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!!!!