a Sabbath rest

it's sunday morning in grand rapids, and soon i will leave for church. i look forward to being a part of a church here tho i don't yet know which one that will be.

the past week here has been good. there are about forty first-year students in the m.div. program, and i've had a chance to meet many of them. we've been discussing reformed hermeneutics with prof. weima this week. thankfully, i find myself agreeing with what he says as it echoes my education at dordt; i figure it's better to have a review of concepts i know than find that i vehemently disagree with calvin sem's perspective in the first week.

while there are other things i could share, i'm going to opt not to. in fact, i've decided to take a break from blogging. perhaps i'll revive this blog again at a later day. until then, feel free to call or email me.

movin'

tomorrow morning i'm leaving for grand rapids. the two weeks that i've been able to spend in iowa have been a delight as i've had the chance to catch up with some friends and family and even a few former teachers. the time has now come for me to leave the farm and head for the big city of GR; doesn't the name even sound a bit scary? (think "grrr...") even if it is scary, tho, i'm looking forward to getting out of the transition stage.

i have a sort of orientation course that begins on monday. it's a two-week deal for first year students that involves a bit more than just the campus tour and a visit with a financial aid rep. i just perused the syllabus that was sent out via email and it looks like Week 1 is about learning a reformed approach to scripture and Week 2 is about understanding the elements of a good sermon. how nice; i already have lots of questions on these topics.

lately i've been thinking about the name of the degree that i'm pursuing, the M.Div. or the Masters of Divinity. really? are they really going to make me into a master of divinity? just how does one master divinity? i just don't think this is possible. what about the name Masters of Ministry? we could call it the M.Min and run around eating little chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand. if times get tough over the next couple years, i might try to sell this idea to the mars candy company's advertising and promotions team.

i miss rice

one of the simplest pleasures of being back has been feeling the grass between my toes. i think i can safely say that this never happened once in korea.

i have also chuckled to myself every time i pick up a spoon here. i wonder how i can grasp that little thing in my big hand. korean spoons (pictured below the american spoon) have much longer handles and bigger scoops on the end. the longer handle makes sense because koreans eat out of common bowls placed in the middle of the table, so the longer handle can reach further. somehow i managed to eat with those little spoons for the first 22 years of my life, so i suppose i will readjust quickly.

what hasn't been so easy to adjust to is that no one has bowed to me or called me handsome or commented on how tall i am in the past four days. these were daily occurences in korea, and my self-esteem is taking a bit of hit here.

on the flip side, thankfully i've become less conscious of my appearance. korea has large mirrors seemingly everywhere, in the classroom buildings, cafeteria, subway, etc. my students were also always looking at themselves in little hand-held mirrors during class. living in that environment, i picked up a bad habit of always messing with my hair since i was always seeing my reflection. i don't miss the mirrors.

i've also had a few moments when i've caught myself about to do something and remembered, "oh yeah, i don't live in korea anymore. real americans don't do this." in church on sunday morning it was time to shake hands with the people next to me, and as i stuck out my right hand, my left hand automatically went to support my right forearm. it's a sign of respect in korea, but i don't think the other guy noticed. also, before being served a meal in korea, i would normally say "jal mokessubnida!" (i will eat well!) to my host as a sign of respect, but that only draws strange looks here. i've successfully refrained so far, but it feels awkward to eat without saying it. and on my first morning back, i spent about five seconds thinking about how to turn the hot water on for my shower before i realized that i don't need to do that here.

it's the little things that make me miss korea, that jolt me and remind me that my reality is now radically different. i'm ready for the change though. admittedly, i am a bit sad, but it's good to be back in iowa. and, every day i get more excited to be a student again. i just wonder if calvin knows what they're getting into--or if i do.

surprise!

i'm back in iowa. that august 10th arrival stuff that i posted about a while back was a complete bluff (or lie, i suppose). my plans all along were to arrive on the 7th in des moines where adam would pick me up and drive me to my parents' farm to surprise my mom for her birthday. it worked quite wonderfully!

