all things

the intern

2011-06-29T20:09:00.006-05:00

I'm an intern. That means I get to make some mistakes.

My favorite mistake so far has been misspeaking while leading the liturgy on Sunday morning. I was supposed to say that when sinners repent and believe in Jesus they can have new life. It's a bold claim and I was building up to it nicely. However, I said, "Sinners who repeat, oh (pause), um, repent..." Smooth.

My second favorite mistake was locking myself out of the office today. Pastor Doug is on study leave for the week, and I was the only person at church. When I opened the door to the office, I forgot to unlock it manually by disengaging the lock on the inside of the door, As usual, I threw my keys on my desk, and then later after going into the hall to get a drink of water, I found the handle to the office door stiff upon return. I walked around the church for a bit wondering where someone might hide an extra key, and then I walked outside and contemplated breaking a window. Finally, I opted for a more rational third alternative and walked next door to the parsonage and asked Doug's wife if she had a key to the office. Turns out, she did.

When I'm not being an intern, I've had a chance to explore the city a bit.

Above is the Washington Monument from a distance. Below is the Washington Monument up close.

Below is the Lincoln Memorial (or should I say the Lincoln temple?) and below that is a picture of me with Father Abraham. The text above the seated Lincoln reads "In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever." The influence of civil religion is obvious throughout DC, yet I wonder how many of those on field trips and family vacations who parade through the tour of monuments and memorials spend any time in critical reflection on the myths and deceptions that ground so many of the design choices and language.

reunited

2011-06-12T13:25:00.003-05:00

I met JoJo in Korea in the summer of 2008. His Korean name is actually Yosep, which is the Korean version of Joseph, and his family name is Jo. Joseph Jo. Nearly immediately I started calling him JoJo. JoJo was 15 when we met, and at the end of the summer he was bound for Nampa, Idaho, where he was going to attend high school. On his own. Living with strangers. With a very low English ability. I was recruited to make JoJo Idaho-ready, a task much bigger than we could accomplish in our three tutoring sessions a week. I knew JoJo had some rough months ahead after he would arrive in Idaho, and my real goal was just to soften the crash landing: teach him about the culture of small, Christian high schools, inform him about American family life, drill him on basic emergency phrases, boost his confidence and calm his fears.

JoJo survived.

Now, three years later, JoJo is going into his senior year in the fall. Like many high school seniors, he's thinking about college, so JoJo didn't go back to Korea this summer. Instead, he's spending the summer in an SAT-prep academy--in Maryland, just a thirty-minute drive from my place.

JoJo and I have kept in touch. Facebook makes that easy. We had dinner together once in Korea in the summer of 2009 after he had finished his freshmen year, and yesterday afternoon JoJo and I had the chance to meet up again. It was awesome. Teacher-student in the summer of 2008, now we were able to get together and just be friends, swapping stories about culture shock and the various experiences we've had in the last few years. It's a strange twist of providence: JoJo, this guy I met on the other side of the world and only because his parents wanted a private tutor to help their son, is now my closest friend for hundreds of miles.

a contrast

2011-06-07T11:07:00.007-05:00

May was a busy month, hence the blogging hiatus. My apologies.

I’m now kicking off my summer internship in Silver Spring, Maryland—where gas and milk sell for the same price, $3.89 per gallon. I’m interning with a small Christian Reformed congregation here, just a few miles north of Washington, DC, and I’ll be sharing the preaching and other pastoral duties with the current pastor for ten weeks. I’m excited about it—though the surroundings are nearly the complete opposite of last summer, which you may remember I spent on a small farm in Ontario. The farm was tucked away down a long narrow lane, and my summer cottage was nestled even farther back in a row of trees with a pasture and Trina the Cow to keep me company.

This summer I'm living on the second floor of the only three story building in this next picture—right above Sign-A-Rama and next door to Bigg Wolf Video, and outside my window are seven lanes of nonstop busyness.

kim bop

2011-04-22T08:45:00.005-05:00

I lived in Korea for two years and never learned to make kim bop, a traditional seaweed and rice roll (kim means seaweed and bop means rice). This is a typical food that might be taken for a lunch on the run or a snack on a trip. Essentially, in cases when an American might pack a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a Korean might bring kim bop.

However, last night I learned a new thing. Our neighbors invited Adam and me over for a kim bop lesson. Inside the rolls, we put egg, cucumber, fried sausage, crab, and avocado. Delicious!

feedback

2011-04-17T12:06:00.002-05:00

I preached this morning. It was my sixth and final preaching gig for the semester, though I still have to write two more sermons for class. The sermon that I preached this morning was actually written for a class last fall too. I preached on Jesus' entry into Jerusalem from Luke 19, a story with lots of tears and no palm branches or hosannas--contrary to what one might expect on Palm Sunday.

What's always interesting to me is what people say after the sermon. I admit I don't always know what to say when I shake the preacher's hand when walking out of the sanctuary. I usually just say, "Thank you," and walk on, and that's what many people did this morning too. However, I also received a few bits of feedback that I'm going to share here.

"You know, I never thought about this story as..." A woman who's probably in her 60s told me this, and I was delighted. She's probably heard 50 Palm Sunday sermons in her life--a dozen from each of the gospels. And so the challenge for the preacher with passages that are so familiar is to help them hear the story in a fresh way and to encounter Jesus in the story. The point is not to be creative just for the sake of creativity; efforts at being unique often lead to heresy (thankfully, since I wrote this sermon for class, I wasn't really worried about it being unorthodox; my professor has already judged it to be "exegetically intelligent"). The goal is not to be unique but instead to shake off the shackles of familiarity and expectation and let the story speak afresh.

"Awesome, awesome, awesome. That's all I have to say." My Mexican friend told me this. My sermon touched on the fact that sometimes people say the right things but have the wrong idea of the kingship of Jesus, and I used the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa as an example. They adhere to the Heidelberg Catechism, Canons of Dort, and Belgic Confession (these are the three confessions that unite my denomination as well), and yet the Dutch Reformed Church was the one who pushed for apartheid in South Africa. In fact, the prime minister in South Africa who instituted apartheid was a Dutch Reformed pastor. My sermon also touched on racial reconciliation issues that happen in my denomination and community too, and this obviously resonated with my friend.

"What should I do with this?" One of the freshmen in our youth group said this to me as he showed me a paper with two columns on it entitled "Good stuff" and "Bad stuff." Prior to the service, I had handed out a few sermon evaluation forms to a some attendees so I could get some feedback on the sermon. I had given one to another guy in our youth group, and but this guy wanted to evaluate the sermon too. Therefore, he made his "good stuff" and "bad stuff" categories and filled it out while I was preaching. I read it when I got home, and I was humbled. His evaluation was rhetorically quite brilliant and accurate, and he had even picked up on an internal connection in my sermon that I wasn't even aware of as I wrote it (and he chided me for not emphasizing it). And that is the way the Spirit sometimes works.

spring break: brakes break

2011-04-06T10:51:00.002-05:00

Last Friday afternoon, I was ready to get out of town. I finished my last class around 12:30, and then spring break was upon me. I went back to my apartment, ate lunch, washed the dishes, packed up, grabbed a can of Coke, and headed to the farm--my parents' place in Iowa.

About the time I was crossing the state line into Indiana, my can of Coke caught up to me and I pulled off to a rest area. I used to be opposed on principle to a bathroom break so early in the trip, but I guess my later 20s have softened me a bit. Anyway, as I got back in my car and shifted from park to reverse, something unusual happened. My foot on the brake pedal went all the way to floor.

Oh no. No brakes.

Alright. Call Dad. When the car breaks down, just call Dad. That's a nugget of wisdom I learned a long time ago. So I did, and Dad recommended I test out the brakes in the parking lot of the rest area, and then if possible, try to make it to the next exit.

So I did. Pumping the brakes produced a little friction to slow me down, but not much. I prayed, and then I proceeded cautiously onto the interstate and kept praying that I wouldn't have to make a sudden stop. Of course, it was also raining--just like it does in the movies when the bad things start happening.

Cruising at 60mph with the radio off and hands clinched on the steering wheel and back arched forward in nervous anticipation, I watched cars zoom around me and anxiously looked for the next exit with a gas station that could sell me more brake flood. Oh great. A clover leaf exit ramp. But I made it, and slowly crept down the road to the gas station. The nice lady at the counter sold me some brake fluid for $2.39, and I went back to the car to see if this would remedy my problem. After filling up the fluid reservoir, I drove around the parking lot for a bit and then checked the reservoir again: nearly empty.

My eyes landed on the dealership across the road, and so I crept over there with my Intrigue. Though doubtful that anyone would be able to help me out at 4pm on Friday, I thought I ought to try anyway. The repair guys were friendly and offered to take a look at it and give me an estimate. So, I wandered off to the waiting room where I met a man in his 70s and heard stories about his girlfriend and her four Camaros. He may have just been trying to impress me. He was at the dealer to trade in one of his Cadillacs and one of her Camaros for a new Chevy extended-cab truck. Like I said, he may have just been trying to impress me.

Soon the service guy came and found me to give me the diagnosis: $635 of damage (minimum) requiring parts that they couldn't get until Monday or Tuesday. Sorry, man; no can. I've got to preach on Sunday.

So again, call Mom and Dad, and they generously offered to come get me with the pickup and a trailer and tow the car back to Iowa. They were going to leave as soon as possible. Alright. I've got a plan; now I just need a place to sit and wait for them... for five hours. Well, the 24-hour Denny's down the road seemed to be the best option, so I crawled down there and breathed a sigh of relief as I shifted into park in the Denny's parking lot. I explained my situation to my waitress Sabrina, and after commiserating with me a bit, she said she'd be right back with my coffee.

As I sat there, I started thinking about what had just happened. My brakes went out just an hour before I would have been driving through Chicago on a Friday afternoon. Instead of lying in a hospital room with a mangled car and mangled body, I sat comfortably in Denny's sipping coffee and waiting for my parents to come bail me out. The words of Psalm 34 came to mind,

⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
⁹ Fear the LORD, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.

The goodness of God tastes to me like Denny's coffee.

As it turns out, my parents couldn't get their hands on a trailer until Saturday morning, and so before checking out the Super 8 across the street, I called a college friend who lived about thirty miles away to see what he was up to. Since he's just a great guy, he came and got me and I spent the evening with him and his friends. My parents were there in the morning, and we towed my car back to the Coop in Sully. I'll be going to pick it up after lunch today.

let's dance!

2011-03-27T17:37:00.003-05:00

I've been to three dance parties in two weekends. Last night's party even included costumes! I got to wear my dragon suit that a student in Korea gave me.

Now by dance party, I mean a dining room sans dining table and seven or eight people grooving to the music and snacking on potato chips and brownies. These are not dark, smoke-filled raves. We at Calvin Seminary have come a long way--but not that far.

and God blessed them and said...

2011-03-10T22:22:00.003-06:00

Be fruitful and increase in number.

back in the pulpit

2011-03-06T15:11:00.003-06:00

About a month ago I was on a ferry. I was still traveling in Honduras at the time, and Thyra and I turned to the traveler next to us to have the usual traveler conversation. Where are you from? Where have you been so far on your trip? What do you recommend? How long have you been traveling for?

And then the question: What do you do? As in, what do you do for a real job when you're not on a ferry in Honduras? The first several questions provide information but none of it really too personal, and during these questions, I'm always trying to feel the other person out. While traveling I've met people from literally all over the world, and while this is part of the joy of traveling, it's also important to be reasonably cautious. You're never quite sure who you're talking to--and neither is the other person, and so you both proceed with caution. I generally try to answer the "what do you do" question vaguely: I'm a graduate student. Many people on ferries in Honduras don't know what seminary is--even if they think they do, they often don't--and so I usually just tell people that I'm a student. If they're curious, that can lead to a further conversation, but I usually don't volunteer that I'm studying in a program designed to train people to be pastors within the first seven minutes of a conversation.

And you, young woman from New York who started your trip in Guatemala and has been traveling for two months, what do you do back in New York?

"I'm a freelancer."

A freelancer? What does that mean? A graphic designer? A writer? An artist? A sales consultant? Is this code for "I got downsized in the recession and I'm on a ferry in Honduras to forget about it so stop asking me"? Or, are you trying to hide something a bit more suspect? Come on, you seem nice enough; give me something that makes me want to trust you.

But she never did; she was just a "freelancer."

Maybe that's what I am too--a freelance preacher. Since being licensed to exhort last year, I've preached in Ontario and in Korea, but I didn't really have much desire to do so in Grand Rapids. However, desire or not, one of the requirements at CTS is to preach, and so I've taken to the pulpit supply list and started my freelance work. Last week was a morning and evening service south of GR, and this week was a morning service 140 miles to the east. They all went quite well, actually; I even enjoyed it. I'll also be preaching March 20th and April 17th at my church here in GR, Boston Square. Between those, I'll be making my Sully, Iowa, debut on the evening of April 3rd.

Soon, however, I'll be going from freelancer to intern. I'm slated to do a ten-week internship in a congregation this summer. The list of potential internship sites comes out this week, and then next week I have to submit my top three choices. The field experience office takes these into consideration and consults with my mentor and with the prospective churches, and on March 28th, they announce where I--and everyone else in my class--will be exhorting for the summer. (Freelancers and interns can't preach; we can only exhort. Ordained ministers preach the Word of God. It makes sense in principle, but perhaps in practice it's only a matter of semantics.)

chili contest

2011-02-19T15:11:00.003-06:00

Boston Square CRC (my church) holds an annual chili contest. When I first heard about it last year, I was told that there were three categories: best traditional chili, best hot chili, and most unusual chili. Since I was relatively new to the church, I thought this would be a good chance for me to really make a name for myself. I was going to win. However, I quickly realized that I really didn't have a chance winning best traditional chili; I had nothing more than an average recipe. Also, I don't really like spicy chili, so I had no interest in winning that. So, most unusual chili it was. I went online and started reading chili recipes until I found it.

