Engaged!

As the title suggests, I am engaged! I proposed to Lexi Stevens on Feb. 21st at the National Arboretum.

During this past Discipleship Training School (DTS) I staffed, I happened to befriend a young lady who was also on staff. She was not staffing the DTS but was on staff with Washington House of Prayer (WHOP). When I began staffing at the Youth With A Mission (YWAM) DC base, I did so without the intention of walking out with a relationship after finishing the DTS; surprise, surprise, a little before the end of the lecture phase, we started dating. Following the lecture phase was the outreach phase. Usually the outreach portion would take the DTS to another country and my team would eventually go overseas, but thankfully, I spent the first forty days of outreach helping facilitate David's Tent DC. This allowed me to build more relationship with her. We would work together at David's Tent and also by preparing meals for the students during a part of the event. 

Before New Years, I went to Seattle, WA to visit her and her family. I spent a little over a week there getting to know her family. I had a wonderful time there. Although, I unfortunately dislocated my shoulder hiking with Lexi, her sister and brother-in-law (but that story is for another time). After meeting her family, we flew back to DC to start staffing together. I didn't end up staffing very long though. I needed to get a ring for her. After being back for 5 days the Lord provided a job for me. 

For a little over a month, I worked as a fire watcher. Supposedly, there is a law that how a person must be present and watching property in cases where the fire alarm system has been shut off for maintenance or repair. It keeps companies and insurance groups from lawsuits.  So I watch buildings and make sure they are not on fire. Through this job, and with help from my dad, I was able to purchase the perfect ring. 

I'm currently not fire watching but am looking for work. While we were both involved in YWAM Kona, we didn't meet until YWAM DC. June 22 is the date we have set for the wedding but after that, we don't have any solid plans yet. Lexi and I both have a heart for missions but we want to be obedient to what Jesus says no matter what. 

A short one

David's tent is over and we are now about to leave for Israel.  David's tent was successfully completed with over 1000 hours of worship logged through various bands from different states and some from other countries.  

As I write this, I am hours away from leaving for the airport. This past weekend we had provision come in as we were prayed for and commissioned out from Embassy Church. 

A quick story.  One of my students did not have his passport to go.  He had submitted an application for renewal but his passport had not come in for over a month even with expedited services.  This weekend we searched frantically for options and realized that this Monday was a federal holiday so the post office would not be open.  After praying and trying to find other options, his passport arrived this morning.  Some how he received his passport in the mail today!  God is so good!

Please keep us in your prayers as we go to Israel. 

David's Tent Outreach

Lecture phase has officially ended and outreach has begun.  I can't believe that 3 months have passed so quickly.  The last week we did outreach prep and we will go in to preparing for David's Tent at the White House Ellipse.  This is an amazing opportunity for us as well as anyone who wants to join us on the ellipse.  For this outreach we have actually moved back to southeast D.C.  We actually live in an old ministry center that YWAM DC used to run out of.

David's tent kicked off last night, Sept. 24 and will continue until Nov. 5.  Worship will be live and going for 24 hours a day.  For more information you can check out www.davidstentdc.org.  My outreach team will be helping facilitate this worship event.  We currently are on different shifts to keep watch during the tent.  My team has 1PM to 7PM and 7PM to 1AM while the other 12 hours are covered by the other teams on the base.

Although I am on outreach, I have not met my financial goals for support.  I am still in need of support for the rest of this outreach.  Part of it being in Washington, D.C. and the other portion in Israel.  Please pray for me in this area that I would be able to complete this outreach.

How I see the world...

How I see the world matters when it comes to living out biblical Christianity.  This past week our speaker presented Biblical Christian worldview and Secular worldview and the importance of knowing scripture to live out how God told us.  Worldview is how the lenses through which we see the world. Many things affect how we see the world around us but not all of those things are from God.  We need to allow the bible to be the lens that we look through to see and understand the world around us.

 Tom

Some of the statistics Tom gave were staggering.  It's not that I hadn't heard them before but the urgency of preaching the gospel and discipling minds hit me again this week.  Here are some of those statistics:

In a survey taken 13 years ago in churched youth:

-63% didn't believe that Jesus is the son of the one true God

-58% believed all faiths taught equally valid truths

-51% didn't believe Jesus rose from the dead

-65% didn't believe satan is a real entity

-68% didn't believe that the Holy Spirit is a real entity

-It was also estimated that about 69% to 94% of churched youth are leaving the traditional church after high school, and very few are returning.

