Korea Trip

Korea..
..
This was one of the best vacations I've ever been on. It was a huge blessing being able to travel with so many friends and experience Korea together. I think it was probably most blessed because we tried to stay focused on ministry and meeting whatever needs arose, and as a result we were blessed with the opportunity to travel to all kinds of different areas and fellowship with brothers and sisters we could have never met any other way.


Our trip began at Naha Airport...
..
..
..
The first night that we arrived, we drove from Incheon Intl. to Cheonan, where the Calvary Chapel School of Ministry(CCSOM) is located. That first night after we arrived, we went and walked around the town a little bit. To the right is Sosimo celebrating the Korean Fall. : )

Having arrived on Thursday, we went to CCSOM Friday morning. In the afternoon, we drove to Daijon where Mike Laudermilk, one of the heads of CCSOM, works at Jinsoo Language Institute. The picture above is from the Language school where we were able to participate in teaching the class by sharing on some of our favorite Bible verses. It was neat meeting such a variety of students, from believers to non-believers, some fluent in English, others struggling to get by. : )

..

..

The food in Korea was definitely something. It was generally always hot and, usually, pretty spicy. At first, all the blend of different flavors is kind of startling, but towards the end of the trip I was craving Kimchi and red pepper sauce. The other picture above is of Tom, Sosi, and Daniel running in the morning. That morning I didn't go with because I didn't have anything to run in, but the next morning I went with Tom and Sosi because Daniel let me borrow his running shorts. It was pretty interesting running in such cold temperatures. At first you feel like there's no possible way to keep going with such a burning in your nasal cavity and lungs, but you start getting used to it and your body starts to warm up. That morning that I went running, we ran up some dirt trails and it felt like we were hunting something in the forest. Good times. : )

On Saturday, most of the students stayed at Jinsoo the majority of the day, helping with some English Game things. Me and Daniel, however, were blessed to be able to take some trains back to Cheonan to minister at a friend's church. Sam (pictured to the right) is a former CCSOM graduate and now has started his own church. Half of the church area is seating and a stage, but the back area of the building is a Dojo. Sam teaches Japanese sword fighting as a ministry and supplemental income. Sam's an awesome brother in the Lord and it was really neat getting to visit with him and his family.

On the way back to Daijon to meet up with everyone, me and Daniel stopped at some food stands in a makeshift market there next to one of the trainstations. We wanted to try some of the food and stuff they had there. It was fun getting to talk to some of the Korean's there. Many people enjoyed talking to us and asking us questions and so forth. We definitely stood out in many places we went, but especially in this little outdoor market.

Saturday night we hung out with the group and had dinner at McDonald's. Afterward some of us over to some batting cages near by and had some fun acting like we were bigshots. Well, technically, Sosi and Daniel were pretty good. I, on the other hand, had trouble hitting some of the slower pitches.

Sunday after church at the CCSOM church, we went to a local trainstation where we handed out trac's/church info card things and played some worship. It was pretty hectic knowing nearly nothing of the language, but most of the people spoke at least some English. I kept wanting to ask people if they at least spoke Japanese, but I guess it's far more likely that people would speak English fluently than know at least some conversational Japanese...

On Monday we drove up to Seoul where we spent the day walking around, exploring, and shopping...

..oh, and the picture of me and Daniel in front of the Coldstone is because we both worked at a Coldstone in the past. Some of the students treated themselves to some ice-cream from there and said it was delicious...

..

Korea was overall a really cold place, and so, as shown in the picture below, most of us tried to stay pretty bundled up.

The last night we were there we stayed near the airport in Incheon. To the right is Josh holding a Bouken (unsure of spelling), a wooden practice sword. It was pretty crazy that night as Ron and Josh (both students of Karate, Josh being a black-belt) decided to test out there new "toys" on eachother.




We left Korea Teusday morning. It was a great 6 days of travel and fun, as well as a neat bonding time for all of us. I think it's easier to get close to people when you all ride together in a 15-passenger van and it's freezing outside.... : )

..

..

Thank you everyone who prayed for us on our trip, it really was a great time of both ministry and fun. The church there was really blessed to have us and we were excited to meet and serve so many different brothers and sisters.