The First Snow in Metropolitan City Daejeon

You heard it right.

Snow.

Last Sunday we had our first snow of the winter season! Woo! Yes, it snows in Daejeon, I had heard, and now have witnessed. This time, the snow was very light, and it all pretty much melted right away when it hit the ground.

What do you mean, “What snow?”

It’s hard to see in this picture. Fine…

Here's a video. You'll be able to notice it much better with this.

You know what? The snow is hard to see in the video, too. Not good enough quality on the blog.
But note the amazing commentary I give in the video! Being from Lompoc, California, we don't see much snow--no, we don't see any. The closest we get is frost and hail. So you can understand my excitement.


By the way...Does seeing snowfall make anybody else want to sing that song, "Indescribable"?

Discipleship! Wednesday Night!

Here, there are wonderful opportunities to meet with individuals or in small groups to study the Bible and have discipleship time, and just grow as brothers in the Lord. One such meeting we’ve been having lately is reading the Word at a coffee shop or a burger place (called Lotteria) with John, Mario, and Dave!

As you can remember, John is an American here serving the Lord as he works as an English teacher, and Mario is one of the Koreans here studying both the Bible and English, while Dave is here serving for the time being until he goes back to Okinawa! It was a cool time reading the Word and discussing it with all these guys! We read from John’s Gospel today!

Please continue to pray with me for wisdom regarding meeting with other Christians, as well as with non-believing friends, so that we can bring to Christ those who may not yet know the Lord, and build up those who have trusted in Him. May God by His boundless wisdom and grace provide the opportunity and the necessary care and compassion within!

Wii Fellowship Returns for a Day—With A Vengeance!

This recent evening, we had no English meeting with the kids, so we had a rare opportunity to resume what we’d like to call Wii Fellowship! We’d normally have it on Friday evenings for a little bit after the Bible Study at the Institute across the street. During this time we’d play some games (like Wii Sports or Mario Kart), eat snacks, and just talk with people. Fellowship! It’s a nice way to introduce people to the church in a comfortable setting, plus also to build friendships with new people we meet at the Bible Study at the English Institute. Since we hadn’t done it in a while, everyone stayed extra long!

But, alas, once again it remains cancelled until further notice. Until next time!

Hakata Ramen

If you remember my previous post about Fukuoka, you’ll remember I mentioned an area of the city called Hakata. Yep. Well, Hakata Ramen is one of the local specialties of Fukuoka. Unfortunately, due to my getting lost (and just simply not having enough time!), I wasn’t able to sample some Hakata Ramen.

Well, lo and behold, after one of our Bible studies, a few people from the church took us to dinner at a local Japanese restaurant—which served Hakata Ramen! I was very happy to try some. It was delicious. Now is it authentic? I honestly cannot say. But I was still excited to have some! Yeah! It is interesting how God chooses to bless us in small things, too.

 

In the top picture, we have another foreigner from California, John, who commonly teaches English here in Korea. We also have Gloria, who, with her family, loves to bless us! In the bottom pic we have Hae Young and Jisu, who attend the church.

Bible Study At The English Institute

Every Wednesday and Friday we’ve been having a Bible Study at a nearby English institute. People come in and we start with a little bit of what Pastor Mike likes to call “Free Talking”. We chat, ask questions, and make conversation.

Then comes the song. We usually like to introduce a new worship or praise song (either new for us all or new to them being in English). We read through it, someone explains the song, and any difficult words or phrases (because textbooks    don’t     always      teach what creative writers put to the page), then we sing the song!

Here’s Canadian Mike excellently explaining the song. He comes up with great examples to explain obscure words and phrases for the learners! Lately, usually Iza or myself would play and lead in songing the sing. Here Iza leads in Hallelujah Jesus.

After that comes the Bible Study. Many times Pastor Mike would teach, or he’d have one of us teach, and lately we’ve tried breaking up into groups and doing smaller group Bible studies, since right now we’ve so many foreigners (English speaking natives) here to help.

Some people get introduced to us and the church via the Bible Study at this English Institute. That’s how we met people like these siblings, Jun Yong (the boy) and Ha Yong (the girl) ! These two are cool!

 

Awesome. I’ve said it before, but in South Korea, there’s a lot of people who know English or are learning English as a second language. English is big here. What’s great is that there are already a lot of people we can give the Gospel to and teach the Word of God to, even though we don’t know Korean. (Of course, that doesn’t mean we aren’t learning or needn’t learn Korean!)

We do know that some come to church or Bible studies merely to learn and practice English (we’ve heard from some by their own admission, heheh). Even though some come only for English, it is fortunate that they do listen to what we have to say, and are exposed to the Word of God, sharper than any two-edged sword, and get to hear the Gospel. While it may be beneficial that English draws people, we don’t want to compromise Christ for English. We’d like to “keep the main thing the main thing.” And that’s Jesus. So please pray for us, the church, those serving, and especially for Pastor Mike, that God may continue to grant wisdom and guidance in matters such as these. Also, please pray that God would give motivation and opportunity to learn Korean for every foreigner serving over here, in order to become even more effective when working with Koreans.

 

*Thanks, Dean, for some of your older pictures!