my flights went well. i had prayed earnestly for a bump to business class after emily got one last week, but i didn't get it. i did get exit rows the entire time and flight attendants and immigration officers who weren't crabby. that was a blessing. the last few times i've been flying internationally have been around christmas, and i think everyone is a bit on edge during that busy time. people in the airports generally seemed more relaxed now. maybe they forgot that our national security threat is at orange. orange! come on, people! wipe those smiles off your faces!

saying goodbye wasn't really fun. when i said goodbye to people at dordt, for example, i knew there was a pretty good chance that i'd see them again, maybe on a road trip or at a wedding or something. but when you say goodbye to people on the other side of the world, things are a bit different. i'm not just going to run into these people randomly when their visiting their grandma at the local CRC. it makes saying goodbye tough because i've grown quite close to the people there. i mean, i wasn't just taking a trip. south korea was my home for two years; it was where i clipped my toe nails and bought toilet paper and paid utility bills. and, it was where my friends and students and church were, and they will be missed.

yet another goodbye

emily (right) flew out this morning. you did well here, emily, and kosin will miss you!

the picture below was taken on a train in india back in february. if you ever meet anyone who has backpacked in india, ask her about the trains. she will surely have some stories to tell.

a gift

students often give me gifts. during the semester--and especially at exam times--it's not uncommon to receive small gifts in the form of canned coffee drinks or chocolate. i appreciate these small tokens, tho they don't affect anyone's grade at all, and we foreign teachers often brag to each other about the "bribes" we receive.

this general tendency to give professors gifts compounded with the fact that i'm leaving korea soon has resulted in a few more gifts and cards for me. therefore, i wasn't too surprised when ariel, one of my freshmen students from last semester, sent me a text message last week saying that she had a gift for me. however, since i wasn't particularly close to ariel, i was a bit curious about what she wanted to give me. honestly, i was just hoping it wasn't something i didn't want (like another traditional korean fan). i have to pack up everything in about ten days; therefore, if the gift isn't something i actually want, it might likely end up in the garbage (tho i still appreciate my students' kindness).

i told ariel she could come to my office at 4:00 this afternoon, and she brought with her one of the most unique and creative presents i have ever received. it's a t-shirt that she made and you can see me modeling it here. it's me in lego form!!

in order to appreciate this gift more fully, readers should know that lego people are a sort of trend in korea right now. there are entire stores that sell t-shirts, hoodies, bags, etc, with various patterns and designs of lego people. readers should also know that my wardrobe is not very big, that my favorite colors are brown and blue, and that i have no qualms about rewearing my favorite things a lot. therefore, a lego man with a blue shirt and brown pants and hair flipped out like mine naturally does when it's shaggy fits me perfectly. here's a close-up of lego justin.

goodbye andy

andy left this morning for three weeks in the states. what a good guy--a pleasure to live and work with in korea. enjoy your trip, andy!

hallelujah dental clinic

even tho my teeth were not bothering me at all, it had been more than two years since i had visited the dentist, so i decided that it was time i go. and, knowing that medical costs in korea are generally substantially cheaper than those in the states, i decided that i should go sooner rather than later.

i asked around a bit and found the phone number for hallelujah dental clinic, a clinic that is quite reputable and has a good relationship with kosin university. they do a lot of dental mission work and provide free dental treatment for foreign students at kosin. i asked my assistant to call them and make an appointment; however, when he called, he found out that i couldn't make an appointment but rather should just show up. this seemed a bit strange; after all, i'm looking for professional dental treatment and not a second-rate haircut. but, i went for it.

the first thing i did at the hallelujah dental clinic was take off my shoes just like i would at a korean home. they have some nice slippers for their guests to wear. then, i went to the counter. the girl there didn't speak much english, but my assistant had been assured over the phone that there were plenty of people there who did. she asked me to wait, and then a very friendly girl came to the desk and asked me all the standard personal information questions in excellent english. we did have one tiny bit of a communication problem. she kept asking me for a certificate from kosin to say that i could be treated at their dental clinic; this is the certificate the foreign students use to get free treatment. finally she caught on to what i had been saying all along--i'm not a student. i'm a professor even if i don't look like it as a 24-year-old wearing shorts and t-shirt.

then, she took me back to the x-ray room and translated for the x-ray technician. then, it was back to the waiting room until it was my turn to go upstairs to see the dentist. while i was waiting, i could watch videos of their dental mission trips on the big flat screen TV in the waiting room and on the little flat screens situated in front of each examining chair. i spotted several people i knew including the president of kosin and a few of the international students.

soon, the dentist had some time to see me, and after poking around in my mouth for a bit, he told me in broken yet communicable english that i had one cavity and one tooth that was developing a cavity. he recommended treatment for both teeth. then, the nice english-speaking girl came over and confirmed everything the dentist had said. she told me that the price for the treatment was usually 80,000 won (US$63) per tooth, but they would give me a discount because i was a professor at kosin. great.