Banana chili. What could be more unusual than putting fruit in your chili? The line under the recipe name on the website reads, "To be honest, I thought this would be horrible, but surprisingly it's not!" I love banana bread so why not banana chili? Surely I was going to win, so I started talking up my chili. I even led the liturgy the day of the contest and slipped in a comment about how good my chili was when I was making the announcement about the chili contest. About that time, though, I found out a crucially important fact: my category had been renamed. What had been "most unusual chili" became "best non-traditional chili," and that, my friends, is no minor adjustment.

I made my banana chili anyway, and that evening I was running a little late. Having never transported a crock pot before, I just set on the floor by the passenger seat of my car. At the stop light on the way to church, I hit the gas in an effort to make up for lost time only to see my crock pot fall backwards as my car went forwards. Banana chili all over the floor of my car. I reached over to upright the crock pot and pulled over at the next possible driveway to assess the damage. Half of the chili had been saved, but I decided I should turn around and go home to mop up the other half. I made quick work of that and then on to church--this time with one hand on the crock pot sitting at my feet.

I was thirty minutes late, and people were wondering why I hadn't shown. When they heard the story, they felt bad--but not bad enough to vote for me, just bad enough not to tell me what they really thought about my chili. It really wasn't that good but I kept trying to talk it up. It was no use. At the end of the night, I went home defeated in a car still reeking of chili.

However, this year, I was determined to redeem myself. I went online once again, but this time I looked for the highest rated and most popular traditional chilies. I settled on Boilermaker Tailgate Chili and bought and borrowed the 26 necessary ingredients for this chili.

And it worked!

Below, on the left is my friend Matt who won with his excellent non-traditional chili (not to be confused with a category about unusual chilies), and in the center are Johan and Daniel who won for the spicy chili. I suspect their secret ingredient was gochujang (Korean pepper paste). And finally, there's me smiling proudly: winner of "best traditional chili" at the 2011 Boston Square Chili Contest.

So what did I win? Well, my name goes on the silver platter that sits on a shelf at church, but more importantly, I won the rights to write a blog post like this one.

there and back again

2011-02-07T19:56:00.007-06:00

I'm back. I've been back for a bit actually. I flew back to GR on Saturday, Jan 29th, spent Sunday being sick with the Honduras that lingered with me, and started a new semester on Monday the 31st. The trip went well--incredible, really. When I was packing, I was frustrated with the sheer variety of activities that I needed to be prepared for--touring, hiking, swimming, working, business-type meetings, church. However, the reality of experiencing all of that in three weeks was excellent.

Essentially, the first ten days of the trip were spent with my class from CTS, and we toured around Nicaragua learning about the various ministries associated with the Nehemiah Center and looked at them thru the lens of Shalom, the biblical understanding of peace and wholeness. The Nehemiah Center should really be thought of more as a network than an organization as it's made up of nine NGOs (non-governmental organizations) that work together. By working together they draw on each others' strengths and avoid covering the same ground. What was really inspiring to me was to talk to people (mostly women) who had received just a bit of training in an area (perhaps education about HIV/AIDS or healthy family relationships and domestic violence). With just a bit of training, these women were empowered to be advocates not only for themselves and their families but for their churches and communities.

Here's our CTS group.

After the Nicaragua portion of the course on Shalom was finished, most of the class went back to GR to learn about a few organizations working for Shalom in West Michigan. My friend Thyra and I stayed back, however, because we had arranged to visit the Association for a More Just Society (AJS) in Honduras. In Honduras we joined a team from GR who was coming to learn more about AJS as well. This organization is a group of brave Christians who are trying to work for justice in Honduras. Rather than just critiquing the government, they're essentially trying to help the government work they way it's supposed to. They're a group of lawyers and journalists who do investigative work and legal counseling and work in the areas of labor rights, land rights, transparency in government, violent crimes, and more. They work quite closely with the Attorney General's office and regularly share information with them and cooperate with them to do justice. Their work is quite incredible, and the lawyers are regularly threatened by those who stand to lose if justice wins.

With AJS we also got to see a wide variety of projects that they are involved in. One contrast that really stood out to me was on the afternoon we met with the Honduras country director of USAID (United States Agency for International Development). After going thru security, we spent an hour around a big conference table talking with him and few others about their support for AJS and their work in Honduras in general. Following this meeting, we went directly to a gang prevention program for youth aged 12-14. They were just getting ready to play a game that translates as Monkey, Child, Horse. With your partner, you have to pantomime each of these characters when the leader calls out the name. So, I went from a USAID board room to holding 13-year-old Honduran boy in my arms like a child in a matter of 20 minutes.

Also while we were in Honduras, I stayed with a host family for about four days. They had some cute kids, but I'm pretty sure no one remembered our names for the first couple of days because they always just referred to us as "Amigos!"

After our time with AJS, we were in need of a break; they days had been packed. To relax, I finished out my trip with a little vacation for a few days at the end. I swam, biked, snorkeled and read Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible which is phenomenal and especially intriguing to read at the end of trip like this one (It was my first Kingsolver novel; what took me so long!? I don't know.)

Then, it was back to GR and back to the snow. Calvin Seminary even canceled classes on Wednesday; I guess the last time they canceled was in the 1970s. I really appreciated it as it gave me more time to write my final paper on my trip, and more importantly, read the news about Egypt. Fascinating. It's hard to believe it's been four years ago already, but I used to be in Tahrir Square (where the protests are) several times a week during my semester in Cairo.

PS. No, I am not dating Thyra.

interlude

2011-01-06T22:41:00.003-06:00

i spent two wonderful weeks in hawaii. i boogie boarded, hiked, swam, snorkeled, watched movies, ate shave ice, jumped off water falls, and more. one highlight was when the family set off hiking, and my 15-year-old nephew zach and seven-year-old nephew dylan and i reached the destination of the strenuous hike at the beach in the background. we hung out there for about ten minutes, and then we saw three more figures jumping from rock to rock to cross the final stream. zach looked up and said, "that's my dad." then dylan, "that's my dad." and then me, "that's my dad." sure enough, while most people had turned back, our three fathers had made it too.

i came back to grand rapids on tuesday, and i'm currently wrapping up my three-day interlude here. in the morning i'm flying with a group from the seminary to managua, nicaragua, to study shalom (the biblical concept of peace and wholeness) in the context of the nehemiah center. then, with a friend i'll continue on to honduras to visit the association for a more just society and see their legal investigative work and more to promote justice in honduras. i'm due back in grand rapids at the end of month (will the snow be gone then?).

family time

2010-12-19T20:32:00.005-06:00

two parents. my five siblings. five in-laws. eight nephews. two nieces. two buns in one oven (twins!).

and no snow. alright!

it's family christmas at my brother's place in hawaii this year, and i'm flying out in the morning for the island of kauai.

here are a few pictures from the summer i spent there in 2006.

and the family picture from last year.

halfway

2010-12-17T22:44:00.002-06:00

after completing five final exams in three days, i'm finished with my third semester at CTS and halfway thru my program. alright!

lest i be tempted to dream of the power of the m.div., here's a quote from henri nouwen whose words are like gold (not to be confused with neal plantinga's words which are like honey).

The temptation to consider power an apt instrument for the proclamation of the Gospel is the greatest of all. We keep hearing from others, as well as saying to ourselves, that having power--provided it is used in the service of God and your fellow human beings--is a good thing. With this rationalization, crusades took place; inquisitions were organized; Indians were enslaved; positions of great influence were desired; episcopal palaces, splendid cathedrals, and opulent seminaries were built; and much more moral manipulation of conscience was engaged in. Every time we see a major crisis in the history of the church, such as the Great Schism of the eleventh century, the Reformation of the sixteenth century, or the immense secularization of the twentieth century, we always see that a major cause of rupture is the power excercised by those who claim to be follows of the poor and powerless Jesus.

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love.

Henri Nouwen, In the Name of Jesus (New York: Crossroad, 1989), 76-77.

christ(the world)mas

2010-12-12T17:16:00.000-06:00

last weekend was the annual Christmas Around the World celebration at the seminary. everyone brings ethnic foods (i brought my grandma's apple pie) and we enjoy performances from the global traditions represented at CTS.

the canadians entertained with a version of the 12 days of christmas.

the korean choir wowed us as usual.

we watched.
and we ate. this little girl is my neighbor.

what always strikes me at events like this is that there is generally no specific representation of american culture. sure, the whole event is rooted in american culture. we arrive on american time; we sit in an american way; we eat in an american way; we speak in english; and more. however, when it comes to the program, the only american representation was a clip from a charlie brown christmas. i mentioned this lack of american representation in the program to someone afterward, and the individual responded, "isn't it great?" another person eating at my table remarked between bites of ethiopian injera (bread) and indonesian curry, "i wish we'd leave the american food out and just bring this stuff. it's so good!" and it is.

or is it? i love multiculturalism; i love people and foods and places from all over the world. however, comments like these make me wonder.

it reminds me of a time a few years ago when i spent the night in the sahara desert in a bedouin camp near the egyptian/lybian border. the bedouin have adapted to tourism and allow groups of people to stay with them out in the desert. i was there with a group of about 25 american college students, and also staying with the bedouin that night were a group of about a dozen egyptian college students. when the sun went down and a deep chill settled over the camp, we all gathered around the fire, and we shared songs with each other--at least, we tried to. the egyptians seemed to be able to begin a song and almost instantly have the entire group join in; they all knew it. then, we americans would try. someone would start, but only a few people knew it. then someone would start another one with similar success. our musical influences were so varied that we couldn't sing together. the only songs that we were able to sing together successfully were songs from junior high (nysnc, britney spears, backstreet boys--all of which, the egyptians also knew) and "jesus songs," as a friend of mine put it, either repetitive praise and worship songs or the sunday school variety.

i've never quite known what to make of that experience. we just couldn't sing together unless we went back in time a decade; in the sameness of junior high, our stories aligned. of course, maybe this was the same case for the egyptians, but my hunch is that it wasn't.

i don't mean to suggest that "american" culture is eroding and that we need to shut down our borders to keep "america for the americans"--whatever that means. that's certainly not my view, but what i have noticed is that many people growing up in america are culturally confused. influenced by both individualism and multiculturalism, many people are confused about where they belong. they're looking for a common story to root themselves in; they're really looking for home.

this is where the church comes in because it wasn't only the junior high songs that we knew; we also knew the jesus ones. if the church can offer a real story, a real metanarrative that gives meaning to the experiences of the confused, these people might find it to be a place to call home.

november

2010-11-27T21:28:00.002-06:00

it turns out that blogs don't update themselves. i guess i neglected my square inch of cyberspace over the past month in the midst of the busyness of growing a beard. upon seeing me in this state, one friend remarked that i looked more pastoral and that he felt more comfortable talking to me about his life--and chainsaws.

beyond words

2010-10-24T18:44:00.003-05:00

[these and more]

korea bound

2010-10-03T23:08:00.005-05:00

gary and his fiancee

me and gary, may, 2009 (check out that hair! and pink! wow.)

last spring, my good friend gary told me he was going to get married this fall, and he wanted to know when i was available to go to his wedding (in korea!). well, gary, i have to go to school in the fall. ok, but don't you have some break? yeah, i have a reading week starting on october 11th. ok!

and so gary picked october 9th as his wedding date, and i, after much wondering about how to reckon my ecological footprint with the love in my heart, bought a plane ticket to busan, south korea. i'm leaving after just three more sleeps and trading four days of classes and a chunk of money for the chance to reconnect with many friends and coworkers 6,600 miles away. i'm leaving on wednesday morning the 6th and returning on monday evening the 18th. actually, visiting korea in the middle of a semester is in some ways ideal because many of my friends are in their last semester of university, and if i were to wait until christmas or next summer, i'd have to track them down around the country. however, now they'll all be at the university, and so i will be too, catching the sunrises over the sea with this view from kosin's campus.

annie dillard

2010-09-22T17:20:00.002-05:00

"why do people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? on the whole, i do not find christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? or, as i suspect, does no one believe a word of it? the churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a sunday morning. it is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. for the sleeping god may wake some day and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return."

(an excerpt from her book, teaching a stone to talk)

john august swanson

2010-09-19T12:43:00.002-05:00

john august swanson, a master printmaker from california, was in town last week and spoke at inner city christian federation where 35 of his serigraphs are on display. i attended his talk on wednesday night about hope, compassion and justice, and i was fascinated to see his work and to hear him talk about his art and passion for justice. one piece of work can take many months of his time as he layers color upon color. he said that he has learned everything from making mistakes.

in particular, i like the piece pictured above. it's called psalm 85, and through this art he's given visual image to the poetic language of the psalm. he focused specifically on verses 10 and 11: "love and truth will meet; justice and peace will kiss. truth will spring from the earth; justice will look down from the heaven." sheer eschatological beauty.

if you're in grand rapids, you can still check out the exhibit; it'll be up thru decemeber.

first day of school

2010-09-08T13:58:00.002-05:00

my fall 2010 courses include the following:

apologetics with cooper
new testament narratives with deppe
old testament narratives with leder
systematic theology 1 with vanden berg and feenstra
forming worshipping communities with vanderwell

practicing resurrection 2010

2010-09-07T14:32:00.003-05:00

practicing resurrection is a conference that occurs biennially at the russet house farm around the first weekend of august. the russet house farmers organize the conference together with *culture is not optional, a group now based in three rivers, michigan, but also having some ties back to dordt college (as many good things do). this year the theme of the conference was "urban agriculture and the peace of the city."

over one hundred people were on the property for that cool august weekend, and most of them camped in the open field near the pasture. they cooked their meals over camp stoves and spent their days attending workshops, workshops like God and Dinner, Canning Till Kingdom Come, Bringing Home the Bees, Farming the Sun, Urban Gardening, Foraging for Weeds in the City, and many more. this year the keynote speakers were ched myers and elaine enns, and they explored a biblical approach to food, justice, and the environment.

but why did they come? why did over one hundred people come to rural ontario so they could sleep on the ground for the weekend? i wondered about this quite a bit, and so i started asking people.

some knew brian and sylvia as personal friends. some came because they're avid gardeners themselves. but many people i talked to came just to see it, to see the russet house farm, to see that something like it is possible. i met many people over the weekend with starved imaginations, people hungry for an alternative to the dominant system (or domination system, as walter wink would suggest) in which they find themselves every day. the spirits of the age wear on us; they wear us down as they clamor for more.

