Saturday's Adventure

Went to get a breakfast at a convience store. Got a Danish and Coca cola light.

Got up this morning and decided to watch Korean children's TV thinking that watchingKorean children's TV would help me learn the language quicker.

(This is not a lie)
Now, they had a puppet show of a family in a traditional village in the past. The story line as I could tell was that there was a girl who had a problem with beinga little gassy. In fact when she passed gas the wind would blow, knock people downand crack KimChi/gimchi pots and even through somebody up on the roof. She wouldturn her backside to the camera and then by the magic of digital effects she wouldbreak wind. She was distressed and her grandmother came to help her.

I don't know what happened because Pastor Lee and Mr. Kim showed up.They met me both in suits and ties. I did not have a suit or tie. I was in businesscasual. Yes, we Americans are slobs to the rest of the world. I had this experiencein Haiti as well. Then we went to Yoido Full Gospel Church. The largest churchin the world, 700,000 folk. We entered into the parking garage. I then learnedthat the five level parking garage was just for the staff and pastors. The churchhas buses to bring people in. It was pretty incredible just by size. It was notthe prettiest church in the world, but it was three times larger than any megachurch sanctuary that I have been in. Also Cho, the founding pastor, established the churchin a field Yoido and now it is filled with skyscrapers and the south side of the river Han is the glitzy side. We then saw the parliament building which was fairly large building and very impressive.

Then we went to eat lunch and let's say that I was pretty foolish looking with the Korean chopsticks. They are metal and flat. Chinese and Vietnamese are rectangleand plastic. I tried to keep going and made it through a meal of Bulgogi, KoreanBar B Q.

We then went to one of the palaces in the City. Gyeonguk. It is like the ForbiddenCity in Beijing. Perhaps a little smaller. There is a progression through the palace to get to the King. Kim and Pastor Lee did not talk much of the concubinesand eunuchs. They then paid for me to dress up in King's Hanbok, it was force. So I made lots of friends with Indian, Taiwanese, folks who dressed up as well. It was humorous and good fun.Then we went to the Korean Folklife Museum. It was a very nice museum and they rented a headset for me so I could listen to the exhibits. Interesting thing isthat Korea says it was the first country to woodblock printing and had metal moveabletype printing two hundred years before Guttenberg. Aside on this point. The Chinese say they were the first to find America and they did it with a much larger fleetthan Columbus. They did it peacefully, yada yada. So what is actual fact. Did Guttenberg make the first movable type or the buddhist in Korea. Did Columbus findthe new world or a chinese eunuch? There is a thesis statement there, but I am not going to be quiet right now.

I found in Korean Folklife museum a rich tradition. I found the museum better than the Haitian museum and better than theGreek Antiquities museum. it was really well done. Then we saw a Korean dance program at the museum.

We then came back to the guest house and had dinner. We had seafood and they askedme if I liked it spicy. I said, "I'm from Texas, we eat hot food." So,Pastor Lee told the waitress make it spicy. they had some conversation that seemedto go, "If you want it hot...I will make sure you know it is hot." The fish and beansprout dish glowed as it came out. It was Red. I mean like it waslike looking down on Arrowhead stadium on Sunday afternoon. It was hot. So, I ate and it was warm. Nose started running. Mr. Kim was crying uncle and PastorLee glistened with sweat. I asked, "It it hot enough for you, Pastor Lee"He responded, "Maybe you are better with spicy food than me." We ate on the floor, traditional korean style.

Now, I will have folks be here in 11:00 AM. Then I will preach twice tomorrow. The church is 30,000 people and the service I preach in will be 500 people. I will talk with a newspaper. I found out that Pastor Park, the Korean pastor of the churchthat we host at Western Heights, used to be a member of this church.

joy,
guido