The Menno Melange

Christmas is fast approaching, and now our hikes up Anmasan occassionally involve trudging through snow. We don’t have the snowstorms our friends back in Ontario are getting, but every now and then we are blessed with a beautiful snow fall. Even though Christmas is not the biggest holiday here, we can still hear Christmas pop songs everywhere we go.

Election
There was a big presidential election here in Korea, so everywhere around town there were posters side by side of the 12 candidates, as well as individual banners, and candidate dancers on the streets. Candidate number 2 ended up winning, and won by a “landslide”.

Election posters:

Cell Group
Every Wednesday we meet with our Love cell group, and it has been a wonderful experience so far. Every week I teach English hymns, and we read a chapter from “The Purpose Driven Life” and discuss it. It has been really crucial for us to have an opportunity to pray and share with others, in a smaller group setting.

Our cell group:

Korean Lessons
So, our Korean lessons are over for this year, and we decided not to take any intensive courses next year because they are quite expensive. Instead, 3 different people from JVC have offered to help us learn and practice our Korean, which will be much better in the end, as it will be a great opportunity to get to know these individuals…not to mention free lessons!

After School Fiasco
As the year comes to a close, so do our V-School classes. For my last After-School class I thought we’d have some fun. I asked them, “What game do you want to play? Bingo or Air Hockey?” and they simultaeneously yelled “Hockey!!” and just then I realized that the little pucks and puck pushers were NOT in the box!! They had fallen out. When I told them I didn’t have the pieces, they all whined at the same time, on the same note even. We found some other things to use instead, then I brought out a gift of lollipops to give them, and I made the mistake of putting the lollipops in the middle of the table (instead of handing them out individually), and they dove into the lollipops like hyenas into a piece of meat, and started fighting over them! Two boys were playing tug-o-war with a lollipop and it went flying across the room. Ahem.

V-School Presentations
All the kids had a final science class with one of the JVC leaders, and he taught them about DNA. As an exercise, he had all the kids put together these plastic pieces to form a DNA strand, so Will and I helped. Then we did presentations about our V-school classes, and had our students speak English for their parents and sing songs. Two girls from Will’s class spent about 7 minutes disagreeing about who should say what for their presentation, but other than that the presentations went well.

From L to R: Will and a mother making DNA strands; Ana making her V-School presentation; JVC building

Seafood ShabuShabu
The leaders of JVC invited the youth adults, including Will and I, to a seafood restaurant. At this restaurant they have shabu shabu, boiling broth to cook food in, so we had all sorts of seafood; muscles, crab, squid, fish, octopus, oysters, etc. One of the JVC leaders always teases me cause he thinks I’m too picky with food, so he was trying to persuade me to eat something really gross looking…it looked like squid brains (they turned out to be squid intestines), but I didn’t eat it. I did eat some oyster, though, which was pretty gross.

Ana eating an oyster for the first time:

Day Trip
Sometimes people from church invite us out for the day, a treat we always look forward to. We first went to a mountain called 광덕산 (Kwandaek-san), where all sorts of roots, bark, leaves, and other goods were being sold, that were grown on that specific mountain. Apparently people from Seoul go there to buy specific herbs and things, which you can’t get anywhere else. We then went to a town called 철원 (Chalwan), where there was a beautiful gorge with rocks jutting out. We saw a bridge called 승일 (Sung-Il), built in the 50’s, half by the North Korean president before the war, the other half by the South Korean president after the war.

From L to R: Frying bacon for lunch; Goods for sale on Kwangdaeksan Mountain; The Im family and us; View of the Sanchangri gorge; Ims and us;

Wonju
We went on a trip with a family from church,and on the way we stopped in a town called Wonju, to pick up a pastor and his wife. They live in a home that is also a church, and a place to care for seniors, most of whom have Alzheimers. Many of them don’t have family to care for them, or are not visited by their families. While we were there, a four-star military general came to visit. Now apparently this is VERY significant. A four-star general has power over the entire military in Korea, and the only person who has more power than him is the president. According to our pastor friend, not many people get visited by him, let alone SEE him. So, there we were, sitting outside the house, and a shiny black (most expensive in Korea) car drives up, that had a red license plate with 4 stars on it. The general stepped out, looking just like the soldiers there to protect him, so he wouldn’t stand out. He had a meeting with the pastor, and shook hands with Will and I.

From L to R: Ana with the general’s car; The residents of the home

Taebaek
We continued on to a spiritual retreat place called Jesus Abbey, which is visited by 10,000 people a year. Then we left for Jesus Abbey, which was a beautiful spot for spiritual retreat on a mountain side, where 30 people live, devoting their lives to intercessory prayer. The buildings were made of stone with straw-thatched rooves, all wood on the inside, with fireplaces warming each building. The next morning we were woken up at 5:30 by bells, and joined the rest of the people in a morning prayer service. We later joined our group to a meeting with some leaders from the community, and they were very interested in Mennonites. It was encouraging to meet more Koreans who are interested in peace and peacemaking. Will and I plan on going there for at least a week on one of our vacations, as it truly is a wonderful place.

From L to R: The gang in from of Jesus Abbey; The buildings of Jesus Abbey; Another shot of buildings at Jesus Abbey

Anyway, I will close this update with:
MERRY CHRISTMA S!!!!