for some of these people, the russet house farm becomes a symbol, a symbol of an alternative way of life. unfortunately, these people might fall into the temptation of idealizing the russet house farm; their nourished imaginations make it more than it is. they forget that someone has to empty the compost, empty humanure buckets, pull the weeds, make the farm payments. i saw this same sort of thing go on when i lived in hawaii for a summer. people would vacation there, love it, return home to their hectic lives, and then remember how great life in hawaii was. so they'd move. they'd move to paradise. however, they'd soon find that their problems would follow them, and living in paradise isn't the same thing as vacationing there.

i think about this as i'm transitioning now back into life in grand rapids. see, the russet house farm isn't the point. for me, my internship was a chance to breathe after spending nearly three years abroad and one year as a discontent seminarian (i hate that word). it provided me with the opportunity to spend time with people who are seriously seeking to embody their worldview but always finding themselves deeply compromised. it's not about looking back on the summer but looking forward and wondering, imagining, how i can live more faithfully, and i hope i'm moving in that direction.

reactions

2010-09-04T08:11:00.005-05:00

i'm back at CTS now, and when i see friends or acquaintances from last year or meet new students, the conversation naturally turns to what we did for the summer. i hear stories about foreign lands and inner cities and national parks, and then the conversation turns to me. as i tell them my story, inside i'm wondering which route the conversation will take.

generally speaking, my internship confuses people. not everyone is confused; some people just get it from the start. however, many people don't. they wonder how it can count as cross-cultural ministry, why i'd be interested in this, how my experience connects to what i'm learning at CTS. those are all legitimate questions, and i try to do the best i can to draw connections for them with sensitivity knowing that the term "organic farming" can be loaded.

my favorite reaction so far has been from a dear friend of mine from korea who asked me over the phone, "why do you live like a beggar?" he had seen pictures of my summer home, the cob cottage nestled in the tree line at the edge of the pasture (pictured above), and he wondered why i'd want to live there. korea has rapidly modernized, and the "poor years" are still fresh in the korean national consciousness. moving to a place like the cob cottage and learning about farming becomes a step back to a time when times were hard, when living like this was a necessity. for me, my summer experience doesn't carry any of the overtones of poverty, and once again i'm reminded of my place of privilege.

reunited

2010-09-02T07:34:00.003-05:00

i have a few more posts that i'd like to write about this summer, but in the meantime, i'd just like to share this picture which was taken last week at dordt college. on the edges of the group are sunny and david, two of my former students from kosin in korea, and they'll be studying at dordt for one year in an exchange program. the other two people in the picture are my friends and former coworkers, backpacking buddies, neighbors, rook partners, and more. in the middle is andy who returned from korea this summer and is now working on an organic farm (!) in hull, iowa. center left is linda who also returned from korea this summer and is the coordinator of international students and off-campus programs at dordt.

emily: we missed you.

it's not true...

2010-08-31T19:51:00.001-05:00

two months ago, i posted a lie. a lie? maybe it's better thought of as an inside joke among all those familiar with canadians and their culture, a joke about how americans often know little about said people and culture.

my canada day post just isn't true. ben did make a spice cake on that day that did look like the one in the picture, but there is no legend about a spice cake dating back to 1803. there are no questions with answers about loving the queen and peace and trees. there are no songs or letters to the prime minister or voice mails for the queen. none of it is true. i made it all up.

if you read the post and laughed, you were on the inside of the joke. you knew how ridiculous it all was. if you believed me, then i guess the joke was on you. consider reading this wikipedia article to learn more about canada day.

**it happens

2010-08-30T18:27:00.006-05:00

in my travels around the world, i've always been amazed at how much we have in common. no matter how much we are different, there are always some common experiences that we share. for example, we all eat and we're all part of some sort of family either as a child or parent. family and food. i've had innumerable conversations about these topics in the last few years. family and food vocabulary are some of the first words learned in a second language, and they're common touch points that we can all understand and compare from culture to culture.

our common experiences don't stop there. we sleep. we play. we work. we go to school. or at least if we don't do these things personally, we know people who do, and so as an ESL teacher, these are topics that we covered too. however, there was one common experience the textbooks hardly covered. we all go to the bathroom, use the restroom, visit the washroom--pick your favorite phrase. we all do it. **it happens.

this summer, my thoughts turned to this bathroom conversation--and the sovereignty of God. in high school, i started learning about the sovereignty of God in salvation. i learned about TULIP and was willing to pull it apart petal by petal and argue about it. then, in college, i began finding these conversations futile, but i fell in love with a reformational worldview that sees the sovereignty of God over all aspects of life. all things. it's the name of this blog and the repeated phrase in colossians 1.15-20 which speaks of the lordship of Christ over all things, the redemption of all things, all things holding together in Christ. Christ is lord of business, lord of politics, lord of agriculture, lord of education, lord of all things. every square inch.

ok. all things. but what does the lordship of Christ, the sovereignty of God, mean for people who [insert your favorite phrase here]? we reformed christians talk about teaching christinaly, practicing medicine christianly, governing christianly, raising children christianly, but can we poop christianly? all things? even poop? does the cosmic scope of redemption include even this? really, all things? or just some things?

in korea, i grew to love the "squatty potty." with a bit of practice, it's amazing how comfortable it can be. so is this redemptive?

maybe. maybe not.

i've also seen people drop their drawers on the sidewalk and relieve themselves there. that doesn't sound redemptive to me. but what about us? we do it in a sanitary bathroom with lots of privacy, and we drop our waste into quality drinking water and flush it away. we [insert your preferred euphemism] in drinking water and flush it away. all things to the glory of God or all things for our convenience and comfort?

at the russet house farm this summer, i found people thinking about an alternative. in the farm house, there is one flush toilet and one sawdust toilet, and scattered around the farm live several sawdust toilet outhouses which are used during the conference every other year.

you [insert phrase] in the toilet as you would normally, and then you cover it up with sawdust when you're finished. you can put biodegradable items like toilet paper in the toilet too. as long as the product is adequately covered with sawdust, the toilet will not smell at all.

inside the toilet is just a five-gallon bucket. when it's full, you lift the toilet seat and lift the bucket out and replace it with an empty bucket. the full buckets of "waste" are emptied into a compost pile, carefully constructed so that it will not leak.

over the next two or three years, the pile is monitored to ensure that it reaches high enough temperatures to kill all pathogens. during this time, the waste breaks down and becomes fertilizer. waste becomes fertilizer--incredible! some people using this method fertilize their vegetable gardens with the compost, but the russet house farmers only use it on the flower beds and pasture.

all things to the glory of God? maybe this is a step in that direction.

breaking bread

2010-08-22T19:29:00.003-05:00

this summer, i ate three meals a day with other people. i hadn't done that for years, and it was a simple joy. every other day we had pancakes for breakfast; lunch was on our own though eaten together; dinners were prepared on a rotating basis.

food and community are closely connected. the community produces the food; the community shares the food. breaking bread with others provides a space for relationships to flourish. i haven't always done this well. in the past year i have eaten many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with clyde. that sounds great at first, but clyde was the name of my desk in the library.

breaking bread together is something that i also noted was done well in korea. i had students in korea who would rather skip a meal than eat alone. for them, eating was always a community event.

when i think about my time in korea on a larger scale, it's also connected to breaking bread in community. prof. shim, my college theology professor who suggested i move to korea, tried to invite his classes to his home for korean food every semester. when my friend adam and i reciprocated this hospitality and invited shim to eat with us in the basement of north hall, a friendship was begun, and it was out of this table fellowship that came a relationship that resulted in the formative experience of working and living in south korea.

this reminds me of one of my favorite sequences of events in the bible. stephen's martyrdom before the sanhedrin in acts 7 is an inspiring testimony. but back up. he's killed because he speaks out. he speaks out because he's targeted as a leader. he's a leader because the apostles recognized a problem in the church. and the problem? unequal distribution of food among widows. it's an issue of food and community.

peaches and pickles

2010-08-17T15:39:00.004-05:00

justin the intern no more

2010-08-15T20:43:00.003-05:00

this is my name tag from the conference held at the farm last weekend. the conference is called practicing resurrection, a reference to wendell berry's soul-stirring poem "manifesto: the mad farmer liberation front." i promise to return to the topic of the conference in a future blog post, but for the moment, i'd like to direct my readers' attention to two aspects of this name tag.

first, "justin the intern." i no longer hold this title. after an eleven weeks that felt more like eleven days, i am back in iowa. the immigration officer had no problem admitting me to my country of citizenship as i crossed into the states on my drive to chicago yesterday, and i arrived in iowa in time for a sunday lunch of pork chops at the van zee farm. i've experienced much in the past three months, and i intend to continue blogging about my summer experience over the next few weeks.

the second important aspect of my name tag is "grand rapids." this is the first time in my life i've ever identified myself as being from grand rapids. i'm not sure why i did it.

solar cooking

2010-08-02T17:11:00.004-05:00

generally, i do not advise leaving meat in the sun for eight hours and then eating it--unless you are slow cooking a duck in a solar oven. in that case, by all means, go ahead, and invite me for dinner too.

(this is not me in the picture)

questioning myself

2010-07-26T16:45:00.003-05:00

while i was in korea, students often asked me questions. since i was a teacher, i expected this. i fielded all kinds of questions. "professor, what does awesome mean?" "professor, what is your blood type?" "professor, me homework today no. tomorrow. is it ok?" "professor, do you own a gun?" in addition to this hodgepodge of unpredictable inquisitions, a few standard questions were asked of me several times every day. one of these was, "where are you going?" as they walked passed me in the hall, students would fire this one off, "professor, where are you going?" to eat lunch. to class. to my office. to the bus stop. i would then ask the student where he or she was going, and we'd exchange some nice words about enjoying class or lunch or work. then, the conversation would be over.

however, just around the next corner, i'd run into another familiar student and the same familiar question. "oh hi, professor. where are you going?" where are you going? where are you going? after hearing the question several times a day, i began reflecting on it and wondering just where it was that i was going. living in korea for me was not a lifelong calling, and i knew this. and so i was going, but where was i going? it was worth thinking about.

this summer i've found another question popping up again and again. this one comes from jeremy, the teenage son of a couple who are co-owners of the farm. i really enjoy spending time with jer, and he keeps me thinking. jer's mind operates differently than most, and he has looping tendencies. again and again, he'll ask, "whatchya doing, justin?" i'll answer, and then he'll ask again a bit later, "whatchya doing, justin?"

so, what am i doing? in my absence of blogging in the past while, my weeks have been full. with sermon writing no longer on my mind, i've gone about the usual work on the farm--pulling weeds, tying up tomatoes, planting another round of salad greens, cleaning out the duck house. but i've also been off the farm too. two weekends back i spent time with a friend from seminary and my friend's family at a cottage nearby. it was a relaxing weekend of good food, good conversation and good kayaking (thank you, schaafsmas!). then, it was a quick trip back to grand rapids for a couple days last week to participate in a forty-plus member conversation with christian reformed world missions about building networks for transformation--fascinating! now, a good friend from college has come up to the farm, and morgan and i had a chance to do some canoeing this past weekend on a few beautiful lakes nearby here.

that's what i am doing. i've been farming, seeing friends, and thinking about missions. but, then jer asks again, "whatchya doing, justin?" and i wonder, "what am i doing?"

an internship. learning about sustainability. going to seminary. reading books. trying not to forget hebrew.

and then jer's question echoes thru my mind again, "whatchya doing, justin?"

to be honest, i'm not really sure. i have hunches. but the question lingers. it's worth thinking about.

preaching

2010-07-10T16:54:00.002-05:00

tomorrow morning i will be preaching my second and final sermon at the local christian reformed church. i decided to do two sermons based on matthew 14. the first sermon compared the feast of herod and the feast of jesus, and tomorrow's sermon looks at the story of jesus and peter walking on water.

working on these sermons has been a learning experience. listening for echoes of scripture within scripture is something that i enjoy doing, and i've certainly had a chance to do that with matthew 14 as it's filled with exodus imagery. the text is even richer than i had first expected. however, as i work thru the process of crafting sermons, i have a growing sense that this will not be my life's work.

happy [belated] canada day!