It also seems that it has not gotten any better.  In fact, out of the all the generations in the last 100 years it seems that this generation is the most biblically illiterate, which means that the current generation does not know their bible.  I have also heard that we currently have the most Christian literature published in any given time period, even things about the bible but young people do not know their bible.  Although this may seem like a grim reality hope is not lost.  There is also a hunger in young people to find out who the one true God is.  

ASL and David's Tent DTS w/ Tom

I pray that this hunger will drive the youth in America (and even over seas) to seek after Jesus and to find out who he is.  If Christians would live according to what their bible said there would be radical transformation in society.  But more than that, God is greater than the problem at hand.  All our human efforts may produce little to no fruit but with God all things are possible. Continue to pray for the revelation of Jesus to come again to America.

Save the Lost, Revive the Saved, Train them All

David's Tent DTS Students and Staff

The past 2 weeks, weeks 6 and 7, have been a jam-packed.  We started in Lancaster, PA for the School of the Circuit Riders.  Driving up from Washington, D.C., we spent a week participating in a school that started 2 years ago.  2 years ago I was a part of this school and came for outreach in D.C.  This was a more condensed version of the same school and for way more students.  We started with about 300-350 people and the last night session came to about 1,600+ people.

The idea of Circuit Riders is based on the old methodist pastors who would ride circuits around the United States preaching the gospel from horseback to all of America.  This training school was set up to teach people wherever they were to preach the simple gospel.  The motto of this school was:

Save the lost, Revive the saved, Train them all.

Night session in Lancaster

With 3 sessions of lecture and 2 portions of outreach, we saw a total of 320 people who came to know the Lord and over 60 healings.  There were portions where night sessions exploded in spontaneous worship because of the freedom and gratitude in the hearts of the people attending.  I wish I could recount all of the things the Lord did this week but this is just a very short summary.  One personal highlight for me was that I was able to reconnect with my YWAM family and friends who I haven't seen in over a year.  

From this training week we went straight to Virginia Beach to do some more practical application.  In Virginia Beach we helped run a youth camp called Culture Shift which was geared to help youth stand strong in their faith as well as preach the gospel in their high schools.  The age range for the students ran from 10 to 18 and it really impacted the youth.  During the week they went and did outreach in the local community preaching the gospel at parks, beaches and malls and they saw at least 12 people come to the Lord.  I can't seem to remember the exact number.  The youth also shared many testimonies of personal breakthrough.

Jason Hershey and Andy Byrd 

It was so encouraging to see what God was doing within the United States.  There seems to be more and more evidence that God is moving in the US. On one of the last nights during Circuit Riders Andy Byrd shared Reinhard Bonnke's word for America.  Reinhard Bonnke is an evangelist who has seen millions come to the Lord in Africa.  He said that for so long America was the offering plate to see revival in America but not anymore, God would move in America and all of America would be saved.  Such a statement of faith from a man who has been so faithful to see the Kingdom of God come to Africa.  Even in our current situation, I believe America can be saved and that the greatest move of God has yet to come for America.

You can be a part of this movement too by directly going out evangelizing and praying for America but also by supporting missionaries like me.  I am currently still in need of financial support for the David's Tent DTS and outreach. You can go to the financial support page at the top and using one of the donation methods.

David's Tent DTS week 1

Hello everyone!

Stairwell worship

To do a quick summary of what's been going on in my life I just wanted to mention that I had started staffing in Youth With A Mission in Washington, D.C. since the end of May.  I've been busy helping move this group from a different ministry center.

Last year when I staffed we were working out of a place called the Gatepost.  This year, God has moved us out of that location and brought us to Embassy Church in Northwest D.C.  The pastor of this church has allowed us to move into the church and use the different facilities to run the DTS. For several days over the last 4 weeks, we have been moving furniture into storage, out of storage and into the church.

DTS students at a monument tour

The DTS officially started on June 27th with the arrival of our students.  Most of the students are from the DMV area but one came from Hawaii.  We also have an American Sign Language DTS that is running along side of us and it has been such a privilege to have the ASL DTS running in D.C.  From our research, it seems that this is the first all ASL DTS to ever run in the history of YWAM.

