A Week in the Life...

This is the house where I am living. I am on the first floor. That is the upstairs neighbor's dog.

It is Thursday night here in South Korea, and maybe I should close my eyes and go to sleep, but I have decided that it has been too long since my last blog entry, so I am writing. This week marks my first full schedule of work here with Bible college classes, Bible studies, and services, and I am getting a sense of what a typical week will be like.

Monday: Wake up, prepare for the day, head out the door at 8 AM to pick up a lady named Jenny to bring her to Bible college.

Arrive at the church at 9 to prep for class and have a season of prayer. Teach Church History from 9:30 until noon. Eat lunch, then return to my office to read, preview video classes, perhaps nap, work on a message for Wednesday service, etc. Eat dinner and then teach the same class again from 7:30 - 10:00 PM. Head home and arrive my 10:30 PM (I hope) and go to bed by 11 PM.

Tuesday: Same as Monday.

Wednesday: The morning routine is the same except we don't pick up Jenny for class, and the class is now Practical Ecclesiology which is being taught using Pastor Lange's videos on the Open MBCS website. I stop the videos every few minutes to clarify, explain, and answer questions. I prepare notes for every Practical Ecclesiology class so that students can focus on listening instead of trying to keep up with writing notes. Leave for the hospital by 11:45 and take the subway one stop, walk 5 or so minutes, take the elevator to the 14th floor, and have English Bible Study with a group of doctors. At 1:30, find lunch and then return to the church for more office work. Eat dinner with the Wednesday worship team at 6 PM, (this week the Wednesday worship team had a special rooftop barbecue on Sunday night)...

Petros mans the grill.

We had to wait for the thunderstorm to pass before we could cook. See the puddles?

A view from the roof.

...rehearse for worship, preview the message at 7 PM with the translator, then sing and preach beginning at 7:30 PM. After service, approximately 8:30 PM, go over next week's songs with the worship team, then ride home in the van, dropping church members off along the way. Arrive home around 10:30 PM and go to bed at 11 PM.

Thursday; Wake up and get dropped off at the subway station by 8 AM. Take the subway into Seoul and arrive in Myeongdong by 9 AM. Hike up the hill to Yeomyung School and arrive by 9:15 to set up for class. Lead a song or two and teach Bible class beginning at 9:30. Leave the school by 10:30 and spend the rest of the day doing errands and chores. (Today was buy a new phone card and do laundry day.)

Friday: Wake up early, walk down the road to the ice rink to catch a bus to take me to the subway station. (Above, you can see some of the things I saw recently on my walk to the bus and then the view from the subway station.) Ride to the church and prepare for an other Practical Ecclesiology class. Teach from 9:30 until noon. Eat lunch, work in the office as long as necessary to prepare for the next week's classes and the Sunday service, and then go home via subway and bus and walking again. Perhaps stay up later than 11 PM since there is no morning schedule on Saturdays.

Well, usually there is no morning schedule on Saturdays, but the past few weeks have been busy with a wedding...

...a home fellowship...

...and meeting missionaries at the airport and showing them around Seoul. It was wonderful having Phil Winslow and Sarah Goodey here on their return from their Asian mission trip.

One special thing that happened this week came about by the hand of God. At dinnertime on Monday evening, I decided to go to the local GS25 convenience store down the street and around the corner from the church to buy a sandwich. I purchased some sort of pre-made sandwich with meat and spicy kimchi-like vegetables in it and a drink and sat at a table to eat. The clerk was a young man who had asked me in English if this was going to be my dinner when I paid at the register. I said something, I don't remember what, but he must have registered some sort of friendliness on my part, because a few minutes later he dared to start a conversation with me, something that takes many Koreans a lot of courage to do, since they think their English is poor, when often it is not. He asked me where I was from and we went on from there for about five or ten minutes in between the customers he had to wait on. I discovered that his goal was to go to the CIA in America, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. He was excited to learn that I had friends that had attended and that I had worked in a restaurant and knew something about food.

The next day I decided that I had to eat at GS25 again at the same hour so that I could speak to him again. I arrived before his shift began, so I didn't see him there. I decided to buy dinner and eat in hope that he would eventually show up, because there was an openness there. When he came in, he had to wait until the other clerk left before he could venture near my table to say hello. This time, we spoke for 30-40 minutes, and I was able to tell him how God had called me to Korea, and his face lit up. He asked me if he could come to our church on Sunday, and I said that of course he could. He asked if it would really be okay, that I really wouldn't mind if he came, and I assured him we would all be delighted to see him, and he stated several times that he would come.

I ran over to the GS25 on Wednesday just before church began to say hello and he told me that he had found our church on his way home from work the night before, and that he was looking forward to Sunday. It's people like him that make missionary work rewarding. He's a gift from God from out of the blue. Pray that he is able to come and that he is blessed by the message. He said he was a Christian. He is working hard to save money for a trip to Europe this fall/winter before he has to begin his two years of military service early next year. 

On that note, I will end my blog tonight. I need to get some rest so that I can wake up on time for the Friday morning commute to the church. I hope it doesn't rain...