2010-07-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

the first of july was canada day. this is a day filled with traditional canadian things--including this traditional cake. it's a spice cake decorated with a special icing; each family has their own traditional canadian recipes for both the icing and the cake. the spice cake has become a symbol of canadian identity ever since a major disagreement between the english and the french in 1803. when both parties finally agreed to meet over a meal to discuss their differences on july 1st, legend has it that it was a spice cake that was served for dessert.

the youngest male in the household who is over the age of 12 is traditionally responsible for making this cake. though i am three weeks younger than ben and thus the youngest male in the house, ben made this cake because i'm not canadian, of course. before the cake is served, the youngest female in the household asks a series of questions to remind canadians of their identity. first, she asks, "why are there strawberries on the cake?" and the oldest male replies, "their red color reminds us of our hearts and our love for the queen." then she asks, "why is the icing white?" and he replies, "the icing is white because it reminds us of our love for peace." then she asks, "why is there a maple leaf on the cake?" and he replies, "the maple leaf reminds us of our love for trees."

i've been told that the rest of the traditional cake ceremony varies from province to province and even from family to family. we basically just cut the cake and ate it after the series of questions and answers, but in some places, people also sing songs, write letters to the prime minister, or even attempt to call the queen of england (they invariably have to leave her a voicemail). prior to coming to canada, i had no idea that this cake ceremony existed, and it was a priviledge for me to witness this part of canadian culture.

on strawberries

2010-06-28T15:46:00.011-05:00

pick.

wash.

hull.

mash.

sweeten.

mix.

boil.

cap.

boil.

cool.

repeat five times for five batches of jam yielding 50 pints.

as i picked strawberries, i wondered where the strawberries i had eaten in the past came from. many came from my gracious mother and gardening grandmother who made me fresh strawberry malts and strawberry pies and strawberry jam and angel food cake with strawberries. but what about those other strawberries? what about those big ones they sell at meijer or walmart, you know, the kind that are as big as small apples? how do they get so big? where do they come from?

there is so much that i don't know about the strawberries in the grocery store. i don't know if it was a good year for growing strawberries, if the rain came in proper amounts, what pests were a problem, what chemicals were used, how the strawberries were transported to my local store.

and i don't know the stories of the farmers who harvested them. why did they pick my strawberries? were they high school students on summer vacation? were they migrant workers? did they have documents?

as i picked strawberries, i wondered about the food that i have eaten and the farmers of that food. grocery stores may save us money and make practical sense given the structure of our society, but the system robs us of a connection to farmers and food and the stories that belong to them. unfortunately, the system also makes us complicit in the exploitation of people and land around the world. i'm not sure what the answer is, but when my daily bread comes at the expense of God's beloved, i have a problem to face.

solar oven

2010-06-20T17:31:00.006-05:00

the other intern ben and i built a solar oven. more honestly, ben, who has a background in engineering, designed the solar oven, and i nailed where he told me. the inside of the oven is painted black to attract the sunlight, and the tin foil pieces on the side reflect the rays into the oven. so far, we've reached temperatures up to 250 F, but we're hoping with a few modifications we can make it to 350 F.

off the grid

2010-06-20T17:06:00.004-05:00

the russet house farm is off the grid; that is, the farm is not connected to the electric power grid. the property is set back about a quarter mile from the gravel road, and the previous owners opted to install solar panels on the roof of the house rather than pay to bring electricity out to the property. they made this decision in part for financial reasons because the solar panels cost about the same amount as connecting to the power grid, but the previous owners also did this for environmental reasons. these solar panels store energy in a set of batteries in the basement, and these batteries provide power during the night and on cloudy days. the farm also has a new wind turbine, but it's not yet connected to the central power system in the house. unfortunately, i don't completely understand the science behind these green energy sources, but a few solar panels on the roof of a house make a whole lot more sense to me than the gulf floor's gaping wound.

in some ways, "off the grid" also describes my life here on the farm. i don't know many people in the area, and we have dial-up internet access which limits my connectivity to friends and happenings around the world. also, my cell phone rings in at 69 cents per minute (which is why it's turned off and lying in my glove box). we also don't have a TV which usually isn't much of an issue for me as i don't watch TV. however, the world's greatest sports tournament is going on right now, and i'm off the grid.

i'm don't mean to complain, though. i'm enjoying the work on the farm with highlights from the week of fixing the electric fence and getting the peppers in the ground. rather than facebooking or other frivolous internetting, i'm filling my free time with good conversations and good books including wendell berry's jayber crow and now j.k. rowling's harry potter and the philsopher's stone and also a few of a more scholarly nature. there's also been time spent swimming in the lake and a bit of sermon writing as well for the two times i'm preaching in july at the local CRC.

love thy neighbor

2010-06-11T21:29:00.004-05:00

my home

my neighbor

on planting squash

2010-06-09T13:50:00.001-05:00

spades in hand, we set out in the morning to weed a few beds in the garden. the overnight rain had loosened the earth's grip on the life it sustains, and combatting the imperializing raspberry patch and the dandelions dead set on domination, we spaded our way to two clear beds where our squash could be tucked in to grow.

squash don't like just average dirt, though, and so we were off to the manure pile. after filling up with bed of the pickup with manure, we drove back up to the garden, shovled the manure into wheelbarrows, and then made up the beds with mounds of manure. barehanded, i shaped the manure piles into homes worthy of the young squash and gently evicted the squash from their pots and nestled them into the manure. after a dousing of water, the squash were ready to be covered with a permeable sheet through which rain and sunlight pass but not pests.

the work for the day was done.

but as i lay in bed that night with a weary body tucked under the covers just like the squash in the garden, i wondered.

i had battled through a raspberry patch's thorns, manipulated manure with my bare hands, carefully coaxed squash into their new beds--but what if it doesn't work? what if there isn't enough sun? what if bugs eat everything? what if the soil's nutrients are imbalanced? what if the squash fail and all i have to show for the day is cow shit under my fingernails and a sore everything?

i don't know if i have enough faith to be a gardener.

daily schedule

2010-06-04T21:08:00.001-05:00

7:30 begin work
9:00 breakfast
10:00 resume work
1:00 lunch
2:00/3:00 resume work (timing depends on the heat)
5:00/6:00 end work
6:00 dinner

life on the farm

2010-06-04T21:03:00.001-05:00

the russet house farm is home to many.

brian, sylvia, and lydia and jasper the cat live in the house. bed bugs also live in the house. therefore, the other daughter madeleine has been living in a tent on the yard. ben lives in a trailer.

i live in an adobe hut sans electricity. trina the cow is my neighbor. red the horse is her neighbor, and his neighbors are a drake and a goose and fourteen ducklings. the chickens are their neighbors.

shadow the dog lives in a barn, i suppose, though i've never gone calling for him in the night. a plethora of cats also call these barns home.

as of this week, the squash are now living in big mounds of trina's manure. the cucumbers are living in the ground too, and the red kale and brussel sprouts call it their home as well.

ben, sylvia, and i evicted piles of weeds from their homes this week though i doubt they'll be gone long. i imagine they'll be back in a few days, perhaps with some friends.

mosquitoes also call the farm home--until i slap them.

accepted!

2010-06-02T20:59:00.001-05:00

i left GR equipped with three letters--one from CTS about my theological education and the internship, one from brian and sylvia about the internship, one the CRC's canadian office emphasizing the bi-national nature of the CRC. i left around 2 pm and headed for the border. three hours later, i was in port huron with a knot in my stomach and a hope that i wouldn't meet the same immigration officer.

as i expected, the first border guard i met flagged me for special questioning just like on monday, and once again i headed into the building which i had left feeling rejected the day before. i walked thru the door and my heart leaped; the young woman who had been less than friendly with me before wasn't sitting at the desk. instead, two young guys who i would later learn were in the last hour of their shifts for the day handled my case. they were thorough, polite, and conversational rather than accusatory.

the conclusion was in part similar to that of the day before yet markedly different. the immigration officials concluded that i was indeed taking a canadian's job (the reasoning goes like this: if i weren't pulling the weeds, then brian and sylvia would have to hire a canadian to pull them; therefore, even tho i'm pulling weeds for free, i'm pulling weeds that a canadian could be pulling). however, due to the religious nature of the whole venture, i didn't need to go thru the longer work visa process. they were able to issue me the visa on the spot, and the friendly chap even waved the $150 fee.

by 10 pm i arrived at the farm, and at 7:30 this morning, the work, which i'm now properly documented to do, began. good times ahead.

rejected!

2010-05-31T19:11:00.005-05:00

some days i feel as if i just want to press the "reset" button. today was one of those days.

the plan was to wake up at 6:11 and spend some time praying, reading, emailing and packing up final things before leaving around 8:30. then, i could travel at a leisurely pace, take pictures along the way, and have a great blog entry for my first day. however, when i rolled over and looked at my alarm clock this morning, i saw 8:45 staring back at me. i have no memory of getting out of bed, turning my alarm off, and going back to sleep.

but, no problem. i can handle it. skip the reading. skip the emailing. just pray in the car. pack up. say goodbye to neighbors. be on the road by 10 so i can be in time for dinner after an eight-hour drive. ok. go.

as i drove off, i mentally reviewed everything that i had packed, and just as i was pulling onto the ramp for I-96 east, it hit me. my passport. it was still in the top drawer of my desk.

but, no problem. i can handle it. reverse. backtrack. arrive back at my apartment. answer questions from kids playing outside about why i'm back. grab the passport. back on the road. drive a little faster. make up the time.

three hours later, i arrived in port huron, michigan, paid the $3 toll to cross the bridge, and made it into canada. almost. first i had to go thru immigration. the officer asked the standard questions, "where are you from? where are you going? how long? why?" my answers: "iowa but a graduate student in michigan. cameron, ontario. two months. to visit friends there and learn from them about organic farming."

two months? farming? the immigration officer wasn't a fan. she asked more questions, and i tried to answer them without saying the W-word... work. the immigration officer didn't appreciate what i was up to, and she told me i needed to go into a building to talk to another officer. more questions. no smiles, at least from her. more waiting. she made a phone call to the russet house farm and talked to brian and found out that i'm doing an internship. that didn't bode well. i learned a new word in the process tho--inadmissible. you can use it in this context, "you are inadmissible to canada. you are taking a job from a canadian." more waiting. more questions. the immigration officer didn't like my answers. then she escorted me to my car and directed me back to my country of citizenship with instructions to get proper documentation before trying again.

damn. i found a tim hortons with free wi-fi in port huron, called the canadian immigration office (no answer), called brian and sylvia on the farm, called another american seminary student doing an internship in canada, called don byker from the CTS field education office.

what to do? what to do?

drive back to grand rapids. get some detailed letters emphasizing the educational nature of my trip. try again tomorrow.

as i drove back to grand rapids today, i had a lot on my mind. mostly, i was thinking about this whole business of national identity and immigration. i wasn't thinking about me, tho. really, today was a minor inconvenience. i spent a few extra hours in my air conditioned car. no big deal. but. think about gaza. think about arizona. that's a big deal--and fodder for another post at another time.

resurrected

2010-05-30T21:22:00.002-05:00

on a sunday morning last fall, i decided that i needed a break from blogging. that "sabbath rest" lasted nine months, but now the blog is back by popular demand. if you're a first time reader tho, you may be interested in scrolling down to read some of my previous entries about previous explorations of the world that God so loved.

the blog is back now because tomorrow morning i'm driving to cameron, ontario. it's about an hour or two drive north of toronto. from the aerial shot of cameron on google maps, it looks as if it may even be smaller than searsboro, iowa--the town near my parents' farm. i'll be working as an intern at the russet house farm learning about sustainability as a christian lifestyle (this means everything from pulling weeds to canning food to using solar energy and much more). the farm is operated in part by brian walsh and sylvia keesmaat, two philosophers/theologians/gardeners who i hope have a lot to teach me.

many people have laughed when they've heard about my plans. after all, i grew up on a farm and now i'm going back to one for my seminary cross-cultural internship. indeed, i'm even a bit surprised. nevertheless, i'm excited for what's to come, and i promise it will include some stories and pictures shared here.

a Sabbath rest

2009-08-30T09:20:00.003-05:00

it's sunday morning in grand rapids, and soon i will leave for church. i look forward to being a part of a church here tho i don't yet know which one that will be.

the past week here has been good. there are about forty first-year students in the m.div. program, and i've had a chance to meet many of them. we've been discussing reformed hermeneutics with prof. weima this week. thankfully, i find myself agreeing with what he says as it echoes my education at dordt; i figure it's better to have a review of concepts i know than find that i vehemently disagree with calvin sem's perspective in the first week.

while there are other things i could share, i'm going to opt not to. in fact, i've decided to take a break from blogging. perhaps i'll revive this blog again at a later day. until then, feel free to call or email me.

movin'

2009-08-20T20:13:00.004-05:00

tomorrow morning i'm leaving for grand rapids. the two weeks that i've been able to spend in iowa have been a delight as i've had the chance to catch up with some friends and family and even a few former teachers. the time has now come for me to leave the farm and head for the big city of GR; doesn't the name even sound a bit scary? (think "grrr...") even if it is scary, tho, i'm looking forward to getting out of the transition stage.

i have a sort of orientation course that begins on monday. it's a two-week deal for first year students that involves a bit more than just the campus tour and a visit with a financial aid rep. i just perused the syllabus that was sent out via email and it looks like Week 1 is about learning a reformed approach to scripture and Week 2 is about understanding the elements of a good sermon. how nice; i already have lots of questions on these topics.

lately i've been thinking about the name of the degree that i'm pursuing, the M.Div. or the Masters of Divinity. really? are they really going to make me into a master of divinity? just how does one master divinity? i just don't think this is possible. what about the name Masters of Ministry? we could call it the M.Min and run around eating little chocolate candies that melt in your mouth, not in your hand. if times get tough over the next couple years, i might try to sell this idea to the mars candy company's advertising and promotions team.

i miss rice

2009-08-11T14:20:00.002-05:00

one of the simplest pleasures of being back has been feeling the grass between my toes. i think i can safely say that this never happened once in korea.

i have also chuckled to myself every time i pick up a spoon here. i wonder how i can grasp that little thing in my big hand. korean spoons (pictured below the american spoon) have much longer handles and bigger scoops on the end. the longer handle makes sense because koreans eat out of common bowls placed in the middle of the table, so the longer handle can reach further. somehow i managed to eat with those little spoons for the first 22 years of my life, so i suppose i will readjust quickly.

what hasn't been so easy to adjust to is that no one has bowed to me or called me handsome or commented on how tall i am in the past four days. these were daily occurences in korea, and my self-esteem is taking a bit of hit here.

on the flip side, thankfully i've become less conscious of my appearance. korea has large mirrors seemingly everywhere, in the classroom buildings, cafeteria, subway, etc. my students were also always looking at themselves in little hand-held mirrors during class. living in that environment, i picked up a bad habit of always messing with my hair since i was always seeing my reflection. i don't miss the mirrors.

i've also had a few moments when i've caught myself about to do something and remembered, "oh yeah, i don't live in korea anymore. real americans don't do this." in church on sunday morning it was time to shake hands with the people next to me, and as i stuck out my right hand, my left hand automatically went to support my right forearm. it's a sign of respect in korea, but i don't think the other guy noticed. also, before being served a meal in korea, i would normally say "jal mokessubnida!" (i will eat well!) to my host as a sign of respect, but that only draws strange looks here. i've successfully refrained so far, but it feels awkward to eat without saying it. and on my first morning back, i spent about five seconds thinking about how to turn the hot water on for my shower before i realized that i don't need to do that here.

it's the little things that make me miss korea, that jolt me and remind me that my reality is now radically different. i'm ready for the change though. admittedly, i am a bit sad, but it's good to be back in iowa. and, every day i get more excited to be a student again. i just wonder if calvin knows what they're getting into--or if i do.

surprise!

