Why "Unconventional Missionary"?

I've realized that I should probably explain the title at the top of this blog.

When I first felt called to missions I always pictured grass huts in Africa. As I confirmed my call through mission experiences in Russia, India, and China, my picture of missions expanded.

Still, I figured that my first long term mission experience would be somewhere working with the poor or the unreached. God had other plans.

South Korea is anything but poor. In my three weeks here I have seen 1 homeless person. And this country is anything but unreached. South Korea is home to the largest Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic churches in the world. While more than half the population belong to faiths other than Christianity, the Gospel message is readily available for all of them.

South Korea is a missionary sending country. My purpose here is to encourage and support that movement. We teach English because it is the international language, but much more importantly we teach love. We model a missionary lifestyle for our students with the hope that our simple lives will inspire them to missionary action.

So, I feel that my time here is a little unusual. It's not what I had in mind, but so far it's been a great experience.

Just thinking...

Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.

Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.

If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.

He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.

Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

The light is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-7

Pastor Jeong quotes this scripture often these days. In dawn prayer there is no interpretation, so instead imaginations float on deciphering what God has for us this day.

This scripture is so beautiful for this day; so harsh, and brash, and truthful; yet still unrelentingly beautiful.

The north and south imagery is breathtaking in the face of Foxnews.com predictions (rumors) of war, and waiting for the hour of English news we receive each day, which, shockingly, suffices just as well without the other 23 hours of filler material we are accustomed to.

Or maybe it's the idea that we shouldn't rely on surrounding circumstances - that if we watch the wind we will never sow - to follow God's leading.

Or just the continued dawning of the revelation that I just don't get God. I don't understand how God operates in any tangible way. I don't know why God has me here. I don't think I will ever comprehend God in any significant way.

The sun is pleasant, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun. Indeed it is. It's good to see the sun, rising and setting without any diffidence to me.

Here is my address

Here is the address I will use. It's the church's address, so make sure to have my name somewhere on the envelope/package. But, here it is in English and in Korean. If you feel like sending mail, you can just print the addresses out and tape them to the envelope/package.
Thanks, Michael.

Onyang Oncheon Methodist Church
Asan city, Chungnam-do, Oncheon2-dong #149-47, 336-012
South Korea


충남 아산시온천2동 149-47번지
온양온천 감리교회

A day in my life, or "Pictures, finally."

Here is a pictorial directory of my Sabbath day in Asan City, South Korea.




This is my alarm clock. I brought my mom's alarm clock (circa 1970) but it is broken, so I bought a Korean alarm clock. It didn't have batteries in it, so I just prayed that it would be loud enough to wake me. It is. And several neighboring counties! I managed to find the loudest alarm clock ever produced. I have so far not managed to find any volume control on him, though.



This is my parking lot and further proof that South Korea is the safest place on earth. If you park another car in, you simply leave your car in neutral so they can move it in the morning. Isn't that nice?




All the parks have exercise equipment. Just a subtle reminder that this is the only Asian country with fat kids. So, uhmm. Hint -ity, Hint, Hint. In the background is our favorite Pizza place. Pizza always includes corn as a topping, which is just great.


Oh, did I mention I'm in Asia and take pictures of stereotypically Asian things?


This is church. Church is always this full. This is not a special Sunday. It was actually a little slack, since we only took in one new member. Last week we took in 5.


After church we gather for a large meal. It's really beautiful.


There's something about this picture that I love. Everyone is so giving here, so there's nothing special about serving in a food line once a week; but there's something about their attitude that we need to catch.


Here's the food. I try really hard to eat everything, but so far I haven't found any Korean food that I really love.


But honestly -if you didn't know- wouldn't you believe this photo was from a brain surgery post-op? Yep, I eat it all.

Things I've noticed

I've been in Korea for a week and two days. I still love it. Here are a few things I have noticed.

Kimchi, which is like a strange love-child of sauerkraut and Tabasco sauce, is a daily occurrence. It is practically an hourly occurrence. Koreans couldn't accidentally drink bathwater without a side of kimchi.

Korea might be the cleanest place in the world. The ratio of Koreans to Koreans-employed-by-the-government-to-clean-the-streets is 6:5.

Korea might be the safest place on earth. No one locks their apartment. One family in my building does, but they keep the key in a small bag attached to the door knob.

Everything about my life has a faint kimchi smell. It's like my own personal theme song, but in olfactory form.

My apartment complex has 5 security guards who do nothing. There is no crime here. However, on recycling day they are very busy making sure that everyone recycles according to the rules. Molly and I were yelled at by our security guard for throwing recyclables into the trash.

The church here does everything better than the church in America. Everything. Everyone tithes. I'm pretty sure that everyone gives above and beyond their tithe.

Koreans don't sleep. The average sleep time is 6-7 hours a night. Our pastor gets 3-4 hours a night. He wakes up at 3 for personal prayer before dawn prayer.

Older adults in Korea are adorable. All of them. They are the cutest people on earth. They crumple. The tallest Korean over the age of 65 has crumpled to 4 feet 3 inches. They all attend dawn prayer every day.

Little kids in Korea are cute but behave very badly. However, they get all of the naughtiness out of their systems when they are kids and they don't go through the sullen teenager phase that Americans do. It's a good trade off I think.

Koreans don't wear deodorant often, but the deodorant they sell here is definitely for Koreans. The deodorant stick is about a quarter of the size of American deodorant. It takes me 6 swipes to lather up my fat American arms with their skinny deodorant sticks.