"so, do you want the treatment?"
"yes."
"do you have time now?"
"yeah, i do."
"ok, please wait a few minutes."

so, i sat there in the examining chair for about five minutes marveling at the fact that i had neither made an initial appointment nor needed to make another appointment two weeks later to fill my cavity. before i could think about it for too long tho, the dentist was back and had fixed my teeth, and i was heading back down the stairs to the reception desk. there at the reception desk was my helper.

"is everything ok?"
"yeah, it didn't hurt at all. now how much do i owe you?"
"oh, you don't need to pay anything."
"what? no, i can pay. it's ok."
"no, no. you don't need to pay anything. since you're a theology professor at kosin, you don't need to pay anything. just call us if you have any problems with your teeth."
"really? wow. thanks."

(i'm technically a member of the theology department tho i only teach english; i don't know why.)

so here's to hallelujah dental clinic. thank you for the pain-free, hassle-free and just plain free dental treatment.

happy birthday john calvin!

in honor of calvin's 500th birthday, here's a passage from the institutes (3.19.05) that i have recently found particularly insightful.

"Those bound by the yoke of the law are like servants assigned certain tasks for each day by their masters. These servants think they have accomplished nothing, and dare not appear before their masters unless they have fulfilled the exact measure of their tasks. But sons, who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers, do not hesitate to offer them incomplete and half-done and even defective works, trusting that their obedience and readiness of mind will be accepted by their fathers, even though they have not quite achieved what their fathers intended. Such children ought we to be, firmly trusting that our services will be approved by our most merciful Father, however small, rude and imperfect these may be."

(quoted in Smith and Carvill's The Gift of the Stranger)

scooter trip

three things on my summer of 2009 list were "visit gary in haman," "visit saklo in jinju" and "travel? by scooter or plane or train." i conveniently combined those into a five-day, 400 kilometer (250 mile) scooter trip.

at the insistence of one of my wise friends, i took my scooter to a mechanic on friday afternoon. in broken korean i explained to him my intention. he laughed a bit because scooters are primarily used for food delivery and short trips and almost no one would consider taking one on a road trip. after checking out my ride, he cautioned me to drive slowly. got it.

then, on friday night my friend ball's family graciously treated me to some amazing sustenance before my trip. actually, the dinner had nothing to do with the trip, but we went to what ball considers to be the best buffet in the city at the weston chosun hotel, the hotel that stands like a sentinel at the end of haeundae beach. ball told me beforehand that he expected to eat ten plates. he wasn't joking either; this guy can eat. i seriously worked to stretch my stomach in the days leading up to the main event because he expected me to match him. we didn't quite make it to ten plates each, but we got close and had a wonderful time with his family. they've all lived in australia and thus speak english quite well. his father commented to me, "if i spent as much time studying another subject as i have studying english, i could have another ph.d."

ok, back to the trip. it began on saturday afternoon with a beautiful three-hour drive to masan where i attend church. not knowing how much my scooter could handle, i decided that it should rest at every hour for about ten minutes. i don't know if this makes any mechanical sense or not, but i do know that even if my scooter didn't need the rest, my butt certainly did.

along the way i passed some shipyards. korea does a huge amount of business in building container ships.


as usual i spent saturday night in masan with my friend shin and attended church there on sunday. we do the children's sunday school together on sunday morning, and recently we've been teaching about daniel. to be honest, shin does more teaching than me. i generally play the part of the white guy that the kids climb on.

shin in not actually that tall.