We currently have a prayer room that just started running 24-hours a day 7 days a week and any one is welcome to join us.  Just feel free to contact me to arrange a time.  We are also looking for slots to fill the hours through the day.

Jeremy Bardwell

The first week of lecture was on the culture of the Kingdom.  Jeremy Bardwell was our speaker from Harrisburg, PA.  He did well to connect with both the ASL and David's Tent DTS students.  The topics covered were things like stewardship and excellence, happy holiness, and different principles of Christian life.

I hope to write more soon but its been pretty busy adjusting to a new schedule and new responsibilities.  Please keep me in your prayers!

3 Weeks and Beyond

I am currently writing this from my work-study job at Frederick Community College (FCC).  In 3 weeks, I will have finished my course work for my AA degree in government/politics and graduate from FCC with honors.  I can't wait to be finished and the 3 weeks could not come sooner.

As this time at community college comes to an end new opportunities have presented themselves.  Because of a scholarship procedure, I will be postponing my undergraduate studies at a 4-year university for a whole school year.  In the meantime I will be transitioning back to YWAM temporarily.  During the summer I will be staffing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) in Washington, D.C.  This will run similarly to the schools that I had staffed previously as well as the school I participated in as a student.

This DTS will also emphasize David's Tent during the outreach.  (I'll re-explain this in another post). The emphasis will be in doing worship and prayer 24-hours a day for about 40 days during the outreach phase.  There will also be an outreach overseas as well.  By the time this finishes, it will be around mid-December.  Following the DTS, I plan on going to Kona, HI for natural farming and school of photography provided by YWAM.

Hopefully, these plans will come to fruition but ultimately it is all in God's hand.

All the way from VA beach

(This post is a continuation of the last post and should have been published months ago but school took precedence.)



Continuing with tours, on another day, we had an opportunity to do the tour in the Capitol building.  This tour was not any different from the tours that are given on a daily basis in the building.  In a previous post, I wrote about a different tour we had done as a group with the wife of a former Congressman.  That specific tour was done in a very different way than the tour done with the youth group.
The tour guide gave us many different historical details from the construction of the building, the art on the walls, monuments of historical figures, intricate details of the architecture, and the significance of different rooms in the building.

After the tour, Jason, the leader of YWAM DC, discussed the implications of the things we heard during the tour.  It was also a debriefing time for the youth group students to share what they felt the Lord was saying to them.

As well as praying in some of the senate buildings, the team spent some time at the steps of the Supreme Court building life-sieging for the ending of abortion. God is stirring passion among the younger generation. 

From Indiana

During the last few weeks of my time in YWAM DC we had two youth groups come through that partnered with us in ministry.  The first group came from Indiana and joined us for about a week.  Here are some of the things we did.

One of the things we did was a monument tour.  This tour is not like the other tours in Washington D.C.  While most tours will give the historical aspects of the monuments, this tour includes the Christian perspective.  Our guide for the night is also the leader of YWAM DC.  He often asks the question, "Where was God in all of this?"  He tells his personal journey with God as well as giving the history of America with God in the picture.  While most of the youth group students have learned about the history of the United States without Jesus, this was a chance to revisit history with the perspective of God.

This tour was a very long one.  We went from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the Jefferson before returning to the vans.  We cover various topics from the Civil War and abortion to God during the founding of the United States of America.  We walked well into the night touring the monuments for several hours and pondering the implications of God and country.

 One of the ministries that we did was putting together school supplies for the under-privileged in the lower income areas.  The ministry center that Washington House of Prayer runs out of a place called the Gatepost located in southeast Washington D.C.  This part of D.C. has many people living in government housing and the demographic is predominantly African-American.  We assisted the pastor of the Gatepost put together bags of school supplies.  Most of the children are at risk to drop off and supplying materials for school allows them the change to succeed.  The pastor mentioned that when a student does not have proper school supplies, teachers do not give as much attention to them putting them at greater risk of not completing school.

For this week, most of our times was facilitating their outreach instead of actually working directly with them.  We provided worship times and rides around D.C.  All in all, it was good preparation for the next time that was going to come.

Course Correction

I was hoping to write this blog from an airport lounge or maybe even from Tajikistan letting you know that I had made it safely or was on my way to my final destination, but as with all things with the Lord, my plans are subject to change with what the Lord wants.