Food
From L and R: Fish at a market; Kimchi at a restaurant; Tweji Kalbi at a restaurant, that we had to cook ourselves; One of the many versions of bean curd soup, with small muscles

Funny Signs
From L to R: A sign on the ground for Dakgalbi Street; We don’t know what this store sign is all about, but it reminded us of the movie “Beetlejuice”, where they had to say his name 3 times; A funny sign for a glasses store

Statues
From L to R: Interesting wood carved statues where the ferry leaves for Jungdo Island; One of the many statues of naked women around Chuncheon; One fo the statues at the Chuncheon Statue Park; Another statue at the Statue Park; A Statue reprenting the old ways and the new ways of Korean culture; A beautiful pipe mosiac near where we live

Anyeong Haseyo (안 녕 하 세 요)!

Will and I have finally overcome a long bout of health problems, and are ready to tackle our first December in South Korea, with new found health. Without delving into details, we both came down with colds, and before I was quite over that, I had intestinal problems for a week and a bit, and Will came down with a strange dizziness that lasted almost a week. Strange. I was about to think they were going to send us home and ask for healthier people.

Bible Study
Aside from my other church duties, I have been asked to lead the youth Bible study every other week (sharing the time slot with the other youth leader), and when the other youth leader leaves next year, I will be doing the Bible study full time. I had my first class with them, and it started brilliantly (read sarcastically). I met the youth at the usually building where we meet, but only then did I remember that I need a key to get in, and the other youth leader had it, and had not given it to me…nor had I thought to ask for it. Oh, and it was a freezing cold day…and I tried calling the other leader and his number had changed. We managed to find a room in the JVC building that we could use, but that was embarrassing.

Day School
We were invited to go to the home of one of our day school students, as they were being given a cooking lesson. They were learning how to make meatballs and potato pancakes. We helped a bit, and got to enjoy the food for lunch afterwards. Also, we often get gifts from parents for teaching their children, which we never feel we deserve. When I had my stomach problem, one of our students came over to drop off traditional Korean porridge, which is runny rice and seaweed flavoring, which is apparently good for stomach problems. It was funny; One day I had the guys write out a verse of Psalm 1 that I had them memorize, and they all got stuck at the same spot. As soon as I prompted them with, “He…” they all went “Ah!” as if on cue, and started writing quickly.

Daejan (데잔)
We had a day school trip to a city 3 hours away called Daejan, which is the “Science City” of South Korea. There are many science colleges and research centers there. We first went to the Science Center, that had an eye-opening entrance way. There were 2 robots about 50 feet high guarding the entrance, and 12 zodiac robots lining the walkway, with heads of each Chinese zodiac animal. There was a big pendulum inside the building that moved as the earth moved, a digital painting of the Mona Lisa, whose eyes followed this little airplane that zoomed around her head, a video screen on the floor that reacted wherever you stepped on it, so there were games on it, where you could kick a digital soccer ball around, or pop digital popcorn kernels, etc. One of the students’ mothers and I forgot ourselves momentarily as “mature adult escorts” as we jumped around on that screen together, stepping on digital moles that popped out of the ground. We then made our way across a bridge to this Science Expo Park, where there were many different IMAX 3D theaters. At the entrance you can rent a large panda, giraffe or lion to steer around the park (I think they are motorized), and there are many statues of “Great minds” all around the park. We grabbed some 3D glasses and enjoyed 3 different 3D IMAX shows, then later that evening enjoyed a concert by the university orchestra that one of our students’ older brothers was playing in.

From L to R: The boys jumping on the game pad, the Daejan mushroom mascots, the entrance to the Science Park, Song Hi and I ready for the 3D movie, me with the inventor of the gramophone, the guard robots, and a robot zodiac statue

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Cookie Baking
I wanted to bake lots of cookies for the church potluck the next day, so I went to a church members’ place the same night as a young adult supper event, and lead a little baking class. They were thrilled to help me mix the ingredients, to put the cookies on the tray (mostly so they could make their silly heart, star and cookie man shapes) and even more thrilled to taste test them afterwards. I find disasters, or potential ones, offer good bonding moments. When the host had all 4 stove elements in use, and when I had 2 cookie trays in the oven, the gas suddenly disappeared from the stove. Uh oh. We had a mutual comedic panic attack, when before long, the gas came back.

From L to R: Our cookie tray (with the letters JVC), Su Jin with the trays

Visitor Sunday
This past Sunday at our church was a day in which all members were encouraged to invite a friend. This sounds similar to ways that other churches evangelize/share the good news, etc. For the month leading up to this important Sunday, every member was given a fasting schedule, a meal that they were to fast and pray for the service. It was a very different and interesting experience for us.

Other Thoughts
-There are cell phones here that ring at a frequency that only teens can hear, apparently. As we get older, we are no longer able to hear this certain noise. Anyway, Will said that during one of his after school classes, all the girls frantically told one girl to turn her cell phone off, and Will didn’t even hear it ring
-We have noticed that ambulances don’t get any respect here, like they do in NA. We have seen ambulances with lights flashing and sirens on, and no cars move for them!! They just have to wait like everyone else.
-There’s a love of Chinese food in Korea, but Koreans like to invent their own versions of “Chinese food” that aren’t even available in China! We went out for our supper with our Korean tutor one night, and we ordered this popular Korean “Chinese” dish that was highly recommended
-Koreans love to laugh, and we have observed that any hint of a joke or funny anecdote is laughed at whole heartily, which always makes meetings and gatherings wonderful, especially if you are the successful story teller.