JOURNAL: Motorcycles, Churches, and Acts of God

I finally found a church with a wonderful English service. It is a very intercultural church called Youngnak Church (Presbytarian, I believe). The pastor is an American out of Oklahoma with a degree from Dallas Theological Seminary; as you can probably guess, he is Baptist in background. He is married to a Korean woman, and has two teenage daughters. The church's purpose is to provide a home base for people staying in Korea. There is a good mix of young and old; there is also a good praise and worship team. On their website, you can see the service I attended yesterday (3:00 p.m.) at http://www.myiwe.com.

I was introduced to this place by one of my Korean-American co-workers. He took a tour group to one of the royal palaces and Insadong on Saturday, and he invited me to church. I really liked the woman who came with him; she is involved with the Children's Ministry, I believe. This nice young man offered me a ride to church on his motorbike, which he had borrowed from the pastor. I declined, and it is a good thing I did. On Saturday night, he was in an accident involving a cab passenger opening the door right into him as he was riding by! He is on crutches now.

I was really impressed by how friendly and welcoming the people were. I ended up going out to dinner with a group of them; I was the only Caucasian, but there were some Korean-Americans along as well. We had great fun talking and telling stories during dinner (we ate Italian!). I listened with much interest as the debate over dogmeat erupted; most are against it ("dogs are pets, not food!"). Dogmeat is apparently good for the skin and the health. Not surprising really, considering that it shares 99 % of the protein make-up of human meat! I guess it is akin to beef in taste; I have no current plans to find out.

I fully intend to attend next week. I like the laid-back, but respectful atmosphere.