2009-08-08T20:30:00.005-05:00

i'm back in iowa. that august 10th arrival stuff that i posted about a while back was a complete bluff (or lie, i suppose). my plans all along were to arrive on the 7th in des moines where adam would pick me up and drive me to my parents' farm to surprise my mom for her birthday. it worked quite wonderfully!

my flights went well. i had prayed earnestly for a bump to business class after emily got one last week, but i didn't get it. i did get exit rows the entire time and flight attendants and immigration officers who weren't crabby. that was a blessing. the last few times i've been flying internationally have been around christmas, and i think everyone is a bit on edge during that busy time. people in the airports generally seemed more relaxed now. maybe they forgot that our national security threat is at orange. orange! come on, people! wipe those smiles off your faces!

saying goodbye wasn't really fun. when i said goodbye to people at dordt, for example, i knew there was a pretty good chance that i'd see them again, maybe on a road trip or at a wedding or something. but when you say goodbye to people on the other side of the world, things are a bit different. i'm not just going to run into these people randomly when their visiting their grandma at the local CRC. it makes saying goodbye tough because i've grown quite close to the people there. i mean, i wasn't just taking a trip. south korea was my home for two years; it was where i clipped my toe nails and bought toilet paper and paid utility bills. and, it was where my friends and students and church were, and they will be missed.

yet another goodbye

2009-07-30T17:42:00.003-05:00

emily (right) flew out this morning. you did well here, emily, and kosin will miss you!

the picture below was taken on a train in india back in february. if you ever meet anyone who has backpacked in india, ask her about the trains. she will surely have some stories to tell.

a gift

2009-07-29T08:33:00.004-05:00

students often give me gifts. during the semester--and especially at exam times--it's not uncommon to receive small gifts in the form of canned coffee drinks or chocolate. i appreciate these small tokens, tho they don't affect anyone's grade at all, and we foreign teachers often brag to each other about the "bribes" we receive.

this general tendency to give professors gifts compounded with the fact that i'm leaving korea soon has resulted in a few more gifts and cards for me. therefore, i wasn't too surprised when ariel, one of my freshmen students from last semester, sent me a text message last week saying that she had a gift for me. however, since i wasn't particularly close to ariel, i was a bit curious about what she wanted to give me. honestly, i was just hoping it wasn't something i didn't want (like another traditional korean fan). i have to pack up everything in about ten days; therefore, if the gift isn't something i actually want, it might likely end up in the garbage (tho i still appreciate my students' kindness).

i told ariel she could come to my office at 4:00 this afternoon, and she brought with her one of the most unique and creative presents i have ever received. it's a t-shirt that she made and you can see me modeling it here. it's me in lego form!!

in order to appreciate this gift more fully, readers should know that lego people are a sort of trend in korea right now. there are entire stores that sell t-shirts, hoodies, bags, etc, with various patterns and designs of lego people. readers should also know that my wardrobe is not very big, that my favorite colors are brown and blue, and that i have no qualms about rewearing my favorite things a lot. therefore, a lego man with a blue shirt and brown pants and hair flipped out like mine naturally does when it's shaggy fits me perfectly. here's a close-up of lego justin.

goodbye andy

2009-07-27T18:13:00.003-05:00

andy left this morning for three weeks in the states. what a good guy--a pleasure to live and work with in korea. enjoy your trip, andy!

hallelujah dental clinic

2009-07-16T06:27:00.003-05:00

even tho my teeth were not bothering me at all, it had been more than two years since i had visited the dentist, so i decided that it was time i go. and, knowing that medical costs in korea are generally substantially cheaper than those in the states, i decided that i should go sooner rather than later.

i asked around a bit and found the phone number for hallelujah dental clinic, a clinic that is quite reputable and has a good relationship with kosin university. they do a lot of dental mission work and provide free dental treatment for foreign students at kosin. i asked my assistant to call them and make an appointment; however, when he called, he found out that i couldn't make an appointment but rather should just show up. this seemed a bit strange; after all, i'm looking for professional dental treatment and not a second-rate haircut. but, i went for it.

the first thing i did at the hallelujah dental clinic was take off my shoes just like i would at a korean home. they have some nice slippers for their guests to wear. then, i went to the counter. the girl there didn't speak much english, but my assistant had been assured over the phone that there were plenty of people there who did. she asked me to wait, and then a very friendly girl came to the desk and asked me all the standard personal information questions in excellent english. we did have one tiny bit of a communication problem. she kept asking me for a certificate from kosin to say that i could be treated at their dental clinic; this is the certificate the foreign students use to get free treatment. finally she caught on to what i had been saying all along--i'm not a student. i'm a professor even if i don't look like it as a 24-year-old wearing shorts and t-shirt.

then, she took me back to the x-ray room and translated for the x-ray technician. then, it was back to the waiting room until it was my turn to go upstairs to see the dentist. while i was waiting, i could watch videos of their dental mission trips on the big flat screen TV in the waiting room and on the little flat screens situated in front of each examining chair. i spotted several people i knew including the president of kosin and a few of the international students.

soon, the dentist had some time to see me, and after poking around in my mouth for a bit, he told me in broken yet communicable english that i had one cavity and one tooth that was developing a cavity. he recommended treatment for both teeth. then, the nice english-speaking girl came over and confirmed everything the dentist had said. she told me that the price for the treatment was usually 80,000 won (US$63) per tooth, but they would give me a discount because i was a professor at kosin. great.

"so, do you want the treatment?"
"yes."
"do you have time now?"
"yeah, i do."
"ok, please wait a few minutes."

so, i sat there in the examining chair for about five minutes marveling at the fact that i had neither made an initial appointment nor needed to make another appointment two weeks later to fill my cavity. before i could think about it for too long tho, the dentist was back and had fixed my teeth, and i was heading back down the stairs to the reception desk. there at the reception desk was my helper.

"is everything ok?"
"yeah, it didn't hurt at all. now how much do i owe you?"
"oh, you don't need to pay anything."
"what? no, i can pay. it's ok."
"no, no. you don't need to pay anything. since you're a theology professor at kosin, you don't need to pay anything. just call us if you have any problems with your teeth."
"really? wow. thanks."

(i'm technically a member of the theology department tho i only teach english; i don't know why.)

so here's to hallelujah dental clinic. thank you for the pain-free, hassle-free and just plain free dental treatment.

happy birthday john calvin!

2009-07-10T03:22:00.002-05:00

in honor of calvin's 500th birthday, here's a passage from the institutes (3.19.05) that i have recently found particularly insightful.

"Those bound by the yoke of the law are like servants assigned certain tasks for each day by their masters. These servants think they have accomplished nothing, and dare not appear before their masters unless they have fulfilled the exact measure of their tasks. But sons, who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers, do not hesitate to offer them incomplete and half-done and even defective works, trusting that their obedience and readiness of mind will be accepted by their fathers, even though they have not quite achieved what their fathers intended. Such children ought we to be, firmly trusting that our services will be approved by our most merciful Father, however small, rude and imperfect these may be."

(quoted in Smith and Carvill's The Gift of the Stranger)

scooter trip

2009-07-09T00:15:00.010-05:00

three things on my summer of 2009 list were "visit gary in haman," "visit saklo in jinju" and "travel? by scooter or plane or train." i conveniently combined those into a five-day, 400 kilometer (250 mile) scooter trip.

at the insistence of one of my wise friends, i took my scooter to a mechanic on friday afternoon. in broken korean i explained to him my intention. he laughed a bit because scooters are primarily used for food delivery and short trips and almost no one would consider taking one on a road trip. after checking out my ride, he cautioned me to drive slowly. got it.

then, on friday night my friend ball's family graciously treated me to some amazing sustenance before my trip. actually, the dinner had nothing to do with the trip, but we went to what ball considers to be the best buffet in the city at the weston chosun hotel, the hotel that stands like a sentinel at the end of haeundae beach. ball told me beforehand that he expected to eat ten plates. he wasn't joking either; this guy can eat. i seriously worked to stretch my stomach in the days leading up to the main event because he expected me to match him. we didn't quite make it to ten plates each, but we got close and had a wonderful time with his family. they've all lived in australia and thus speak english quite well. his father commented to me, "if i spent as much time studying another subject as i have studying english, i could have another ph.d."

ok, back to the trip. it began on saturday afternoon with a beautiful three-hour drive to masan where i attend church. not knowing how much my scooter could handle, i decided that it should rest at every hour for about ten minutes. i don't know if this makes any mechanical sense or not, but i do know that even if my scooter didn't need the rest, my butt certainly did.

along the way i passed some shipyards. korea does a huge amount of business in building container ships.

as usual i spent saturday night in masan with my friend shin and attended church there on sunday. we do the children's sunday school together on sunday morning, and recently we've been teaching about daniel. to be honest, shin does more teaching than me. i generally play the part of the white guy that the kids climb on.

shin in not actually that tall.

the seventy kilometers that i drove from masan to jinju on sunday afternoon were simply gorgeous. i chose some small country roads that first followed the coast and then headed inland winding thru rice fields and around lush green mountains. beautiful. of course, none of the views were quite as nice as the ones in central iowa, but this isn't a competition (yes, that statement might be a bit biased, but this is my blog so i get to say what i want).

in jinju i stayed with saklo. saklo is a cambodian student who is spending the summer at his sponsoring church in jinju. i have a tremendous amount of respect for this funny little man. we spent some time with his korean church friends, and he served our korean-english translator even tho these are his third and fourth languages. choosing to live quite meagerly, he is able to save nearly half of his stipend from his church so he can send the money back to cambodia to support his mom and younger siblings.

saklo showed me around jinju and we cruised all over the city on the scooter. it's a small city by korean standards, only 350,000 people. we also went for a walk along the river, and right there along the pathway is a whole set of exercise equipment. this is the norm in korea; remember the cultural emphasis on health that i blogged about before.

my plan was to leave jinju and drive to gary's workplace on tuesday. however, i woke up to find torrents of raining coming down. i decided to delay my plan for one day until i checked the weather forecast on the internet. there was an 80 to 100% chance of rain for the next four days. i reasoned that if i wanted to wait for a sunny day, i'd be in jinju for another week. therefore, i waited for a period of only light rain, dawned my "rain gear," and took off. oh, and by "rain gear," i mean my blue jeans and the long-sleeved shirt that saklo gave me.

the drive was 60 kilometers long, and thankfully the rain let up after the first 20 kilometers. that was a blessing. however, driving the last 40 kilometers in completely drenched clothes left me mildly hypothermic. nevertheless, the countryside was still beautiful as the rain rushed down the mountains and the rivers swelled beyond their banks.

tuesday night gary had to work until 9 pm, but i didn't really mind. while he worked, i took a hot shower and a nap and woke up feeling much better.

since gary had to leave for work around 7 am, i took off for home at that time as well. the skies were overcast and gloomy the entire way, but i only got sprinkled on slightly during the 110 km drive and made it home at 10:30 am.

all in all, it was an excellent trip--and a relatively cheap one as well. i only spent 22,000 won on gas--about $17.

summer time

2009-06-30T07:39:00.002-05:00

june is coming to a close, but the rainy season in busan unfortunately isn't. some days when i wake up i find that a cloud has literally parked itself outside my window. the drizzle and mist continue thru-out the day, and on days like these, i've taken to arming myself with an umbrella. i'd prefer to go without one, but it's easier to carry one and avoid the looks and comments of concern from all the umbrella-carriers that i meet.

i've largely succeeded in not letting the rain dampen my spirits. i've filled my summer days with meeting friends for lunch or dinner, reading a few books, brushing up on greek, exercising, going to the public bath three times, baking about 9 or 10 dozen cookies with a friend until 3 am, preaching once, watching transformers in the theater twice (it was more entertaining the first time), beaching it twice, going for some long walks and scooter rides, and more... i really feel like a kid again with a summer wide open and almost no work responsibilities.

however, over the past couple weeks i've found that this isn't necessarily good. sure, rest and play are beautiful things, but work and service are normative, the sort of things that God intended for life. a source of joy, work is the response to the call to love God and neighbor. for now i will enjoy my season of rest and look for ways to serve, but i also look forward to the chance to transition to something new this fall. nevertheless, i know that this transition too will entail challenges of its own.

i don't teach students anymore

2009-06-17T04:05:00.003-05:00

i'm finished. well, that's a bit premature. i still have a couple more hours of grading to do, but from now until august, it's shorts and a t-shirt for this guy. the last day of exams was friday, and on saturday i treated myself to a novel and a short hike to the top of the mountain i live on.

on monday and tuesday i attended "The 4th International Conference on Christian Higher Education and Scholarship." the conference involves several christian universities in korea, and they brought in several of excellent speakers from the states. the keynote speaker was alvin plantinga, but my favorite was david smith from calvin college. as a language teacher, he had some valuable insights into what it means to teach a foreign language christianly. i'll admit tho that it was a bit odd to to listen to his inspirational words about pedagogy three days after i finished my last semester at kosin.

the awareness of finishing my last semester is only beginning to infiltrate my consciousness. my two years here have been a blessing, one i neither asked for nor deserved, and it will be hard to leave. i'm confident leaving is the right thing, tho, and there is joy in obedience. much awaits me after my plane touches down in des moines on august 10th.

until then, i think i have enough to fill my days in korea. i made a sort of "to do" list this past weekend (i take after my mother; i'm definitely a list maker), and not including the list of people i want to eat dinner with before i leave, there were more than thirty items on the list. and the one that made the top of the list? study greek--but i enjoy greek, so this is more pleasure than pain.

i don't teach english; i teach students

2009-06-05T06:10:00.006-05:00

here they are... the students that i'm always talking about. we took these pictures on the last day of our classes. next week is finals and then we're done! i'm feeling pretty mixed about that. i plan to spend the summer here and head back to the states in august. oh, by the way, that guy with the girlish haircut in some of the pictures is me.

english bible -- section one

english bible -- section two

theological english -- their final test covers everthing from solomon to revelation; is that too much?