the seventy kilometers that i drove from masan to jinju on sunday afternoon were simply gorgeous. i chose some small country roads that first followed the coast and then headed inland winding thru rice fields and around lush green mountains. beautiful. of course, none of the views were quite as nice as the ones in central iowa, but this isn't a competition (yes, that statement might be a bit biased, but this is my blog so i get to say what i want).





in jinju i stayed with saklo. saklo is a cambodian student who is spending the summer at his sponsoring church in jinju. i have a tremendous amount of respect for this funny little man. we spent some time with his korean church friends, and he served our korean-english translator even tho these are his third and fourth languages. choosing to live quite meagerly, he is able to save nearly half of his stipend from his church so he can send the money back to cambodia to support his mom and younger siblings.

saklo showed me around jinju and we cruised all over the city on the scooter. it's a small city by korean standards, only 350,000 people. we also went for a walk along the river, and right there along the pathway is a whole set of exercise equipment. this is the norm in korea; remember the cultural emphasis on health that i blogged about before.


my plan was to leave jinju and drive to gary's workplace on tuesday. however, i woke up to find torrents of raining coming down. i decided to delay my plan for one day until i checked the weather forecast on the internet. there was an 80 to 100% chance of rain for the next four days. i reasoned that if i wanted to wait for a sunny day, i'd be in jinju for another week. therefore, i waited for a period of only light rain, dawned my "rain gear," and took off. oh, and by "rain gear," i mean my blue jeans and the long-sleeved shirt that saklo gave me.

the drive was 60 kilometers long, and thankfully the rain let up after the first 20 kilometers. that was a blessing. however, driving the last 40 kilometers in completely drenched clothes left me mildly hypothermic. nevertheless, the countryside was still beautiful as the rain rushed down the mountains and the rivers swelled beyond their banks.



tuesday night gary had to work until 9 pm, but i didn't really mind. while he worked, i took a hot shower and a nap and woke up feeling much better.


since gary had to leave for work around 7 am, i took off for home at that time as well. the skies were overcast and gloomy the entire way, but i only got sprinkled on slightly during the 110 km drive and made it home at 10:30 am.

all in all, it was an excellent trip--and a relatively cheap one as well. i only spent 22,000 won on gas--about $17.

summer time

june is coming to a close, but the rainy season in busan unfortunately isn't. some days when i wake up i find that a cloud has literally parked itself outside my window. the drizzle and mist continue thru-out the day, and on days like these, i've taken to arming myself with an umbrella. i'd prefer to go without one, but it's easier to carry one and avoid the looks and comments of concern from all the umbrella-carriers that i meet.

i've largely succeeded in not letting the rain dampen my spirits. i've filled my summer days with meeting friends for lunch or dinner, reading a few books, brushing up on greek, exercising, going to the public bath three times, baking about 9 or 10 dozen cookies with a friend until 3 am, preaching once, watching transformers in the theater twice (it was more entertaining the first time), beaching it twice, going for some long walks and scooter rides, and more... i really feel like a kid again with a summer wide open and almost no work responsibilities.

however, over the past couple weeks i've found that this isn't necessarily good. sure, rest and play are beautiful things, but work and service are normative, the sort of things that God intended for life. a source of joy, work is the response to the call to love God and neighbor. for now i will enjoy my season of rest and look for ways to serve, but i also look forward to the chance to transition to something new this fall. nevertheless, i know that this transition too will entail challenges of its own.

i don't teach students anymore

i'm finished. well, that's a bit premature. i still have a couple more hours of grading to do, but from now until august, it's shorts and a t-shirt for this guy. the last day of exams was friday, and on saturday i treated myself to a novel and a short hike to the top of the mountain i live on.

on monday and tuesday i attended "The 4th International Conference on Christian Higher Education and Scholarship." the conference involves several christian universities in korea, and they brought in several of excellent speakers from the states. the keynote speaker was alvin plantinga, but my favorite was david smith from calvin college. as a language teacher, he had some valuable insights into what it means to teach a foreign language christianly. i'll admit tho that it was a bit odd to to listen to his inspirational words about pedagogy three days after i finished my last semester at kosin.

the awareness of finishing my last semester is only beginning to infiltrate my consciousness. my two years here have been a blessing, one i neither asked for nor deserved, and it will be hard to leave. i'm confident leaving is the right thing, tho, and there is joy in obedience. much awaits me after my plane touches down in des moines on august 10th.