Welcome Dave!

 

Dave Redondo has recently come to visit us in Korea for a little bit. He’s a missionary to Okinawa, Japan, and works with Calvary Chapel Ginowan (the church that the CCBC Okinawa functions out of). He’s got a heart for the Lord and a passion to win lost souls—he teaches evangelism at the Bible College. (He’s also been teaching me about evangelism, too!)

It looks like the immigration office in Japan gave him some trouble when trying to return, so he’ll be staying with us until they issue him a missionary visa for Japan.

Please pray for Dave! Pray that God willing, he would receive his missionary visa quickly, and that God would encourage, strengthen, and give him patience and wisdom in this time of waiting, and that he’d be led by God wherever the Spirit pleases.

God bless you, Dave, as you patiently endure and continue to serve and trust God in wherever He leads you!

CCBC Okinawa Missions Team

A Packed Weekend

In earlier/Mid October, we were visited by a group from Calvary Chapel Bible College in Okinawa, Japan (the school I used to attend, remember?)

Here’s the group, minus Pastor Tom, the director of the Bible College campus, with us Korea missionaries added in. We’ll for this time, everyone here is a Korean missionary! Yeah! Kapshida!

They came out to help serve with us for a little more than a weekend.

It was a pleasure and a joy for me to see them, for I knew most of these people from when I was at Bible College (up until last May).

In this picture, we’ve got, from left to right, Eder (in the back), Josh, Christina, Ana, and Steven. I met Steven and Christina over at the campus in Murrieta. Eder was a fellow student with me in Okinawa. Josh and Ana are new faces. But they’re all sweet people!

And here’s Pastor Tom and his son, Zack. Of course, I know them from CCBC Okinawa!

What sorts of things did we do that weekend?

Free-Talking Saturday

With more English speaking foreigners, that means it’s more fun for all Koreans who come and want to practice English and have a good time! This is where we mix up the English speakers with the English learners. David and Lance are ready!

So are Tom and Zack—the Korean Tom this time, mind you!

We made two competing teams—the Kimchi Krunchers and the Unified Unicorns (ahahha). After making team cheers, we each set out on a scavenger hunt in the surrounding area to find what we could find.

Tom wore this guy’s glasses for the picture. The stranger had no choice but to comply with our dema—polite requests. We really did ask nicely.

The Koreans here knew easily where to find this cow. Do you?

It was neat to have some extra time to mix it up with the Koreans, have fun, and get to know each other better. I pray that we can keep on building friendships with the Christians (as well as non-Christians) here and then build them up “in the most holy faith.” A difficulty, I find, is that it’s very easy to stick with those with whom I am most comfortable, and neglect to reach out to those who are on the outside, and need to be drawn in. The easy thing is to stick to oneself—stepping outside of our “comfort-zones” to touch the lives of strangers, is, well, uncomfortable! So please, remember us in prayer!

Church Barbeque

On Sunday, we had our first sort of church barbeque. It was a blessed time of fellowship at the park by the Gapcheon river. Quite a few people came from the church, and there was a lot of good food!

 

On the left there’s Pastor Mike’s parents in law. And on the right is Mr. No. Yes, That’s his name!

On the left is Daniel Kim, a college student, and on the right is John from Southern California.

They played some sort of Korean version of Volleyball/Soccer/Tennis. It looked like they were playing Tennis with a soccer ball, with soccer rules, meaning you hit it only with your feet. It’s called Chogo or Choco or something like that. We also played some classic dodge ball! Dodge ball is so fun! Too bad we can’t play it more often. If you have an opportunity to play dodge ball right now…you should! You know who you are!

[What’s that in the background???? Something out of a Sonic game? No, it’s Expo Park! The science-based amusement park of Daejeon.]

Sunday Evening Service

Yes, yes, let’s just keep on packing as many people as we can into this small room! The more the merrier! Sunday evening is always our biggest service.

Daedunsan (Daedun Mountain)

 

On Monday, we all visited this mountain called Daedunsan. It was a wonderful hike with a beautiful view, as you can see. The adventure package also included a cable car, two bridges, and meeting old ladies that wanted to make you eat some silkworms! The silkworms weren’t too bad.

Bridge one. Nice and long, not bad at all.

Bridge two. Quite different from bridge one. It’s more like a giant step ladder. Just look at the angle of ascent on this thing! (You’re looking down it, not across it.)

 

At the very top is an amazing 360 degree panoramic view of the surrounding mountains. Absolutely beautiful, breathtaking! Seeing all the curves and crevices of the mountain ranges—God’s handiwork is amazing!

 

Peace Out! Fly Out!

The next day, it was time to for me say goodbye to them all as they headed off for Seoul for a day, then to return to Okinawa to keep studying and serving. I got to talk to them quite a bit, and see what sorts of things are going on over in Okinawa. It gets really difficult over there being a student, for there’s study and serving that gets done all the time. With all there is to do over there, it can get overwhelming. They need plenty of prayer! I was definitely refreshed by their visit, and I’m sure that they were refreshed as well by their visit—it is always wonderful to meet others again after you haven’t seen them in a while. I pray that I could visit CC Ginowan once again, as well.