Map of Pakistan

Yesterday, I talked with my outreach partner Tim and we decided that we were not going to make this trip.  During the phone call we decided that it would be best to not make this trip.  Pakistan is still on out minds and we hope to make a trip out soon but as of now it is postponed.  We still believe that the Lord spoke to us about going to Pakistan and these things have not changed.

There were a couple factors for me that prevented me from making this trip.  One of the reasons we cancelled the trip was due to the lack of finances by this past Sunday.  Our goal was to leave Sunday and return by the 18th or 19th of August.  By the end of this time I was still $2800 short.  Another factor currently is that our visas are still being processed at the Pakistan Embassy.  The normal process should not have taken as long but for some reason there seems to have been a delay.  There were other factors in the mix but these are the two main reasons.

Both Tim and I will be losing money for the visa process fee and hopefully we will be receiving our passports back from the embassy very soon.  Through all this we feel we have done our part to be obedient to the Lord with preparing ourselves for this journey and should the opportunity arise again, I shall be attempting another trip to Pakistan.

In the mean time, I will be at Washington D.C. House of Prayer/ YWAM DC until school starts.  We currently have a youth group outreach team visiting us from Indiana.  They will be here until Friday and will be doing ministry with us.  Next week, there will be another youth group outreach team. This team will be from Virginia beach and has been said that they are a radical bunch.  Both of these teams will help till the ground for revival in America as well as the David's tent event in the fall.  I will hopefully be posting more information on David's tent very soon

On a different note, I feel that my blog has primarily been used to send out little posts for support raising and although it is necessary, I feel it takes away from the point of this blog.  I created this as a way to give out updates on what I am doing in missions.  To be certain, I will always have financial need doing missions but that is not the main purpose for this blog site.  So unless it is a special circumstance, I will try to leave my financial support information on a separate page while updating the main post with different events and activities that I have, am, or will be participating in.

Upcoming season

Our base leader praying on the mic

My season at YWAM-DC is coming to an end and a new season is beginning.  My time here in the United States Capitol will conclude with a trip to Tajikistan and Pakistan Lord willing.

This season has been one of realigning with the things Jesus had done in the past.  It was a time of being reminded of the journey I have already walked through and new adventures ahead.  This was also a time of rebuilding disciplines of spending time with the Lord and prioritizing His presence.  We spent many mornings as a team praying at the President's Park as well as worshiping at our main base location.

Praying in the morning
and mapping out the tent

At the moment, I am still waiting for my passport to return from the Pakistan Embassy with a tourist visa.  I am also still in need of funding for plane tickets and ground fees for both Tajikistan and Pakistan.  Although it seems impossible for us to go with such short notice and as almost a last minute trip,  I feel that I am supposed to believe for the impossible to happen because what is difficult with man is not difficult with God.  There has not been much change with my financial status but I have faith that breakthrough will come.

It is never too late to partner with me to see the gospel brought to the far reaches of the earth. If the Lord moves on your heart and gives you inspiration to donate, you can do so at the http://samuelschoi.blogspot.com/p/financial-partnership.html link.  

Part 2: A thousand words...

I recently was able to purchase a camera for my missionary journeys and already I am seeing the advantage of taking my own pictures to post on my blog.  So here are a few photos of what we do in D.C.


 Every morning at 6:00AM, we gather at this point of the Ellipse, the President's backyard, and we have a time of prayer.  We have been praying for various topics but especially for an event in the fall called David's tent.  More information is available at davidstentdc.org.

Sometimes our leader Jason, has a short group meeting where he might share or invites some of us to share.  Then we take a lap around the ellipse.  We are essentially prayer walking and preparing the grounds for the 40 days of worship.

Every so often we stop in front of the White House and intercede for the President of the United States of America.  

On different occasions, we have different short term teams who come and visit for outreach in Washington D.C.  This particular team was a youth group from Augusta, Georgia.  They had come to do outreach as well as pray with us for America.  They ended up staying for about four days.  We are meeting on the far side of the White House grounds before taking our prayer walk around the ellipse.

 After our meeting, we took our walk as a group.







As posted in my previous blog, we gather together every Tuesday and Friday Nights from 7:00PM to 9:00PM for worship and prayer.  The Augusta team joined us for a couple nights at the beginning of the week and we added some extra nights of worship for the past week.