Being force fed could also be used as a torture device to elicit information. I've had two meals at the same Japanese restaurant and both times the Koreans have given us so much food that we were physically sick for days afterward.

Update

So, I tried to post once, but it didn't post.

Today was the first day of classes. My classes are ok. I'm happy with them, but I'm not thrilled. The last group of teachers. I think in a few days I will know my kids better and will be better able to assess them. I have one class that will be a real test of patience and one class with 4 middle school age girls who don't speak a word of English. It could prove to be a long 3 months.

I enjoy a lot of the food, but there is some food that I hate. Every few days we go to a restaurant that doesn't allow us to order. They just bring us food. I'm never happy with that idea.

I rolled my ankle on the way to church yesterday. It swelled up like a watermellon last night. I know I'm fine because I can walk on it without too much pain. My ankle was too big to fit into any of my shoes (either of my pair of shoes!) so I had to wear my flip flops. Church was good, but not nearly as good as dawn prayer every morning.

The pastor took us to a very expensive Japanese resaurant one of the church Elders owns. We ate so much food we could have popped. Every time we felt full they would bring out more food. The food was great, except for the last course - fish bowel soup.

Over all everything is great here. I'm getting a bed and my own bedroom on Thursday. That will be really nice.

Another Beautiful Quarantined Day

Leta Gorham, Molly, and I have to spend the whole week together away from the children and the church members. It's kind of funny because we know we don't have swine flu, but they are being very cautious. We can leave the house, but we can't go to the schools or the church (except for morning prayer ... yeah the rules are kind of fast and loose) or the marketplace.

So today we went to dawn prayer and then walked around the city. We ended up sitting outside the French pastry store until the opened. Leta told us about her children and her young adult life in Africa.

We met with the Pastor and received our schedules. We took a ride from a stranger to the wrong market. Who can you trust if not a stranger in a van? Molly had a pedicure and then we ate at a restaurant with food that was much too spicy. I bought Mario brothers socks, a pink alphabet poster for my room, and ice cream from our favorite pizza shop.

We came home and Leta shared stories of ministry spanning 5 decades and as many continents. We want to write a book with her. The three of us have become fast friends, we have tentative plans to go to Kenya next. Well, the Philippines in July and Kenya next year. We just plan on working together for years wherever God takes us. We'll see how long our goodwill lasts. Hopefully longer than our quarantine.

We climbed up the hill behind our apartment to the personal burial tomb. It was eerie more than anything else. We don't know who is buried there. We love hearing Leta's stories. She has served in so many different ways. She's such an inspiration.

We ate fried chicken and drank Pepsi in glass bottles. It's a little soon to be wanting American food, but it looked really good. So we went for it.

Classes start on Monday, supposedly. This quarantine thing has been just great.

We have our first staff lunch tomorrow.

When you are new to a country everything is magical and the place has no faults. I'm almost certainly in that phase right now.

There are some foods I have tried that thoughts, "Well right now I love it, but I can imagine really hating it in six months." You know how when you wake up in the morning your breath has that nasty funky smell? Well, because of the different diet my morning breath has a new and different funky smell. I wake out of a dead sleep at 4 in the morning because I can't bear the smell anymore! How gross yet funny.

So far I haven't been to a single Korean families home. At the moment we are in quarantine because of the swine flu epidemic. Not that we have swine flu, but that as foreigners we could be carriers of swine flu ... I guess. They don't want us around the children or the elderly. It doesn't make much sense to us because we are around the pastor and the other teachers and then they are around the children and the elderly.

Yesterday Leta, Molly, and I went for a very long walk in the afternoon. We walked up and down a mountain and to the lake on the other side. Then we took the bus back into town. We bought pizza at a really cool pizza place. I got spare-rib pizza, Leta got Cheese, and Molly got sweet potato pizza. We ordered steak and onion, cheese, and chicken respectively. It was a good day.

Well, I'm on my way to dawn prayer now. Love, Michael.

I walked with Rev. Dr. Leta Gorham, the retired missionary I'm working with, to early morning prayer. However, this particular day there was not early morning prayer. Oops. I guess we'll try again tomorrow.

The country is so beautiful. Everything is very clean and very new. There are rose bushes all along the sidewalks and small parks on every block. So far the food has been good, no complaints. The pastor is very nice.

I'm excited for the day.

I'm in South Korea

Well, it's official. I'm here.

The flight from Pittsburgh to JFK in New York City was basically empty. The 6 hour layover was uneventful. The flight from JFK to Seoul South Korea was completely packed. There was only one empty seat ... in between me and the girl in the window seat. Janiye and I stretched out and layed our stuff over the seat so they didn't try to take it away from us. She confided how glad she was to not sit next to a smelly old Korean man. Janiye grew up in Korea and America and has a healthy perspective about both cultures. We talked and laughed a lot and I plan on hanging out with her and her boyfriend and their American friends in Seoul at some point.

I was almost quarantined because of my allergies. They thought I had swine flu.

I was met by an older gentleman who spoke no English. I wasn't sure for the first 45 minutes if he was even from my school or if he had just kidnapped me. But eventually the pastor called his cell phone and spoke with me. I was basically up for any adventure.

I'm staying at the girl's apartment temporarily(?) until they can find better accommodations for me. We'll see. I finally got to meet Leta Gorham, the missionary I've been speaking with on the phone for so long.

I'm getting up at 5AM for prayer in the morning so I had best sign off.

Love, Michael.