Lessons from Seoul

Making an encore appearance…my guardian angles

Have you ever had a time when you feel a bit lonely even though you are in the middle of lots of people? Say 20+ million? That happened to me the other day…in the middle of Seoul where so many people reside that it’s virtually impossible to find a place of solitude even if you really wanted.

It started with one incorrect assumption on my part…that I knew exactly where I was going to be dropped off by the local bus. It wasn’t a totally stupid thing to think, I had taken this bus last year, or so I thought, and had remembered exactly where I needed to get off in order to find the local train station. Only this time, when those bus doors opened and I landed on the sidewalk nothing at all looked even remotely familiar. I quickly realized one of three things had probably just gone wrong for me.

1) The bus route had changed from last year

2) They’ve really been constructing the buildings quickly around here and that’s why the skyline is different

3) I had mistakenly gotten on the wrong bus.

Whatever the reason, I soon had that sinking feeling of “where am I” and “will God give me the gift of speaking in Korean tongues right now?”

The gift of tongues didn’t come to me, but I think God gave me another visit from my guardian angles who travel with me wherever I go. (See my blog about Africa and the car with flat tires) After I wandered around a bit I eventually came across a nice group of Koreans who could see my confusion of how all these buildings had appeared so quickly since last year. They were willing to help walk me to the train station after I repeatedly pointed to my subway map and tried desperately to pronounce the name of the station I was looking for. One of them even spoke English and helped me buy my train ticket and made sure I got on the correct train.

The whole experience was a great reminder to me of just how much I’m not alone even when I think I am. It was a great reminder to me of the Lord’s promise that “He will never leave us or forsake us.” Deut. 31:6

The Frustration of Simplicity

The other day I had a classic missionary moment (two moments if you include the bus story above). I found it kind of funny so maybe you will too. Back in July of 2006 I spent three weeks in a Cross Cultural training seminar at OMS’s headquarters. I remember sitting in those classes having already traveled around the world two or three times thinking “why do I need to be here?” One day during the training, we were talking about the frustrations of being on the mission field and not being able to accomplish a seemingly simple task. An example was given by the teacher of how he once spent a long time trying to cross a busy street in India but couldn’t figure out how to cross the street. I remember thinking to myself…that would never happen to me! Oh those arrogant words you wish you’d never thought or said!

How could something as simple as crossing the street cause any kind of problem? I can hear you asking the question right now. Before you begin to doubt that you too would ever have this problem (the mistake I had made one year ago) let me explain what happened.

As it was, my friend and I were in a large park wanting to be on the other side of a 6 lane road that separated us from the hiking trail we desired to take. Normally, a pedestrian bridge which was over our heads would have taken us to the other side easily but on this day it was closed due to repairs that were being made. That wasn’t a big deal for we could see that all along the street there were cross walks allowing people to cross the busy street in safety. The real problem however, was that the park we were in happened to be fenced off from the street and the sidewalks that we could so easily see. That’s where the frustration sets in. To be able to see clearly where you want to be and know that, except for one small obstacle, you would be there. We walked down several well worn paths only to discover that they also ended up at the fence. Obviously we weren’t the only ones who had been fooled by the easiness of crossing a street.

Needless to say, we eventually found our way out to the sidewalk and street where we could cross. The experience reminded me though, that even a seemingly simple task like crossing the street can provide challenges for those who are proud enough to think they can’t!