Our Church in Korea

We were very lucky at finding a good church community almost immediately after getting here in Korea. 
The first Sunday after arriving in Korea, we went to a church that has an English Service.  Dr. Yim (our boss) found this church before we even arrived.  The whole church is called Daedok Presbyterian Church, and its the second biggest church in Daejeon.  I keep forgetting that, though, because we attend SPAN (Serving People of All Nations) which is much smaller.  When I first heard of the english service, I pictured a bunch of people like me worshiping together.  I'm not sure why, I was in a foreign country, but I figured the people like me would all be at this service.  I found out that Americans were the minority at a service of people who were mostly not native english speakers.  They were there because they spoke english better than korean.  I've made friends from so many different places!  South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, China, Dominican Republic, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, India, and Canada (not quite as exotic, but still neat).  There are also many Koreans that attend our service, though I'm not completely sure why.  Probably to practice english. 

We arrived at the church two weeks before their pastor left.  Please be in prayer for out new pastor.  The guest pastors aren't bad, but we need someone steady to come.  Its a growing ministry with new people coming all the time.  We have retreats every spring and fall, with side groups going on weekly.
The service itself starts at 1:30pm.  The whole church gets fed around 12pm, so we get to eat beforehand.  The food is always Korean.  They have an industrial kitchen with massive amounts of rice and kimchi.  Then we have church.  After church we have bible study, which is basically sunday school.  The during the week, there are TLC meetings.  These are basically bible studies.  They are located in various regions of the city.  Daejeon is split up into "dong"s, sorta like New York having Manhattan and the Broncs, we have different areas of the city with different names.

Currently, we are attending two TLC meetings.  One is in a different dong, but we really like the discussions and the food is usually cooked by South Africans (delicious!!).  Our other TLC is close to our house.  We feel that one of God's purposes for us to come to Korea is to help our this TLC.  They have been struggling with getting organized for a while, and this is mainly due to people not being able to have enough time to be good leaders.  As of yesterday, Riley and I are going to be leaders of this TLC with our friend Ashley.  Please keep us in your prayers too.  This will be the most I've ever been in charge of a bible study, and we have a long way to go with it. 

In addition to SPAN, we have become very involved with a place called GP house.  It is sort of a spin off of SPAN, except it is geared to provide a place for foreigners and Koreans to meet and talk.  It has sort of become our living room.  Officially, it is a cafe that provides yummy coffee, korean lessons, and "talking club" (where people can practice conversational english).  Riley and I actually lead one of the talking clubs.  We also have parties to get people involved (last night was our Halloween party!!).  Its an amazing place, and most of our friends outside of SPAN are from GP house.  Its a good place to come, have coffee, and have conversations.  The hope of GP house is to use these conversations to make friends and introduce people to God in a comfortable setting.  One of the best things about SPAN and GP house is their attitude towards non-believers.  They do not believe in pushing God on people, but instead just loving people for who they are and whatever they believe.  I was told when I started in SPAN that many of the people who attend are there for the friendly people, but don't believe in God.  I also have met several people who recently became christians because of SPAN's love and joy that they see and experience. 

South Korea is a amazing place to gain a new perspective, and God seems to have made a place here for us before we even arrived.