"global english" -- a basic english class made up of theology students

junior conversation

freshmen conversation

church

2009-05-27T03:11:00.004-05:00

as i look back on almost two years of living in korea, i think one of my biggest mistakes has been in the area of church. during the past two years, i've attended four different churches.

my first church was dong-seo-nam-buk church in gimhae, a city about an hour drive away from where i live. i attended there with kosin's president kim on the first sunday i was in korea, and he asked adam and me if we'd be willing to lead an english bible study at the church. we agreed, and the church said they'd donate a car so could drive there on sundays instead of taking public transportation. well, my english bible study ended up being a beginning english class for middle-aged women (i still remember them fondly--my favorite one was named banana). generally, i had a bad attitude about attending that church. the church was far away; the english translations of the sermons were sketchy; we left at 11 am and returned at 8 pm every sunday; not many people at the church spoke english; the bible study wasn't a bible study. plus, i sometimes felt like i was sold for a car. after one semester of attending that church, adam and i told president kim we'd like to change churches.

the next church was 4th yeongdo church. yeongdo is the name of the island i live on. the presbyterian churches here don't mess around with names like hope, faith, trinity; they just go with numbers. i think there are more than ten of them on the island. the church there had an english worship service composed of some of the kenyan students at kosin and some of the youth from the church who spoke english. the service was led by a korean woman who completed her m.div in canada. i really enjoyed the people there, and another part of this church that i really enjoyed was that it was short. i could leave my home at 10:30 in the morning and be back by 1:30 in the afternoon after a great lunch. this worked well for me and my minimalist perspective for two semesters, but at the end of the calendar year the church decided to discontinue the english worship service.

once again without a church, i began the semester listening to aaron baart's sermons online and wondering how long i could get away with that. i also contacted my former pastor from 4th yeongdo because she had mentioned starting an english worship service again at another church. a few weeks later we got something set up at beomil baptist (gasp!) church. kosin is a quite conservative presbyterian denomination, and i always hoped that when people at school asked me where i went to church that they wouldn't know anything about this small church. it's not that the english worship service had any particular baptist flair to it; it was the same thing that we did at 4th yeongdo but just in a different location. however, when you're dealing with a language barrier, it's often easier to avoid the issue than defend your position (i don't hold any personal grudges against baptists; i just don't fancy all of their theology and neither do most people at kosin).

i was happy to attend beomil church, but then my friend shin invited me to visit his uncle's church. i blogged about that visit about a month ago. well, about a week after my visit, shin started talking to me about the possibility of attending that church regularly to help with their children's ministry. the church is near masan--about an hour and a half drive from my home. after thinking about it a bit, i decided that i'd accept the offer to attend that small rural church even tho i felt quite bad about leaving the baptists behind. now, i'm going to gasil church with shin on saturday afternoon and returning on sunday evening.

once again, i am attending two korean worship services on sunday (shin gives me a brief translation afterwards); i am spending a big part of sunday at church and saturday night too; i am teaching basic english; i am traveling quite a distance to church. in a way, i feel like i ended up where i started. however, thankfully i think one thing at least has changed--my attitude.

visitors

2009-05-20T22:19:00.003-05:00

yesterday, andy's sister and her friend arrived from the states. we met up with betsy dekens, a dordt student who's visiting her brother who lives here, and joanne, a kosin student who spent a year at dordt and lived with betsy for a semester.

betsy, joanne, and me.

busting out some tunes at the norebong--korean karaoke.

whachya gonna do?

2009-05-14T07:09:00.002-05:00

kosin has three freshmen conversation classes for english majors. one is advanced and two are at the regular level. since i teach the advanced students but use the same textbook as the other classes, i find that i often need to supplement the text with more difficult material to challenge my students.

this week we were working with the grammar "going to" to describe future plans, and i created a little speaking activity called "whachya gonna do?" it allowed us both a chance to practice the informal american pronunciation of "what are you" and "going to" and also a chance to explore our values a bit. my favorite situation we discussed is the one that follows.

"The semester is over, and your final grade in one of your classes was a D+. You know that your parents will be very angry with you if your grade is less than a B. You go talk to your professor and ask him about your grade. He says he will change your grade to an A if you pay him 100,000 won (about US$80). What are you going to do?"

and the answer that most of my church-going, first semester freshmen gave? they're gonna pay. they cited several different reasons--keeping a scholarship which is worth more money, avoiding taking the class again which they would have to do if they got a D+, desiring to keep their parents happy. a few students told me that they would report their professor, but when i reminded them that their word held no weight against a professor's word in this culture, they admitted they'd pay. some students, however, said they'd take the D+.

while this isn't to say that american college freshmen would answer any differently, i was a bit disappointed with my students. i think we've got a lot of work to do yet, but hey, at least their pronunciation was good.

choice!

2009-05-11T08:25:00.004-05:00

in my classes i like to play a game called "choice." it's similar to "would you rather..." but that game requires somewhat uncommon grammar to talk about hypothetical situations and comparisons. for example, in "would you rather..." the question might be "would you rather write a sermon or bake banana bread?" and the answer could be, "i would rather write a sermon because that sermon needs to be written by its deadline and i am a responsible person."

i have found that students generally get thrown off by the "would you rather" grammar, so i have simplified it a bit, stripping it of all grammatical constructs except the generic fill in the blank structure of "i choose ________." in this game, the question goes like this, "choice! write a sermon or bake banana bread."

tonight i chose the latter. i don't think this bodes well for my future--or does it?

happy parents' day!

2009-05-07T23:47:00.003-05:00

today is parents' day in korea, so in honor of my parents, here is a picture from last summer of them and their grandchildren.

good for health

2009-05-04T08:14:00.004-05:00

"good for health" is a phrase that i've heard an uncountable number of times since coming to korea. at first the phrase sounded awkward, a bit of what we call konglish with the more natural way to express the thought in english being "good for you" or simply "healthy." usually the phrase is used for foods; "kimchi is good for health," for example. kimchi, by the way, is spicy, pickled cabbage, but it tastes much better than it sounds. the "good for health" phrase can also be used for activities too; for example, "hiking is good for health." i've grown so accustomed to hearing this phrase that i no longer bother to correct anyone.

in their emphasis on health, koreans aren't trying to be trendy. they're not on some fad diet; they're just eating the same foods they've likely eaten for thousands of years. they eat lots of rice and vegetables and not much meat--unless they're at one of those meat buffets in which case the amount of pork a korean can consume is mind-boggling. i was told their diet overall stems from a traditional confucian emphasis on health and well-being. whatever the reason, they frequently talk about health and can offer a whole slew of teas, special menu items, and traditional medicines to cure various ailments.

one of those special menu items is dog. seriously. if a korean has been feeling regularly fatigued, one of his friends may very likely suggest that he eat dog because it will give him extra energy. for example, last night my friend gary visited my apartment because our friend joseph was coming back to busan for a couple days. joseph is a kosin grad who's now in seminary, and gary and joseph were adam and my good friends from the beginning and introduced us to many things in korean culture including dog soup. well, gary suggested to me last night that we all go out for lunch today, and the menu item was already decided. his girlfriend was going to join us too, and since she had been feeling tired lately, naturally we had to eat dog.

now, if any reader detects a hint of skepticism in my voice, she's right. i'm not convinced dog soup gives me extra energy. while i do appreciate the holistic korean approach to health and emphasis on healthy eating, i don't subscribe to all of the traditional wisdom that goes with it. i asked one of my conversation classes about this sort of traditional medicine stuff last week, and some of them were strong believers in it tho they were reluctant to share this opinion in class. others told me, "only if you believe, then it works."

regardless, dog meat is tender and delicious.

my students

2009-04-29T04:52:00.003-05:00

my quick-witted assistant tim carried my cd player back to my office for me after class today. we chatted a bit and then he slipped out the door. however, he quickly opened the door again and took a step into my office before walking back out and closing the door. then, he opened the door again and shrugged his shoulders saying, "easy come, easy go"--one of the proverbs we had discussed in conversation class today.

last week at 10:10 on friday morning while i was grading tests my office, my cell phone rang. it was nicky. "professor, where are you?" he asked. agh! i had completely forgotten about my ten o'clock class. embarrassed, i grabbed my books and ran to the next building. there waiting for me were all 29 of my students; not one of them had left. and, as i walked in, they started chanting my name "ju-suh-tin! ju-suh-tin!" koreans add an extra syllable to my name because of the way it's transliterated into korean as three syllables 저스틴, and i had highlighted this point in class the week before when we were talking about syllabification.

then there's that shy freshman guy who on his way out of my office after his conversation test last week turned back to me to say simply, "i want to be your friend."

and there's the guy who was the first student in a three-hour block of speaking tests. for conversation class, i give six or seven minute long individual speaking tests. administering these and grading them fairly on the spot can become tiring and monotonous. after the first guy finished his speaking test, he came back about seven minutes later and slipped into my office before the next student on the schedule. he handed me a bottle of peach iced tea to help me, in his words, "get through the afternoon."

yesterday a guy who had graduated after last semester knocked on my door and wanted to chat. i hadn't seen him in about five months. he definitely wasn't one of my best students or even an outgoing student, but he surprised me with a pleasant thirty minutes of conversation.

also, today a student told me i resembled an onion.

they make me laugh; they make me smile; they even at times make me hurt. they are my students, and i love them.

quote of the day

2009-04-27T08:17:00.000-05:00

"I had rather see coming toward me a whole regiment with drawn swords, than one lone Calvinist convinced that he is doing the will of God."

--anonymous 17th century English writer

the week in review

2009-04-19T04:26:00.008-05:00

the weeks go by quite quickly, especially this last one, and each day there was something special beyond the magic that happens in the classroom. here's a recap for those wonder what exactly it is i do with my time here.

monday: i made my radio debut. a couple weeks ago, one of my superiors called and "strongly recommended" that i volunteer my time to help a christian radio program that wanted to have an english language learning segment. when someone like that strongly recommends something, or even if he just hints at it, it's not culturally appropriate to say no even if the request is inconvenient, such as the one i agreed to involving spending 3 hours on public transportation for a twenty minute recording session. nevertheless, i am now on the radio weeknights at 11:30 on 93.3 FM, i believe. the recording was actually kind of fun and very simple; i just had to read few lines into a microphone.

tuesday: after having a tasty dinner with my friend ball, i hurried back to my apartment to meet my assistant tim. i'd been having some problems with my toilet not flushing well, and tim, my ever eager and faithful assistant, offered to assist me--but not by contacting a maintence worker as i expected but by fixing my toilet himself. his tools: a plastic bag and tape. i was a bit nervous about this because i had no idea how he was going to fix the toilet using those two things. all my mind could think of was his putting his little korean arm into the bag, taping it to make it water tight, and going to it. thankfully, that wasn't his plan. instead, he spread the plastic bag over the toilet bowl, taped it to make it air tight, and then flushed the toilet. this caused the air pressure in the bowl to rise, and the bag to sort of bulge up. tim then pressed the buldge down as if he were giving CPR to my toilet. he told me he learned this technique in the army. fascinating.

wednesday: once a week i try to invite students to my apartment to bake. it's multi-purpose: i get to know students better; they get to experience western culture and practice their english; we all have fun and eat proper baked goods (not to be confused with the improper ones sold in the local bakeries); and, i am more than mildly amused watching people bake for the first time and oh-so-carefully measure the ingredients. this week i invited two junior girls, and five showed up at my door. no problem, but a pan of brownies doesn't go as far with six people as it does with three.

thursday: the english department professors hosted a ramen noodle social. we wanted to have a fun time for students and professors to hang out before the midterm exams which are this week, so we planned a study break. while these are common in the states, they aren't in korea. also, since root beer floats or ordering pizza ranch cactus bread are not options in this country, we had to find a culturally appropriate menu item--cups of ramen noodles. it was hit with the students. we had prepared 120 cups of noodles and there wasn't a single one left over. i didn't get any pictures but andy did.

friday: the highlight on this day was learning about rugby from the edlins, a kiwi (new zealand) couple who teach at kosin. this is their first semester here with him teaching in the english M.Div program and her teaching english. they're lots of fun and into worldview issues and christian education, and they like rugby, a sport that until now only confused me. they invited the foreign professors over to their home on friday and gave us some pointers on the game as we watched a couple matches. i think i finally got the gist of it; mostly, tho, i realized that i never want to meet a rugby player in a dark alley. those guys are huge!

saturday: one of my students invited me to visit his uncle's church with him during my first semester at kosin. three semesters later it finally worked out. shin's uncle pastors a small village church a couple hours away from busan, and we went there on saturday afternoon and met some of the youth for dinner and bowling. shin studied in wales for two years, so his english is quite good. the youth group kids struggled a bit though, so i had a chance to practice korean. additionally, the church was in a rural area which reminded me a lot of iowa.

sunday: i had a couple of good conversations at shin's church. the first came during the little kids sunday school class. i asked them to guess how old i was. the guesses were 30, 20, 12 and 37. then, a little girl asked if i had a girlfriend. no, i said. then, a little boy asked if i was married. no again, to which he replied (in korean), "try to get married quickly!" the other conversation was with shin's uncle. even tho he has a Ph.D. from a university in wales, he pastors a rural congregation of about 50 people. he could be teaching in a university; he could be pastoring a church of thousands. however, he's chosen not to confuse faithfulness with fame; instead, he's ministering in the place he feels God has called him tho he doesn't always understand why he was called to serve there.

christ is risen...

2009-04-12T09:32:00.003-05:00

but my cinnamon rolls didn't. clearly, i'm not God altho i am planning to get my masters of divinity. there's little hope that that will improve the quality of my cinnamon rolls tho; i don't think calvin was probably much of a baker.

nevertheless, happy easter.

spring in busan

2009-04-06T06:31:00.003-05:00

the last picture has nothing to do with spring, but it has everything to do with delicious. since coming to korea, i've fallen in love with rice. i crave it when i'm hungry. i also noticed when i was in the states over christmas that my palate didn't get as excited about potatoes as it used to (tho i do still love good bread but that's a rarity in korea--unless, of course, andy's in the kitchen). due to my culinary love affair wtih rice, it naturally has a way of finding its way into my fusion feasts. this one is called peanut butter and jelly rice.

the answer

2009-04-01T20:57:00.002-05:00

i posted the answer to my mystery dinner question as a comment on that blog post. i didn't want to rob any infrequent blog readers of the joy of guessing.

mmm...

2009-03-30T07:40:00.003-05:00

i'm not a very good cook. generally, i just take whatever ingredients that i have and combine them. sometimes it works, sometimes not, but i'm not a picky eater. can you guess what six ingredients were used to make my dinner last night?