My trip to Tajikistan and Pakistan is quickly approaching.  I have currently filled out and will be turning in my visa application tomorrow so please keep that in prayer.  Specifically that Tim and I would get our visa's for both countries.  We also have not met our financial goals for this trip.  The majority of the costs of the trip will be for flights to Tajikistan, Pakistan, and back to the states.  I am still about $2800 short for this trip and the date is quickly approaching.  In the natural it seems that this trip will not be happening but I have faith that it will still take place.  So far, I have enough for both of my visas but will still need finances for flights and ground fees.

So, if you would still like to donate to the Tajikistan/Pakistan trip, the link is still available through http://samuelschoi.blogspot.com/p/financial-partnership.html.  It is this kind of partnership that allows missions to exist overseas.  Thanks for your prayer and support.

YWAM-DC pt. 1

1.5 months is about how long I have been working with YWAM-DC/ Washington HOP and it has been quite a journey.  The first couple of weeks was filled with visiting the park behind the White house known as the "Ellipse" because of its oval shape, praying for America and watching the Truth Project videos.  Before I finished watching the DVD series, I had left to visit my friend in Spokane, WA for ten days.  I was there for his wedding and was one of his groomsmen.  Although it had only been 2 weeks since I had joined YWAM-DC, it was a nice break to visit an old friend and celebrate his marriage.

After making it back to Washington D.C., I hit the ground running.  It was back to full time ministry. 

U.S. Capital Building

One of the opportunities that I had was to work with a ministry called Aglow International.  This ministry started out as a woman's group but had recently allowed men to join in.  Although I am not too familiar with this ministry, they are very organized and focused with their mission.  As well as being rooted in prayer and the word, they are also politically active.  The focus of this trip to the nation's capital was Islam and the spread of Islam in America.

Although it does not seem like a topic of concern, the three days of gathering were filled with different people expressing what the problem was.  In any other context, I would feel like it was a conspiracy theory, but because of the evidence that was given, it was undeniable that Islam's influence in America has grown widely.   This is a topic of discussion at a different time and even maybe a different place.

While working with Aglow, we were able to go on an exclusive tour around the capital building.  Ruth Mizell gave us a tour around the building.  Some of the places we were able to access

Ruth Mizell and Aglow leader praying for YWAM

 

 

were the Chapel and the floor of Congress. These are restricted unless accompanied by authorized personnel. Since Ruth Mizell's husband was a retired Congressman, she was allowed to take us to these areas.  We spent time praying over microphones and seats at the floor of Congress.  While most tour groups had to stick to center zones, we were able to go where most people were restricted from.

View from Capital building balcony

This is another example of being allowed to view restricted areas.  This balcony is located in an area where most tour groups are not allowed to enter but because of who we were with, Mrs. Ruth Mizell, we were given access.

YWAM update

Dear friends and family,

I am writing to you because I have some news to share. After a year of working and school, I have decided to temporarily re-enter the ministry. I will be continuing education in the fall but during the summer I will be doing full time ministry.

Youth with a Mission (YWAM) has many locations around the world and the group I have joined is in Washington D.C. YWAM DC’s main ministry is running a house of prayer. They call themselves Washington House of Prayer (WHOP). The current schedule is from 5:30AM to 11:30AM Monday through Friday with evening prayer sets on Tuesdays and Thursdays open to the public from 7:00PM to 9:00PM. During this time we spend time in worship and intercession on various topics. The morning schedule consists of praying by Capitol Hill, video lessons, worship and prayer, and praying on the ellipse side of the White House.

Another event that is coming up soon is a trip to Tajikistan and Pakistan. My friend Tim has a heart for Pakistan and wants to end up doing long-term missions there. This trip will be a scouting trip to Pakistan. From August 5^th, I will spend a week in Tajikistan meeting with the brother of the leader of YWAM DC and a week in Pakistan scouting out the land and praying into possibilities of future ministry for Pakistan. I felt that the Lord had revealed that I should go with him on this initial trip to support his vision and calling.

This brief period back in missions will actually end up costing around $2860. This includes staff fees and groceries while staffing in DC and visa costs, plane tickets, ground fees, and other miscellaneous costs for outreach. Prayer is probably the most important aspect of this trip. Pakistan and the surrounding Islamic nations are very volatile and especially hostile towards Christianity. But a practical way you can support me in missions is through finances.

