Sonday!

Man, was this a day. Sunday gave me affirmation from God that I'm doing what I'm supposed to. I woke up at my newly appointed time of 6am (What is wrong with me?!) and sent a kakao message to Mr. G asking if he planned on eating before going to church. I had corresponded with both Mr. G and a K-PACE professor on Friday, the day that I arrived to make sure I had a church to go to, and a ride.

Heavy G the type of guy to not answer your message, but just pop in your room to answer you. A true OG. So, he pops in a bit after 8 and tells me that we will be going to the late service around 5pm or 6pm. This is cool with me cause I don't have anything going on yet. About an hour later, he comes back and asks if I'm ready to go to breakfast. Food sounds good, so I tell him of course! Unfortunately there is a truncated menu on Sunday's and I have to settle (LOL cause it's awesome) for bulgogi bibimbap. Afterwards we get in the car and start driving towards the city. Oh, ok church time now? That works.

This church is about a half hour drive from campus, and is in downtown Daegu. We drive past the professional baseball team's stadium, among some other landmarks. (Like a brand new giant Costco being built). Since Korea is so cramped for land, things tend to be built upwards instead of out like they are in America. For example, the McDonald's we went to for lunch was at least 2 floors, and the Starbucks we went to afterwards was 3.

So. Church. I didn't know what to expect. I had heard so many things about churches in Korea. Ranging from cult activity, to megachurches in Seoul with nearly a million members! Turns out this church is almost identical in sanctuary size to my ODM church at home. The congregation has a few more members, but the two are very similar. Ok, this is cool. Heavy G sits down next to me while the announcements are going on. Next to us is one of the professors from the university who I also spoke to about going to church with. He hands me his phone with the Korean and English bible verses on it so I was able to follow along. We were studying Genesis chapters 37 and 39 where Joseph has his dreams, but I wasn't really able to follow along since everything was in Korean.

After the service we decide to go get lunch. The choice was to stay at the church for Korean food or go to McDonald's. Well I was alright with McDonald's because of course, you guessed it. (I don't have any cash still). We get to McDonald's and one of the guys with us speaks English pretty well so I let him order for me. I wanted your typical double quarter pounder with cheese value meal. However, that's not an option in Korea. Only the single quarter pounder. It seems they get the double ordered enough where it is not a problem, considering they had wrapping paper with double quarter pounder already written on it.

A McDonald's menu in Daegu, South Korea.

There were 4 other guys that had joined Heavy G and I for lunch. Three of them were too shy to talk to me or even ask me any questions. I've found this is pretty typical here. I assume it's mostly my giant stature, but being American probably has something to do with it. After lunch the other 4 had to go back to church to start working on the youth praise practice, so Heavy G and I decided to hit up Starbucks.

The Starbucks menu was surprisingly close to the one in America, with just a few added words here and there. For example, my Chocolate Chip Frappuccino in America, was a Chocolate Chip Dream Frappuccino here. Heavy G and I sat and talked for about an hour, mostly about his love of cars and his family. Then it was time to head back to church for the youth sermon. I was not prepared for what happened next.

We walk back to church and outside are a bunch of kids playing. Some of these kids have hockey sticks. That's cool, I know one of the rich parents in Daegu had donated some ice hockey things recently, and there is a growing base of hockey interest here. We go back to our seats from before and sit down, but Heavy G has to leave to go use the bathroom. While I'm sitting there an elderly Korean lady comes up behind me and speaks to me in nearly perfect English. She asked my name and where I was from. (She assumed Canada, so I'm going to return the favor and assume she lived in Canada as well).

As we are talking, kids start coming up by the bunches asking for my autograph. I have no idea what was told to them, but I'm sure they assumed I was a professional hockey player. Of course I wasn't going to let them down so I signed everything they asked me to including random pieces of paper, blades of sticks, and even lettering of sticks themselves multiple times. One rambunctious young-ling wanted my signature on all 3 white letters of his CCM one piece. Meanwhile the piano player from the main service comes up and introduces herself as well. She speaks excellent English, and ends up volunteering to be my personal translator for the youth service.

This is awesome, I feel like a celebrity. In fact, the pastor even stops his sermon to tell me how handsome I am, and that I look like a movie star. This was particularly awkward and funny because my poor translator had to translate this to me while everyone was looking at me waiting for a reaction. Imagine that scene in your head. Haha, I was very gracious and laughed it off.

With my personal translator I was able to finally hear what the pastor was preaching about in his first sermon. This is where I got my affirmation from. He was talking about how Joseph had a dream, and how important dreams are to us. Not only dreams while we are sleeping, but dreams of goals in our lives. The pastor again stopped his sermon to ask what my personal dream was. Well boy was I ever prepared for this one! I told him that I was living it. To be here was my dream. My translator relayed that on and he was ecstatic.

The sermon continued on and we finished with a hymn and some small group action. The guys that ate lunch with us still weren't able to come up with questions for me until they were prodded. They asked where I was from, and if I was married. The usual. Eventually we had to take our leave and head back. I now understood that Heavy G had been talking about getting back around 5 or 6 instead of going to the 5 or 6pm service.

We got back and had some more food and rested. (Lest as my RA buddy's call it). A very successful and exciting day indeed. I was overwhelmed with joy after spending the day at church. I could tell their church was alive with the holy spirit. It was a much more vocal congregation than my one back home, almost had a southern soul feel to it. People shouting "Amen" and speaking in tongues even. Things I had never heard before, I had only heard of them. I am excited to go back again this week and have a personal translator again. Being a celebrity in Korea is good.

TL:DR I'm in Korea.