So, what was Korea like? Here’s some text that probably won’t see the light of day in print or online.
It’s 6:45 on Tuesday morning and Yura Park and her teammate Rachel race down the hill, green with trees and flowers. The air is clear and crisp. A cool breeze blows past them. birds chirp but they are in too big of a hurry to catch the bus to notice. They race from their dormitory, past store-front grocers and coffee shops fronting immaculately clean sidewalks to meet the bus that will take them to the subway on their hour-long commute to Kyung Hee University.
Yura and Seojung. Yura showed the Sand Art short film version of Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws? and Seojung prayed and received Christ. Seojung is holding the Bible Yura just gave her.
The streets are clean, the traffic is heavy, and crowds move quickly and in an orderly fashion.
Yura and Rachel board the bus and read their Bibles to pass the time. Sometimes they fall asleep because they are so tired. They use the commute to wake up and think about the day. A few old-schoolers read a newspaper, but, for the most part, passengers stare at their screens.
Yura eats Gimbap, rice rolled in seaweed and stuffed with tuna, ham, egg, carrots and spinach. She calls it Korean fast food. Wrapped in a foot-long piece of foil, it proves to be more than she can eat this morning. She and Rachel exit the bus and head toward the subway stairs.
The sidewalks are clean, and professionally-dressed people they pass move efficiently to their destinations. The women quickly scan their subway passes at the turnstiles and board the train. It’s well-lit, clean and quiet. Once again, passengers stare at their screens. Korean people, even the children have smart phone. Koreans don’t talk that much to each other because they are doing things with their smart phones. Wifi is everywhere.
Seven stops later, Rachel and Yura exit the subway and board a bus that takes them to campus. Once on campus, they climb up an intolerably steep driveway, round a corner, pass The Crown, the campus theater, and enter an attached classroom building for all the official clubs on campus. No elevators in this building so they climb the stairs all the way to the fifth floor. By the time they reach the top, they are exhausted, sweating and awake. On the fifth floor, they enter KCCC’s club room on campus at 7:55, efficiently five minutes early.
Two other staff members and nine student leaders sit on mats on the wood-like laminate floor. they sing worship songs while one of the students plays the guitar, and then they pray, everyone, all together, at the same time. A beautiful chorus of Korean ascends to the throne of grace as they ask their heavenly Father to guide their steps that day and to help them live lives that please him. Prayed for summer conference, we prayed that our disciples, especially our freshmen would attend. Also programs for non-believers who have weak faith. We invite them to join us. Many of them meet God there. Poster on wall, 30-40 students usually go. They become the leaders on campus the following year.
Freshmen attend conference, can do internship to become multipliers, who do Bible studies with other students on campus. Intern multipliers experience this life and choose whether or not to continue being multipliers and becoming the student leaders. The student leadership changes after this conference.
After the prayer time, they take out a workbook of devotions from Exodus. They read the daily reading together and then silently answer the questions. A breeze wafts through the open window into the un-airconditioned room. Outside, the sounds of traffic passing by in the distance provide a quite white noise. Scenes of an animee Jesus welcoming a cartoon character into his presence adorn the wall. On one side, a poster shows all of the small discipleship groups on campus that the students lead.
Everyone breaks up into small groups to discuss their answers to the questions, share prayer requests and pray with each other. After the prayer time, one of the students moves to the piano and plays quietly in the background. Eventually, the students leave for class. The four staff members, including Yura and Rachel stay for the daily staff meeting.
They laugh easily together. Yura, easy to tease, fends off questions about whether or not the boys will ever get to see her playful side. Boys see her on the lecture day, very focused on the task at hand. However, she claims that when she is with her friends, she makes so many mistakes she becomes high maintenance. The girls each have boyfriends but Yura doesn’t yet. They tell her she needs to find a boyfriend, but she needs to let him see her funny side.
How will the readers know I was actually there and saw what happened? By reading scenes where I describe what I experienced with my five senses. There’s the challenge. So many scenes. So few words. Like every writer who has ever written before me, I wonder if the editor has any extra words he can spare for me. Doubt it.