Please prayerfully consider supporting me financially and in prayer. As I go to the Middle East, a region of the world that is difficult to travel to, your support allows the kingdom of God to advance in such countries as Tajikistan and Pakistan.   The link to donate can be found on the Financial Partnership page.

Thank you for your consideration and prayers.

Be blessed,

Sam

Back in Action

It has been about a year since my last post and it is because I have not been a part of a ministry for the last year.  After the end of Circuit Riders outreach to Washington D.C. I ended up finding work.  Since the end of September, I have been working with a 16 year old boy with cerebral palsy. Everyday I would do a home visit and care take.  He had a certified nursing assistant so I had very little care taking to do but I would take him for walks, take him to the pool, and just making sure he didn't get himself into any trouble.

As I was working, I decided to further my education and started attending the local community college in Frederick, Maryland.  I took 5 courses for the spring semester and I had about 22 credits that transferred in from my previous college.  The semester ended recently and I am happy to say that I was able to finish with high marks.  I have another year of community college left to graduate with an AA in Government and Politics which will allow me to transfer over to a 4-year school after.

This is a condensed version of my last year but at the same time, it wasn't as eventful as when I was traveling.  In between semesters, I decided to rejoin YWAM but not in Kona.  YWAM has many different bases around the United States as well as the world.  The YWAM group that I have joined is in Washington D.C.  They run a house of prayer, known as Washington House of Prayer, as well as do ministry around the city.  They are located in Anacostia which is a ghetto area of DC.

The first day I joined, I dove straight into ministry.  We had a team meeting and a prayer time and I went to do something called Kids Konnection.  A woman runs this ministry and does something called sidewalk Sunday school.  She has modified a truck to become a stage to minister to children in the neighborhood doing activities similar to a Sunday school but outside.  For the past couple weeks YWAM DC partnered with this woman to help her do mini preaching to children. I had a minute segment talking about being "it" for God when we don't always want to be.

Hopefully this update will express the last little part of my life enough.  More to come soon.

D.C. outreach part 2

The Circuit Riders outreach to Washington D.C. has been completed and the group has disbanded temporarily.  Many of the students have gone in separate ways in obedience to what the Lord has been asking of them.  In the last two weeks we have run hard after God and spreading the good news of Jesus.  We saw many people come to the Lord and also have seeds planted in their hearts.

Boldness came upon all of us as we shared the gospel and prayed for the sick.  During our time in D.C. we had a 40 hour straight prayer siege at the Supreme Court Justice building.  In the middle of the 40 hours the earthquake on the east coast hit.  It was also at the end of that week that Hurricane Irene had swept through.

It was an amazing time together in a group of 30 running hard after God and making His name great.

Here is a video on our time at Dupont Circle for worship and evangelism.

I am still paying off the outreach fees so  I am still in need of support.  You can donate here: http://goo.gl/9yldL.

Circuit Riders: Washington DC

Circuit Riders has taken a new turn and is now currently on outreach.  There are teams in Orange County, California, Washington D.C. and Alaska.  There has been so many testimonies about what God is doing

Here is a short video on our first life siege at the Supreme court.

You can help support the cause through prayer and donating here at:  http://goo.gl/9yldL.   Thanks again.

Funeral pictures.

These are the pictures of some of the times during the viewing and funeral service.  It feels kind of weird to post these but I think it will give a frame of reference to some of the things I described in my last post.

Explanations and favor

This is the first time I have experienced the formalities of a Korean funeral.  I don't think I was expecting to be this taken by it in this way. 



example picture, use one from

jjagun abpa



In my last post I uploaded a picture with captions saying I would be in a suit for 3 days.  Korean customs are very different than in America or the west.  Firstly, instead of having an open casket viewing for one day, we have two days from early morning to late night of people coming to pay their respects in a room with a memorial for the deceased.  A portrait is set in the middle with floral arrangements made around it.  The larger arrangements set around the room are from different churches and people.  People come into this room to pay their last respects to the deceased and the family.

The family of the deceased will dress in black.  The sons of the deceased wear a black and white ribbon on the left side signifying their sonship and later will add a white sleeve to the left arm with two black bands in the middle.  The grandsons wear a white sleeve on the left arm with a single black band in the middle.  The women wear a black hanbok (traditional clothing) with a small white ribbon in their hair on the left side.  Each symbolizing that they have lost a loved one and which gender and generation they belong to. 

