Goodbye, Hello

Today at Shinbok we studied a particularly difficult verse. I wondered if John had messed up the typing or if the NIV version was that bad, but I actually had to use my NKJV to make sure who "him" was referring to. Later I looked online, and John had typed it correctly. In both versions the "who" was particularly difficult because who is never used that way in Korean. I wonder if the Greek is as confusing as the English?!

John 1:18
NIV--No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

NKJV--No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

As we studied the verse I had to struggle to understand it well enough to explain it to them. At the end Octavia asked me for my comment (which they translate into Korean so the kids understand it completely). She doesn't always ask for a comment from me, but I suspect she does when we either need to fill up some more time or she doesn't understand the verse. This was one time I really didn't want to make a comment! But suddenly something popped into my head that made sense and was fairly applicable and easy enough to understand. Something along the lines of, "No one has seen God, but God shows Jesus to us in different ways. Since we can't see God, we must have faith that He is there."

Today the middle-aged guy who always says hello to me joined our study, so it was him, Octavia, John, me, and 4 elementary school boys. A good adult/child ratio! The guy might be one of the assistant pastors, I'm really not sure. His English was at about the same level as the boys'. He was concerned about me going home soon and who would take over. Octavia asked me, as I suspected she might, if I could introduce a new teacher to them. Most of the people I know have already gone home or are going home soon--sorry!

It was Alex and Bridget's last day at Simin today. They'll be around next Sunday, but will be moving out of their apartment to stay with Kendall and Shelly for a few days, so won't be able to make it to church. Their goodbye speeches made me realize how much I'm going to miss things here, but especially that church and the people there. It truly feels like my home, with brothers and sisters and for a while there mothers and fathers (the older people from out at the factories).

David (M.) was back--Professor Cho got him a job at Chungwon National University--nice! It's nearly 2 hours away, though, so he won't be able to make it to Ulsan too often, at least not until he makes some money to buy a motorcycle. It was good to see him again. He said that while he was home he went to 4 different churches but none of them felt right to him--he was glad to be back at Simin.

Should I be leaving a place that I feel such regret about leaving? Or, as Bill said today, is Korea a stepping stone, a training place, for future things? I've certainly learned a lot here, matured, become independent and more assertive, many lessons that should prove valuable regardless of where I end up. I've seen the best and worst of humanity, lost a good bit (but perhaps not all) of my naiveness, learned about negotiating a contract, dealing with difficult bosses and co-workers (in the past I was blessed with excellent bosses and at least tolerable co-workers), and learned how to determine what a person's goal is by largely ignoring what they say and instead paying attention to how they say it, their body language, and the way the situation feels. (For that last one, I mostly learned from interacting with people who wanted to be "friends" solely so they could practice speaking English.)

I had another strange dream Friday morning. Nothing too important, though. I dreamed I was in a tall building for some kind of business meeting. As I was waiting in the lobby for the meeting, I glanced toward the elevators. People were getting on but I recognized one of the people already on the elevator. We had never met, but knew each other from online things (how crazy is that!). I ran to the elevator and got on just before the doors closed. We exchanged pleasantries, mostly along the "Oh, it's nice to meet you in person" type, and then were silent. That was it to the dream. Why did I abandon my (apparently important) meeting to catch the elevator? Why did the elevator take so long to go down? Why weren't the other people making any noise? I must establish some kind of regular sleep schedule!