Eating our way through Seoul :)

I have officially been in Seoul, Korea for a week now and I think it would be realistic to say that I have eaten my way through...bulgolgi, dim sum, chap che,pizza, McD's (oh, yes--they do have a #3 meal that is a bulgolgi burger!), Chinese . . . the list goes on.  Today was a full-on eating day as it was our day off and we went to a traditional Korean restaurant and ate, and ate, and ate. Lots of dishes that kept coming--many types of kimchi, seafood and several things with a healthy dose of spice. After about 45 min of dishes coming and eating, we were told that we had just been eating the appetizers!  

Then this evening we went to the Seoul Tower which rivals the Space Needle.  It is on the top of a mountain that gives you a 360 view.  Seoul is the city that goes on forever.  There are signs EVERYWHERE that are bold and light up and even dance around.  There are massive amounts of buildings and people all over the place.  It is all surrounded by mountains and a big river.  Was quite cool to see it from above after we have been in the car all over for the last week.

So we (or course) ate again at the top of the Seoul Tower.  It was also very Korean food, but at the end, we got to make our own soft-serve ice cream cones!  

If you like ice cream, then Seoul has it for you...frozen yogurt places, Cold Stone, Baskin Robbins and others.  It also has healthy competition for Seattle with its coffee joints.  I wouldn't be surprised if they have more Starbucks then we do!!  Apparently, if you were to go to a different coffee shop every day in Seoul for 5 years, you would not see them all.  And if you aren't into the Bucks, you can try "Seven Monkeys Coffee" or the ever popular "The Angel-In-Us Coffee".  Koreans drink coffee after most meals it seems and we have thoroughly enjoyed this tradition!  We have yet to get to a Starbucks, but it is literally monsoon season and the rains on our days off were a bit much to do walking in.  We hope to get out a bit more this week.

Beyond the food realm, we did keep ourselves busy with ministry as well.

Pastor Oh at Onnuri Church has a group of 60ish who are training in prayer ministry with us.  They have all been through an initial conference earlier this year and desire to learn more to help with a recovery ministry that they are a part of.  Many also work with children who have been abused.  Very amazing, compassionate people!

We have class from Tuesday - Friday from 1 - 6 pm.  This varies between lecture and ministry and prayer practice.  In the mornings, we are usually preparing for the day as well as watching David while mom and dad pray for Pastor Oh and his wife.  We had an amazing first week and are eager to start week 2 to get to more meat.  They are hungry, which makes what we are doing really fun and easy.  I got to speak about restoration and children on Wednesday last week and it was fun to share my passion and walk into something that has been spoken about for a long time!  I love how the Lord orchestrates things by surprising paths.

We have really enjoyed our interpreter, Su-Jin.  She is around our age and has a fun personality.  It has been a blessing to have her around a lot as well because most others' English is fairly limited.

It is strange to be here and know that we are across the world, but not have it feel too different.  Everyone here is so kind, gracious and generous.  They have seen to our every need and really honored us.  It is very strange to be so honored.  It is a joy though to be here and watch transformation happen.  You can see that they are being empowered by the love and Truth.  It never grows old!!!

Two funny stories that I will leave you with--

#1 Matt and Laura have a TV in their room and they happened to turn  it on yesterday.  Who did they see as soon as it came on?? Our fearless leader pastor, Brian, preaching away from when he was here last time.  So crazy!  

#2 We went to an aquarium Saturday for David (he loves fish--calls them "whee").  At one point there was a show underwater in this huge shark area where there were scuba divers dressed in Tae Kwon Do gees, sparring underwater as a show!  There was also a mini soccer game in there...only in Korea!!!