Dr. Gabriel.
I have meant many people who are different than myself. We are now traveling to Seoul, Korea. It is very interesting to be on a flight where most people speak Korean and cannot understand me. I am learning that the world is a large place and is not just like the U.S. (typical American). I have been making a point of being very respectful of all the different cultural norms that I have seen. I am trying to understand the worldviews of the people I come in contact with.
I did not sleep at all last night ☺ Seoul is a crazy place. We got to see the largest church in the world with 830,000 members. We flew into S-eoul at 6 P.M. and went directly to the hotel and FOOD, which was provided by Korea Air. The hotel was really nice. We had a buffet with Lobster, sushi and all kinds of authentic K-orean foods (I have no idea what I ate, but it was good). After the dinner we took the subway for an hour ride into center city of S-eoul. We found the church and spent time there talking with a man who was preaching and praying outside. After we spoke with some more people we went into one of the 24 hour prayer/worship meetings that the church holds and spent about an hour there listening to prayer and worship in a different language. Some of my team members were bored, but I really liked observing the different ways that the people of S. K-orea pray and worship. I saw that they do not stand or kneel the way some others do and also observed the different attitudes in worship. There was an intensity/focus in this meeting that I have never seen before.
After this time we went on another adventure (as you can imagine 14 foreigners in the middle of huge city with trouble communicating). We asked around and found out the place to see was a part of S-eoul called S-ungChong. So we then tackled the feat of finding cheap transportation and after about a half hour communicated with a couple of taxi drivers and got very good rates ($2 American per person). Upon our arrival in Sung-Chong (not sure on the spelling) we walked around and encountered university party life at it’s best. We did our best to love and to avoid the places that were not safe and evil. We ended up taking a ton of pictures and then setting up on a busy corner and playing soccer with a stuffed animal that one of my friends won. It worked great. We were able to attract some people and I heard that one of my friends got to share his testimony and faith with a man.
Around 3:00 A.M. we took another cheap taxi back to the church and attended the prayer meeting for another half hour (I could feel the Lord’s presence in the room). At 3:30 the main sanctuary opened and we went to see what it looked like. It was beautiful and huge. I spent about an hour praying and sleeping there. At 4:30 we decided to make the trek back to the subway and on the way we saw about 150 people praying in a circle in the middle of a street! Wow, what a crazy night. I knew that the Lord was guiding us and I am happy to say that I know we spent our time here in S. K-orea well. Even though we are all tired it was worth it. We will be able to sleep on our upcoming 12-hour flight. I know that the spiritual and eye opening experience that we had strengthened members of my outreach team and myself for our ministry in Turkey.
Now to continue our story we arrived at the subway at 5 and found out that it didn’t open till 5:30. After transferring from one train we waited for an hour until 6:30 to start our hour-long journey. This second train was full and I have one of the funniest stories from it. I was sitting next to one of the only open seats, well a Korean man about my age sat down next to me and immediately fell asleep. He ended up sleeping on my side for most of the trip. It was hilarious because he couldn’t even open his eyes he was so tired so I just had to sit there, while he slept on me, drooled and made himself comfortable. My friends thought it was hilarious. I have many pictures and videos from this ride.
Upon our arrival back at the hotel we ate another fabulous meal on the Korean Airlines. I proceeded to enjoy the hotel and it’s luxuries (Workout room, Sauna and nice shower for the next hour.) I am excited to get on my flight to Turkey and SLEEP!
This experience was an answer to prayer for me. I had been praying for truth and a time to fill myself up before outreach. Well, even though it wouldn’t seem that staying up all night would be the best way to do that. I know that the Lord arranged for it because I was forced to focus upon him in new ways for the entire night. This helped to open up some of the boxes/lies that my worldview, beliefs, and enculturation put on the God of the Universe.
I am really excited about being able to discern some of the core values at the base of NZD people. These values are subtle, but create very large differences from the U.S. I learned about the tall poppy syndrome (most NZD people do not want to step out and lead because the culture looks down upon people who try to “stand taller than the rest”.) They interpret confident leaders to be prideful and arrogant. I know that they have these beliefs because they consider Australia their big brother due to history in their success and how they were settled in different ways and at different times. Most NZDers interpret the Australian success as proud and disrespectful.
I also learned about the core belief in family. The ownership of a home with two-four children with a successful marriage is generally deemed successful in NZD. I believe this creates the hospitality and generosity that I observed in the first days that I arrived. I noticed that the men speak to one another in mostly the same way as small town MN. That is in a direct, firm way.
I have also observed the pride that Kiwi’s have in their country and in their heritage in the Mauri people. I can tell that the land is based on a more spiritual belief / new age than MN. People generally seem to believe more in spirits and new age things than in MN.
I got most of these observations from five New Zealanders: James, Jake, Angelina, Andrew, and Greg.
I have also written previously about my observations of the Japanese culture and have written about the Korean experience that I had. I should be able to write many observations about the Turkish people as well.
Thanks,
Travis
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