until then, i think i have enough to fill my days in korea. i made a sort of "to do" list this past weekend (i take after my mother; i'm definitely a list maker), and not including the list of people i want to eat dinner with before i leave, there were more than thirty items on the list. and the one that made the top of the list? study greek--but i enjoy greek, so this is more pleasure than pain.

i don't teach english; i teach students

here they are... the students that i'm always talking about. we took these pictures on the last day of our classes. next week is finals and then we're done! i'm feeling pretty mixed about that. i plan to spend the summer here and head back to the states in august. oh, by the way, that guy with the girlish haircut in some of the pictures is me.

english bible -- section one

english bible -- section two

theological english -- their final test covers everthing from solomon to revelation; is that too much?

"global english" -- a basic english class made up of theology students

junior conversation

freshmen conversation

church

as i look back on almost two years of living in korea, i think one of my biggest mistakes has been in the area of church. during the past two years, i've attended four different churches.

my first church was dong-seo-nam-buk church in gimhae, a city about an hour drive away from where i live. i attended there with kosin's president kim on the first sunday i was in korea, and he asked adam and me if we'd be willing to lead an english bible study at the church. we agreed, and the church said they'd donate a car so could drive there on sundays instead of taking public transportation. well, my english bible study ended up being a beginning english class for middle-aged women (i still remember them fondly--my favorite one was named banana). generally, i had a bad attitude about attending that church. the church was far away; the english translations of the sermons were sketchy; we left at 11 am and returned at 8 pm every sunday; not many people at the church spoke english; the bible study wasn't a bible study. plus, i sometimes felt like i was sold for a car. after one semester of attending that church, adam and i told president kim we'd like to change churches.

the next church was 4th yeongdo church. yeongdo is the name of the island i live on. the presbyterian churches here don't mess around with names like hope, faith, trinity; they just go with numbers. i think there are more than ten of them on the island. the church there had an english worship service composed of some of the kenyan students at kosin and some of the youth from the church who spoke english. the service was led by a korean woman who completed her m.div in canada. i really enjoyed the people there, and another part of this church that i really enjoyed was that it was short. i could leave my home at 10:30 in the morning and be back by 1:30 in the afternoon after a great lunch. this worked well for me and my minimalist perspective for two semesters, but at the end of the calendar year the church decided to discontinue the english worship service.

once again without a church, i began the semester listening to aaron baart's sermons online and wondering how long i could get away with that. i also contacted my former pastor from 4th yeongdo because she had mentioned starting an english worship service again at another church. a few weeks later we got something set up at beomil baptist (gasp!) church. kosin is a quite conservative presbyterian denomination, and i always hoped that when people at school asked me where i went to church that they wouldn't know anything about this small church. it's not that the english worship service had any particular baptist flair to it; it was the same thing that we did at 4th yeongdo but just in a different location. however, when you're dealing with a language barrier, it's often easier to avoid the issue than defend your position (i don't hold any personal grudges against baptists; i just don't fancy all of their theology and neither do most people at kosin).

i was happy to attend beomil church, but then my friend shin invited me to visit his uncle's church. i blogged about that visit about a month ago. well, about a week after my visit, shin started talking to me about the possibility of attending that church regularly to help with their children's ministry. the church is near masan--about an hour and a half drive from my home. after thinking about it a bit, i decided that i'd accept the offer to attend that small rural church even tho i felt quite bad about leaving the baptists behind. now, i'm going to gasil church with shin on saturday afternoon and returning on sunday evening.

once again, i am attending two korean worship services on sunday (shin gives me a brief translation afterwards); i am spending a big part of sunday at church and saturday night too; i am teaching basic english; i am traveling quite a distance to church. in a way, i feel like i ended up where i started. however, thankfully i think one thing at least has changed--my attitude.

visitors

yesterday, andy's sister and her friend arrived from the states. we met up with betsy dekens, a dordt student who's visiting her brother who lives here, and joanne, a kosin student who spent a year at dordt and lived with betsy for a semester.

betsy, joanne, and me.

busting out some tunes at the norebong--korean karaoke.