Come follow us in our adventure in Korea, and my first blog.
A sister that was first in Rota, then in Guam generously invited us to visit her and a newly formed English group in Chuncheon, a city of some 200,000 full of Korea's high rise condominiums up in a basin surrounded by beautiful mountains about an hour N.E. of Seoul and quite close to the infamous DMZ.
We got to stay with total stangers yet our dear brothers and sisters near to the Korean printing branch the first four days. The friends are so generous and enthusiastic! We were apologizing that we had not learned their language before visiting them, since it is their country, but they wouldn't hear of that.
In a word, it's still all about IMPRISONMENT among our brothers in Korea.
Our first morning we had the inspiring experience of going with a pioneer sister for one of her six times a month visits to her son, one month away from completing his automatic 14 month sentence. When he went in, he wasn't even an unbaptized publisher, but has become that inside and will be baptized shortly after his release.
What a thrill for this single parent mother that he has 30 Bible studies! They only allow them about one meeting per month, if I recall correctly.
The other sister is even more special to us. She is in the English group ahead of her husband, but can hardly read or write Korean, with only a third grade education in the mountainous region (70% of the land) in the middle of nowhere. She heard of the truth as a ten year old girl from a witness uncle, moved away from her opposing parents to seek work at age 14, and pursued her interest, getting baptized at 15 unbeknowns to her parents.
This sister Min-Sook's husband has his own amazing story. At age 15 he went to meetings being conducted by two special pioneer brothers with a school friend whose parents were witnesses. Like an hour each way on their bikes. He was to shy to say he didn't already have a Bible study, but finally agreed when reasked three months later.
When he got baptized at age 17 his parents disowned him and threw him out to fend for himself at a time there was actually a bounty provided for informing any brother's whereabouts to the authorities. He was a jobless fugitive for 10 years before they caught up with him. He says the worst times were the three months of constant beatings before he was sentenced. He averaged only 2-3 hours sleep during that period.
We went to visit their oldest son, just in for his first month. It is sad to see the father dismiss the fears of his youngest son, who will be jailed in the next calendar year. He has no empathy for his anxious concern to live with hardened criminals.
But returning to the above picture, this man had already served in the military before getting baptized. Two special pioneer brothers invited him to join them in field service immediately following his first meeting. He said that once he had a taste of sharing his faith, he was hooked. It took 15 years to win over his opposing and cantankerous mate.
Back to the ministry. it was an unusual treat to witness my heart out to an avowed athiest for two hours at first Dunken Donuts and then a Korean restaurant. He is from England and teach conversive English at the high school.
Then I got to sit in on a study with an Iranian who was a professor teaching the Koran there. That was when he rejected the Koran and the Moslem faith. He was abhorred to learn that Mohammed became very immoral with his female followers and corrupt by enriching himself materially. So he is exploring Christianity, but not Catholicism. He comes to the meetings as often as he has studied. Most of his questions are already answered from the Bible.
I got another unusual treat witnessing to a friendly buy unwavering Egyptian med student, also Moslem. It's challenging to crack the nut when they smile at you in all sincerity and say, "It's already been proven that Allah has no son, because the Koran says so." What logic did I not get here?
Come on a trip up the cable car at Mt. Soraksan with us, please!
Of course, we had to have another oversize meal of many tastes, this time of scrumptuous seafood at the nearby seashore.
Me thinks my last name may really be Korean rather than Irish. I know that puts a different slant on things, but a partial list of typrical Korean traits follows. You be the judge.
1. Poor memories and get lost easily
2. Agressive drivers, tooting their horn frequently
3. Addicted to their cell phones, including while driving.
4. Loud and opinionated, prone to exagerating.
5. Fashion conscious
6. Fast eaters
7. Progressive buy impatient
8. Friendly, but overly inquisitive of total strangers and their bios.
9. Quick to laugh and tease
10 A smile is not the normal facial expression
11. Zero tolerance for grafitti, and quite tidy and neat
12. Generous to a fault, but noble ideas tend to fall apart in their execution
13. Tend to not think or plan things through
14. A notably independent spirit
15. Family oriented
16. Making surprising and loud noises from the throat and nose
Just "food for thought".
We learned so many interesting things about their culture, their spiritual history (see 1988 yearbook) and ourselves, in another frame of reference.
Then, to top it off, I read Brother Max Liebster's compelling "The Crucibe of Terror" on the flight home to ice to cake on the lesson's learned of Integrity Keeping in the face of Adversity. It's a great read, one not quickly forgotten.
With all our Christian love,
Duane and Jackie Lee