The procession begins with honoring the dead and then being greeted by the family.  The family is then responsible to feed the guests.  Instead of people bringing food, the family caters to the people coming.  Usually the family would have to prepare all the food but thanks to the times we hired people for the catering.  The guests can stay as long as they like and they will sit, eat and talk for hours.  The family also stays fairly close to the body.  All of the things are happening in the lower level of a hospital.  We are also staying in the hospital in a seperate room.

The atmosphere during this time is actually very light.  For this viewing, it didn't feel like a death but more of a congratulations; a celebration that he made it into heaven.  Many people came and visited from church, distant relatives and friends of different members of the family.  As they visit, they sign in a guestbook and bring an envelope with money for the family that remains on earth.  In the sitting area, people catch up with one another, you can hear laughter and chatter as they reminicse about times in the past and new developments in life.

On the third day, we had a funeral service at church.  Anytime they moved the body, the first grandson, me, would carry the portrait in the arrangement leading the procession of people.  The picture, followed by the casket, and the rest of the people.  Traditionally and historically, they would bury the body near the house and the oldest son would build a tent around the grave and live their for three years.  But, we don't do that anymore.  We will be cremating the body, and since my grandfather was a Korean war veteran, his ashes will be stored at a memorial.

In all of this, one of the craziest parts was watching the hospital attendants dress the body.  It was a very solemn thing to watch but also very amazing.  The Lord's hand was really on it, giving us favor.  The head-dresser was an expert in his field.  He had dressed the body of two of the presidents of Korea who had passed away in recent years.  We didn't ask for a special dressing but they gave us special treatment.  I wish I could post the picture, but because of the family's request I will not upload it. 

As best as I can describe: The first layer of clothing was traditional clothing and then they would wrap the body tight in a layer.  The last layer was of royalty.  By the end he was mummified with a blue color with 12 crosses from the head to the middle signifying the 12 tribes of Israel.  There was a blue cloth folded over in ripples following the crosses down signifying crossing over the Jordan river into the promised land.  There is a crown at the head and feet woven into the cloth symbolizing the crown of life and three sets of cloth of 3 different colors under the crosses.  These 3 sets symbolize Father, Son and Spirit, and the colors represent faith, hope and love.  As they finished wrapping the body, the final knot was in the shape of a flower under the feet.  This symbolized the rose of sharon for the walking in eternity is better than what we have in this life.

And that about covers it for the funeral.  Its not the full explanation and there are some variations.  I'll post more pictures later.

A change in plans

As for Circuit riders....hold that thought.



Picture and floral arrangement
for the viewing



Last night, around 10:30 PM Korea time, my grandfather passed away.  Although it was the primary reason for me being here it came as a shock.  The wave of grief and mourning that came over my family shouldn't have been unanticipated.  When I first arrived I learned that my grandfather had been in a coma for a week and that he was slowly declining.  It was strange to have arrived in Seoul for a funeral when he had not yet passed away.  But if I had not come early, I would not have been able to see him before he died.  Korean tradition doesn't allow open caskets for the viewing so I won't be seeing his physical body again. 



My uniform for the next
3 days


My family was on 24 hour watch at the nursing home with him, so that someone would be with him when he would pass.  My dad's younger brother was at the home keeping watch when his heart rate slowly declined until there was no more pulse.  The rest of the family arrived about 5 minutes after he had passed.  His body was still warm but slowly losing heat.  To me it felt like he was still there, sleeping,  the reality of it still hasn't settled in me yet.  He was in a deep sleep before he passed and now it seems like a continuation of it.  In some ways it is but also its so very different.

On Saturday, we decided that we would all stay a little longer so that we could be here for the funeral, not knowing he was going to pass away when he did.  My original flight day was July 25 but I have extended my stay in Korea until the 31st of July.  The doctors said that my grandpa would have up to a week left but he passed 4 days after we had arrived. 

Now, for circuit riders:  I will be missing 2 weeks of a 5 week seminar.  I'm not fully sure if I should finish it out or if I should just return and be along side the school.  Either way as of now my flight still returns to Kona so I will have some time to decide.  I will also be missing the birthday celebration of my grandfather on my mother's side.  But in it all I know that the Lord has me here for a purpose beyond the funeral that I am not aware of yet.