one last trip down Insadong street for some souvenir shopping (not much for that kind of thing in Dangjin). As has happened to me several times in Insadong, I was stopped by a student who was working on a school project. He's a freshman English major, and he wanted to videotape an interview with me. As a good English teacher, I was happy to oblige. It was just basic conversation- where are you from, do you like Korean food, how long have you been here, etc. What's really nice is that when you finish they give you a free prize. So, I got a couple keychains out of the deal :). So, I spent a bunch on souvenirs, and then realized that I ought to hurry if I wanted to make the last bus to Dangjin. As I quickly walked past all the street vendors, etc, I tried to burn it into my memory... afterall, it was probably my last night in Seoul. I made it to the bus station in time to get a ticket and stop by the Coffee Bean for the traditional sugar fix for the bus ride home (you have to have one last indulgence from the city :)). I felt really nostalgic as we drove out of Seoul, since I won't see it again. I want to remember all the details- the smells, sounds, lights, feelings, etc. It was the first real realization of the approach of my departure from Korea. Less than 7 weeks left. Again, it was quite the weekend. My favorite thing was all the great people I met. How strange it is to make friends that you really only have for one day- there's no plan of staying in contact, meeting again, etc. But for those days, we made memories. And again, it's cool how you can go anywhere and meet fellow Christians and know that you have some basic things in common.