같이 있어요

2009-03-27T04:59:00.005-05:00

같이 있어요 (kachee issayo) is a new phrase that i learned this week, and it sums up my experience of the last few days pretty well. it means, "let's be together," but not in an inappropriate way. it's just let's hang out, spend time together, be near each other. i'm actually surprised that i've never heard this phrase before since korea is definitely a group-oriented society.

every spring the university cancels class for a few days, and each department has its own retreat called MT (membership training--a bit of konglish, perhaps). each department goes to a different location for MT, and during MT, students play a lot of games and stay up late talking and just generally spend time being together. it's all student organized, and professors are invited to hang out and just be together outside of a classroom. i find it enjoyable to watch my students engage their peers using their native language. i mean, sometimes outgoing students become quite reserved in my classes because they don't speak english well, but at MT i can see a different side of them.

a game involving a blindfold and water. while this game wasn't new to me, many of the games were. in one game whenever someone made a mistake, the rest of the group chanted the korean equivalent of "stupid, stupid." they didn't offer this professor any mercy either.

this was my family during MT. each student in the english department (with the exception of the seniors) is part of a family group that meets together throughout the year.

these two girls are hilarious.

homework

2009-03-19T19:03:00.003-05:00

grading homework, tho not the highlight of my job, often makes me laugh. here are a selection of sentences from some of my students.

the assignment: write 10 sentences about what you do on the weekends. use an adverb of frequency (always, sometimes, never, etc) in each sentence.

I sometime abuse friends

I often use deodorant

I never go to hell

Sometimes I fatigue so eat tuna

Of course, I always go to bathroom on every weekend too.

I always love only you

I always think of you (note: both of these sentences were written by a boy)

My friend sometimes tumble down the stone (I have no idea what this means)

north korea

2009-03-18T17:36:00.004-05:00

there hasn't been a lot of good news coming from north korea in recent weeks, but not all the news makes it into the papers. particularly, i'm thinking about the soon-to-be-opened pyongyang university of science and technology, the first university to be established in north korea with outside support.

PUST is being organized by the same group that established YUST, yanbian university of science and technology. YUST is a young yet prestigious university in northern china which is staffed almost completely with sponsored workers just like PUST will be. kosin has a good relationship with YUST, and they have a student exchange program as well. anyway, the north korean government saw the good that YUST has done for china and wanted to have a similar university established in north korea. it's been in the works for several years and is due to open next month, i believe. the impact that PUST could have on future generations of north koreans is incredible. i was told that the north korean government recognizes that there are ideological differences, but they just feel that their ideology is stronger than any worldview that PUST might offer.

on sunday night i had an opportunity to meet the president of YUST who is also going to be the president of PUST. he has quite the story to share, and he chose to use a two-hour sermon to do it. his passage was about loving your neighbor as yourself which is particularly appropriate when trying to raise support from south koreans for a project in north korea.

the other highlight of church on sunday was seeing the guy who sold me my scooter. he doesn't speak any english but he recognized me after the service and kept repeating the name of his scooter shop until i drew the connection. it's been one year since i bought it now, and i'm happy to say that i've been accident and conviction free for the whole year.

invitations

2009-03-11T07:23:00.005-05:00

an invitation is a powerful thing. especially with cross-cultural friendships, i've found that invitations make things much clearer. being a professor at the age of 24, i'm really a cultural anomaly, and people--especially students--don't always know how to treat me. am i their superior? am i their friend? is it possible to be both? or, what if i am their superior but don't act like it? or, what about at 9 pm when i'm wearing blue jeans and not dress pants? or when i'm all sweaty in the fitness center? am i still their professor?

invitations can clear things up a bit. they help me know if my presence is wanted (tho not with 100% clarity), if i'm being perceived as a superior or a friend, and reciprocally, my issuing of invitations lets others know of my expectations and understanding of them. sometimes people are a bit shy to invite me, but if i invite them, i generally have great results.

like last night. my cambodian friend had never had pancakes before. so, i invited him over to my room and we made dinner together.

life is better with cake (and friends)

2009-03-04T19:32:00.002-06:00

after enjoying our cake, one of the guys wanted to arm wrestle me. he's a super-duper black belt in taekwondo, but i beat him! yeah! or, maybe he just let me win; there may have been some sort of cultural thing going on because he's a student and i'm a professor. shoot, that's probably it. after arm wrestling, he challenged me to some sordid form of leg wrestling. i don't think we played by the right rules tho because it was a bit painful; we both lost on that one.

help wanted

2009-03-02T08:36:00.003-06:00

today was the first day of the semester. i wore a suit. koreans giggled a lot. i talked slowly.

if you are a dordt grad and are interested in this becoming your reality this fall by joining the faculty at kosin university or if you know someone who is, please contact me via email or facebook and i can give you some more details. any major is ok as long as you have a bachelors degree.

the trip that i took

2009-02-28T03:07:00.005-06:00

here are some pictures from the trip that i took (and here is the second album as well.)

it was a good trip, but honestly, sometimes i wondered if i took the wrong trip. i spent a lot of time seeing "old india," the taj, ancient palaces, colonial kolkata--but there is also "new india" that i didn't see. during the trip i met a couple up-and-coming young professionals, the sort of people who are hungry and ready to see their new india become the international powerhouse that many predict, but a large part of my trip was spent seeing old things in this country that's moving in a new direction.

also, i saw a lot of things that i didn't understand, particularly religious sites. i have a very basic grounding in hinduism and buddhism, but i still remain baffled by many of the temples and religious expressions that i saw. sometimes i wonder what it would have been like to just spend an extended period of time at a hindu or buddhist site and try to understand more clearly what they are all about. the one place we did spend a whole week was in kolkata where we volunteered in the mornings at various missions started by the missionaries of charity, yet i even found myself baffled here at times as i realized i don't even have a very good grasp of roman catholicism. i guess the bottom line is that five weeks is still too short of a time to know a place. however, i knew that going in; i've been in korea for a year and half and am really only beginning to understand the place.

even with these thoughts though, these thoughts about what other trips i could have taken and other things that i could have done, this was the trip that i took and i am content with that--it really was a great time. it was a trip that reminded me of many things: the nature of life--full of connections and relationships, the value of knowing one's surroundings, the importance of committed service in areas of giftedness, the busyness of my own mind, the friendliness of strangers and the power of a smile, the need to live sustainably, and the great joy of quality baked goods.

i slept in a bed last night.

2009-02-24T06:17:00.003-06:00

friday night i spent 9 hours on a train going to kolkata; saturday night was split among the the airports in kolkata and bangkok and a 3-hour flight between them; sunday night was spent on a flight from bangkok to busan; but monday night, monday night was spent in a bed. it was glorious.

it wasn't just any bed either. it was a bed in a five-star hotel. after arriving back at my apartment around 8:30 monday morning, i left again on a bus at noon to attend the 24-hour faculty retreat and new student orientation in gyeongju, a city about 2 hours from busan. the retreat itself was largely uneventful; the bed was definitely among the highlights for me. it was the kind of bed that's so soft that it entices one to linger with his head cradled on the gentle pillow and body tucked under the plush comforter. it was the kind of bed you find in a five-star hotel which costs US$150 a night for a room with two of these double beds in it. it wasn't the kind of bed that you find in a budget guest house in india (where i spent a total of US$104 for five weeks of accommodation).

overall, the indian experience was quite enjoyable. i'm still trying to process some of the lessons i learned and the things i saw. more details on that and supplemental pictures to come. i can say this for sure, tho: i found the indian people to be incredibly friendly and welcoming. sure, some of them loved my money more than me, but many were genuinely interested, or maybe just curious, about who i am. when i travel, i often like to just take a seat outside somewhere and observe the world around me. however, this proved to be incredibly difficult in india. invariably, whenever i sat down somewhere outside, indians would wonder up to me and start inquiring, "which country?", "how long you stay in india?", "what places you visit?", "are you a student?", and more. their questions foiled my attempts at detached observation, but in a place like india where worship and culture and food and color and space and humanity all seem to flow together, detachment isn't the way of things.

a second thing that i can say for sure is that traveling in india can be done quite cheaply (note: traveling TO india is not as cheap, tho cheaper if you're starting from korea than the states). for example (prices are in US dollars)...

one night in a double bed in a budget guest house: $4-6 (andy and i split this)
an average meal at a traveler cafe: $1-2
plate of noodles on the street: 30 cents
cup of chai (tea): 10 cents
banana lassi (yogurt drink): 40 cents
amazing caramel candy: 2 cents
12-hour train ride in sleeper class (you get your own bench to sleep on): $5
kolkata subway ticket: 8 cents
souvenir t-shit: $2
button-down dress shirt: $4
movie ticket: $1-2
shave: 40 cents
an hour of internet use: 30-60 cents
hindu or buddhist temple visit: free

prices like these made the $15 taj mahal entrance fee seem steep.

the taj mahal

2009-01-31T03:30:00.001-06:00

i'm in agra. next stop, delhi!

darjeeling

2009-01-25T01:52:00.002-06:00

from kolkata, i took an overnight train to darjeeling--well, actually not all the way to darjeeling. i was on the train for about 14 hours, and then hopped on the toy train for another 9 hours. exhausting but fun. they call it the toy train because it runs on the two-feet ride tracks like in the old days; it's the same route the british used to use to get up to this hill station. in case you've never heard of darjeeling, it's famous for tea and views of the himalayas including everest (pics to come). my visit fell on the off-season AKA cold season, so my evenings were spent huddled around a fire with some fellow travelers who also happen to teach english in asia.

now i'm in varanasi, perhaps the holiest city for hindus because it's on the ganges river. supposedly if you die in varanasi you are able to achieve moksha, escape from the cycle of rebirth (note: i am not hoping to die here). getting here was a three-hour jeep ride and then a fifteen-hour train ride. but, my fellow teachers from korea should be arriving here soon and i'm excited to see them.

i made it

2009-01-16T22:05:00.003-06:00

i just took my first cold shower and ate my first meal by randomly pointing at something on a menu.

yep, i'm in kolkata (calcutta).

here and there

2009-01-14T19:41:00.003-06:00

i made it back to korea without fainting. i even read khaled hosseini's kite runner (brilliant) and persevered unphased thru a few bloody sections. for those of you who missed that story, i read hosseini's a thousand splendid suns on my flights from korea to the states in december and fainted twice on the plane because a scene in the book involved surgery without anesthesia. hey, blood's just not my thing.

now, i'm back in korea and i'm cold. yes, i realize the air temperature is colder in the states right now than here. however, buildings just aren't heated in the same way (i came back to find that some water in my office had turned to ice), and that just makes me feel cold. but, i'm going to...

india. india was the country i presented during the world's fair at sully christian when i was a fourth grader, and now i'm actually going. i fly out of seoul, and i'm taking an overnight train there tonight. then, i fly to bangkok, thailand, and then on to calcutta, india (eastern india, see map below). i'm going to be in india for awhile--about five weeks--and stops on my extremely flexible itinerary include varanasi, agra, and new delhi (north central india). my goal is less to take pictures of old things and more to see how other people live, think, and experience the world. the first week i'll be traveling alone which i've never done before, and then i'll be meeting up with andy, emily, and linda when they come in about a week. pictures and stories to come! (p.s. prayers are also welcome as always)

above: where i live and where i'm going. below: india...

chicago

2009-01-07T12:53:00.002-06:00

this weekend i made a multi-purpose trip to chicago. my original purpose for the trip was to catch up with a few friends who live in the area. that part of the trip was a definite success. i was able to see some high school friends, cousin lindsey and her husband matt, and also a few college friends (micah and elijah are above in the obligatory bean picture). as a bonus, i also got to go to the field museum and the art institute. once again, thank you to everyone who let me stay with them; i had a great time.

the other purpose of the trip was slightly less enjoyable. see, i'm planning on going to india in a couple of weeks, but before one goes to india, he needs to apply for a visa. according to the indian embassy's website, visas can be issued in five days in the US. no problem, i thought, since i'd be in the states for three weeks. the day after i arrived in the US, i went to my local post office and mailed my passport and visa application to the appropriate place in chicago. being the travel savvy guy i am, i made sure to get trackable mail with delivery confirmation and all that stuff. it was supposed to be there in two days.

ten days later it hadn't arrived in chicago yet, so i started making phone calls. i called post offices in searsboro, des moines, and chicago, but no one seemed to know where my trackable mail had gone. as the days continued to go by with no answers, i started seriously panicking because i needed that passport to fly back to korea in just over a week. i decided to move to plan B: get a expedited passport issued in chicago and apply for my indian visa in person.

friday morning i had a 9:30 appointment at the passport agency, and the passport was ready for pick-up at 12:30 that day (impressive service but it costs an extra $60). then, i walked down the street to the indian visa place. they said my passport would be ready for pickup at 5:30 pm on monday.

monday afternoon i returned to the visa center, and the guy behind the counter called me up. as i walked up to the counter, he held up a priority mail envelope. "sir," he said, "your lost passport showed up today." d'oh! 19 days later it had finally made it there. i could only shake my head knowing that it was no longer valid because i had received a new passport but also feeling thankful to have it and all the stamps inside back as a keepsake at least. so, i left that day with two passports, one well-worn and filled with stamps from past adventures and one stiff and new, feeling foreign yet ready to go with the indian visa on page one.

first, tho, i have to get back to korea. i'm flying back on friday the 9th, then from korea i'm flying to calcutta, india, the next friday, the 16th.

kids

2008-12-31T14:52:00.002-06:00

this top picture is from the 16th of december, my last day of kids' class for the semester. kids' class was every day for one hour, so i had the chance to get to know them pretty well. from left to right, it's kimberly (my assistant), jimmy, julie, martin, peter, sarah, lily. roy was absent.

then, i came back to the states on the 17th, and a quick trip to northwest iowa reunited me with these kids, my two nieces and one of my nephews. regrettably, i don't have any pictures of my other nephews who visited my parents' house for christmas.

seminary

2008-12-11T05:46:00.003-06:00

no, i'm not going to seminary, but this week i ate dinner with one of my friends who is. i didn't see much of him this semester because he was always studying, studying for his seminary entrance test that he passed this week. yes, that's right--seminary entrance test.

he along with 211 other people applied for the 113 spots at kosin theological seminary. in order to sort them out, all the applicants have to take four tests--essay writing, english, bible content, and doctrine. then, they have an interview with a seminary professor.

fortunately, my friend joseph passed. i was honestly worried that he might not since it's quite competitive. another friend of mine, tho, was not not quite so fortunate. he was applying for chongshin theological seminary, the other big presbyterian seminary in korea. he wasn't accepted last year, so he studied for the past year but still didn't make it. i understand tho; according to joseph, there were 1,400 people competing for 300 spots.

99 days later

2008-12-08T02:58:00.003-06:00

i'm opposed to countdowns. whether it be crossing off days on a calendar or daily changing one's facebook status to inform all friends that there are only X days left until this or that, i'm not a fan. this isn't to say that i'm against hope and expectation; i love those things. my problem with countdowns is that i feel that they devalue the present day by seeing it primarily as a day to be endured, to be counted down, until the next, better reality arrives. rather than empowering the present, countdowns give me the feeling that the present is a burden, but don't worry, the misery will be gone in X days.

"count-ups," on the other hand, are much more tolerable. they value memory and history and in doing so acknowledge both where we've come from and where we hope to continue going. sadly, tho, my streak at the fitness center has come to an end. a few months ago i blogged about how i was going to continue exercising there until one of the workers asked me to renew my membership that expired at the end of august. today was that day. 99 days after my original one-month membership expired, the attendant pointed to the price list on the wall and said, "this month, pay money."

figuring i was still getting a good deal since i hadn't paid in three months, i willingly paid for december, even tho i'm going to the US in 9 days.

post-jeju post

2008-12-03T08:51:00.006-06:00

the jeju trip was quite an experience. for one, we did a lot of things that i usually don't do when traveling--hire a tour guide and bus, visit museums unrelated to the place, play games in a big group until the wee hours of the morning. additionally, we didn't do what i would do if i had planned the trip, namely, hike the famous mountain on the island.

also, the language barrier was, well, just that--a barrier--at times. for example, we played mafia until 5 am one night. everyone would chatter in korean for ten minutes and then someone would look at me and ask, "justin, who you think mafia?" that's a bit difficult when you don't understand what's been said.

even with a few moments of boredom and confusion, tho, i loved it, and since pictures make for better stories, i'll leave it at that.

jeju

2008-11-24T08:00:00.003-06:00

i'm going with a group of students tomorrow to jeju island. on the map you can see the big red arrows pointing to where i live and where i'm going (which spells jeju-do using the old spelling of "cheju-do"). every year the juniors go on what they call a graduation trip, and this year i get to go along. i wouldn't exactly call myself a chaperon tho because i know absolutely nothing about what's going on. even more, a few of the students are older than me. all i know about the whole deal is that i'm leaving for the airport at 2 pm tomorrow and returning sometime on friday. all the time between is a complete mystery.

even tho i don't know what is going on, i expect to have a good time hanging out with the students and seeing more of korea. i am thankful for this opportunity.

geoje

2008-11-21T22:38:00.004-06:00

one of the best things about kosin university is its commitment to educating aspiring leaders from developing countries--uganda, rwanda, tanzania, china, the philippines, thailand, cambodia, indonesia, malaysia and more. about a month ago andy, emily, linda and i went with some of these students on a day trip to geoje, and these are a few pictures from that trip.

i am thankful for diversity.

america

2008-11-18T18:33:00.002-06:00

in four weeks i'm going to the states. i'll be there from december 17th to january 9th.

i'm really thankful for this.

pretty in pink

2008-11-16T00:34:00.002-06:00

i was given this shirt--no, actually, first adam was given this shirt and he left it behind a few months ago. i can't put the shirt on without laughing, but whenever i wear it, koreans always tell me that they really like it. i wore it yesterday to a high school speech contest that i had to judge.

most of the people in the pictures are my students. i am thankful for them.

happy pepero day

2008-11-11T18:11:00.003-06:00

pepero is a kind of cookie stick dipped in chocolate, and since the date 11/11 looks like sticks of pepero, november 11th is pepero day in korea. really, it's a huge marketing gimmick that the candy company does to promote its sales; according to wikipedia, 55% of the pepero business for the year is done in november. imagine, for example, hershey's declaring november 11th as kitkat day because a kitkat bar looks like 1111.

regardless of the greed of plotting corporate executives, pepero day is generally a holiday of good cheer where people give boxes of pepero to friends and teachers. so, it's kind of similar to valentine's day minus all that love stuff.

i am thankful for pepero.

blessed are the what?

2008-11-10T04:39:00.004-06:00

a few weeks ago, i had to teach on luke 6 in my english bible course. it's when jesus says, "blessed are those of you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." as i prepared for that lesson, the financial crisis was all over the news, and as i watched the korean currency's value rapidly drop, i didn't feel like i was becoming more blessed. so, i threw the question open to my class: what does jesus mean here?

i got the answer i expected. jesus is talking about the spiritually poor. really? is he? luke doesn't say that. this doesn't indicate it can't mean that. but, luke doesn't say it (altho, yes, matthew does).

i'm not fully satisfied with this answer because i don't think it does justice to the greater lukan narrative, so i decided to try again. in my english class for theology students we were learning about how to use possessives (this is my book; it's mine; it belongs to me), and since that will quickly bore anyone, i scrapped part of the lesson and went back to luke 6:20. again, i got a lot of the same kind of answers.

then, i did what i think many of my professors must have done; i made my students all write on the topic that i was interested in because i wanted to hear more opinions and ideas about it. it's really a beautiful concept. within a few days, i can have 30 theology students' opinions on any topic that i want.

two of the responses stand out (i asked for permission to share these).

one student wrote, "The people who are poor are those who make a wish in Jesus Christ." this guy makes me laugh; he's always talking about making a wish in jesus.

and then this guy who wrote, "The poor can be know God much more than the rich. Because the poors they have no wealth and money that tempted to live this world style. God seeks the poor rather than the rich." he goes on for ten sentences (the assignment requirement) and never once strays from the theme of economic poverty as a blessing. in fact, he was my only student out of 30 not to mention spiritual poverty at all. his writing reminds me a bit of the great peruvian liberation theologian gustavo gutierrez who wrote about "God's preferential option for the poor."

i'm not sharing this to say that he's right, but i do respect his opinion because he's not writing out of affluence. he's a cambodian studying at kosin on a full scholarship. he grew up surrounded by poverty, and he takes that experience with him as he does his theology, just as we all take our experiences with us too.

this student has really made me think again about the assumptions that i take with me.

today i am thankful for his theological honesty.

elections

2008-11-05T03:02:00.002-06:00

it's election time--both in the states and on kosin's campus. living abroad i was able to avoid most of the presidential ads, but campaigning for the student body president at kosin university is in full swing. the people in the picture are campaigning for candidate number 1 and were willing to take a picture with me this afternoon. actually, tho, i support candidate number 2.

also, this morning i watched the election results come in (remember tuesday night in the US is wednesday here). as i followed along on the internet and plotted how i could incorporate a discussion about the election into my senior english class, i never once was concerned for my family or friends' safety in the US. i never once thought about riots and looting or rigged votes. i never once wondered whether there was perhaps some better candidate who was prevented from running for office because he was arrested or his political party outlawed.

globally, elections are a dangerously tricky thing. kenya's sparked a month of rioting; zimbabwe still can't agree on a power sharing deal; and in egypt, the president retains power by just outlawing a major opposition party. not so in the US. not so on kosin's campus.

i am thankful for exit polls, not death tolls, and crazily dressed koreans.

a month of thanks

2008-11-04T02:22:00.004-06:00

it's november, and that means the weather's changing. winter is approaching. christmas is coming, and i am going, going to the states. lest i get too far ahead of myself tho, i've decided my blog for the month of november will be filled with anecdotes and pictures of thanksgiving, a holiday that americans celebrate in november but koreans don't.

and now for my first story...

this morning i scootered down to the bank. i went there to pay bills. koreans don't use checks; instead, it seems almost everything is done by electronic transfers of money. to pay my apartment maintenance bill and gas bill i have to go to the bank and use a machine that looks similar to an ATM.

the problem is that the machine doesn't have an "english" button. well, actually, that was the problem a year ago until my assistant taught me how to use it. now, i keep a note in my wallet to remind me what buttons i need to push to make it all happen. you don't really need to know what the touch screen says; you just got to know which color button to tap.

as i approached the ATM look-alike, i noticed the skeptical look of a bank employee nearby. never mind her, i thought, i know how to do this. however, no sooner had i thought that than i made a mistake in my transaction, hitting the korean equivalent of "cancel" rather than "continue." immediately i knew my mistake. so did miss skeptical. she rushed over to me, grabbed the bill out of my hands, and completed my transaction for me.

i was irritated. i've been paying bills for months. i can do it on my own. i don't need anyone to help me. to the woman i managed to say kamsamnida, or thank you, as she handed the bill back to me, but i didn't really mean it. i hadn't wanted her help in the first place.

but, as i scootered home, my irritation changed. i found i was no longer irritated at the woman but rather at myself. she perceived me as a confused foreigner and rushed to help me navigate the korean-only machine. she was just trying to help, and a year ago, i would have appreciated it. today, too, even tho i didn't need her help, i'm glad she was willing.

i am thankful for the kindness of strangers.

fun fun time

2008-10-30T20:35:00.003-05:00

last night i attended an event called "fun fun time"; obviously, the organizer was not a native speaker. it was supposed to be an enjoyable (or, fun fun) time for the international students. it began with a time of praise and worship and a sermon, of course. no matter what the occasion, koreans seem to like to slip in extra sermons.

other events included a little evangelistic magic show and various songs and dances performed by international students. we were supposed to wear traditional clothes, and when i showed up straight from work wearing my dress pants and dress shirt, a few people asked me where my cowboy hat was. hmm...

one of my favorite parts of the night was an interpretive dance in which i was asked to participate at the last minute. they said i just had to stand there next to emily. ok, not hard. i can do that. well, i found out later that the song's lyrics were something like... "i'm praying that God will send me the perfect girl." i laughed pretty hard about that one because emily is engaged--and not to me.

another highlight was the evangelistic taekwondo performance. in addition to being splattered with rotten apple and cucumber because i was sitting in the front row, i was able to join them on stage and i actually broke a board with my hand. i have no pictures to prove it, though, so you can go ahead and doubt me if you want.

all in all, a good night.

midterms

2008-10-23T07:16:00.003-05:00

it's the eighth week of the semester here, also known as midterms--one of the two times of the semester when students spend all night "studying" and when i feel most like a completely unqualified imposter. as students spend long nights in the library or other places studying (and doing a fair amount of just hanging out, in my opinion), i like to roam around with a bag of chocolates or other treats, such as homemade chocolate chip cookies. it gives me a chance to encourage them and ask if i can answer any questions. seeing their professor walking thru the library at midnight during midterm or finals week used to shock students; now some of them have kind of come to expect it. regardless it's still a lot of fun. one student the other night told me that she had selected a seat close to the library's door because she didn't want me to visit without seeing her.

absentee ballot

2008-10-20T07:53:00.003-05:00

after having my ballot's empty ovals stare at me for a week, i finally filled it out. the most entertaining part was not darkening the ovals but rather this announcement at the top of the ballot.

"Notice to voters: For an affirmative vote upon any question submitted upon this ballot darken in the oval in front of the word 'YES.' For a negative vote darken in the oval in front of the word 'NO.'"

honestly, now, is that necessary? i think we all understand what "yes" and "no" mean.

fired

2008-10-16T07:14:00.003-05:00

no, i wasn't fired, but today i fired my korean teacher. he wasn't doing a bad job, but after eight months of studying the korean language, i've decided to take an extended break. i'm not "quitting" because that connotes failure, i think. instead, i'm drawing it to a close because i think i've achieved my purposes for now. i've learned a fair bit in the last eight months, but korean certainly is a difficult language for english speakers to learn. who knows, tho, perhaps i'll miss studying after a few weeks. but, i started thumbing thru my old greek flash cards and tonight i downloaded a few spanish podcasts. we'll see where i go with that.

speaking of going places, in a few weeks i may be making a little trip to jeju, a south korean island a little further south of here. the junior class is going for about four days, and i'm hoping i can go along. they need a good chaperone, right? also, in a few months, i plan to be back in the states for a visit. hope to see you then.

happy birthday and hiking

2008-10-05T05:21:00.006-05:00

i celebrated my birthday last week. i'm now officially 24. however, i feel as if i'm older than that because my korean age is 25, and that's how old i always tell people i am. anyway, it was a great birthday, complete with lots of cake and good friends.

then, on saturday i took the opportunity to retreat by myself for a bit and do some hiking. when i say "by myself," i mean i went alone; however, it's never really possible to get away from people in this crowded little country. at times my hiking trail felt more like a hiking superhighway. it was a beautiful day tho, and i guess that i went close to ten miles. i spent most of the day hiking along what was once an ancient fortress wall.

30 days and counting

2008-09-30T06:33:00.004-05:00

i'm playing a little game here at kosin, perhaps one might even call it a bit of a social experiment. see, on august 1st i decided to join the fitness center on campus and paid the membership fee for one month. obviously, my membership ran out and i was due to pay again on the first of september. however, today is the 30th and i've yet to pay any more money. each time i go in there i'm prepared to renew my membership if they would only ask me to. it's not as if i slip in the back door either. i walk right up to the counter and smile, and the person behind the counter hands me a key to a locker in the locker room. never do the workers say anything but "hi," and usually they don't even say that.

i'm not really sure why they don't make me pay. perhaps the workers are trying to be friendly to me since i'm a foreigner. or is it because i'm a professor?--even more, a foreign professor? or perhaps they don't want to speak in english (i know they can speak at least a little because one was my student last year and english is a required subject at kosin). or maybe they don't know that i speak a little korean. or is it that they are just really bad at their jobs? no--i got it; they're afraid they'll make me angry and cause me to employ my now bulging biceps to break their small korean bodies into even smaller pieces. and then again, maybe not. regardless, i figure that as long as they are willing to offer use of the facilities to me for free, i'll continue taking advantage of that until they make some effort to make me pay for it.