A Morning Walk

I thought it might be interesting to invite you to join me on my morning walk. I've brought along my camera and will take shots along the way to give you a sense of the expansiveness of Handong's amazing campus. All the buildings we will see have been constructed since 1995. Let's start with a map of the campus. My apartment is in the Mission House located in the southeast corner of the campus -- that's the far right side of the map below. (If you look close, the Mission (Nicodemus) House is designated as number 28).

As we come out of the apartment and stand on the front sidewalk, we'll turn to the right and start walking counter-clockwise around the campus (Which way did you think I would go? My name is Cordell -- "One who pulls (and walks) against the flow ;-)

The first sight that meets our eyes is Grace Hall, one of the student dormitories. We're looking due east as the sun rises behind the Hall. Oh, did I tell you -- it's about 7am, Saturday morning.
As we turn the corner and start heading up along the east side the campus drive, we can see three more student dorms -- Lothem Hall on our right, Creation Hall whose roof peak extends just beyond Lothem, and then, Shalom Hall all the way up the road in the distance. By the way, we're walking up a nice grade at this point as we head toward the highest point on campus.
Let's pause for a moment. We've made it up to the front of Shalom Hall (you may need to catch your breath). Take a look over toward the north. That's the University Chapel. It sits upon the highest point on campus.
Okay, let's walk across the drive and take the side walk along the north portion of campus. The Chapel will be to our right and the big soccer field is on the left. As we come about halfway along the north side of campus we approach the University Administration Building on our left. This sight should look a bit familiar. I took a similar picture when first here at Handong in the summer of 2004. (The older shot is the banner photo on the top of this blog -- can you catch the differences?)

As we continue our walk beyond the Admin Bldg, we come next on our left to the Computer & Engineering Building where Handong International Law School is housed on its fourth floor. This is the graduate law school where I taught during my summer stint in '04.

If we just turn a bit to the right, we get a view of the International High School on the far side of the drive. Let's walk around the corner, now and start heading back south along the west side of campus.
Upon turning the corner, we can get a great view of the new All Nations Hall. This is where the undergraduate School of Law has moved and where I have been provided a great office. Its still under construction, though, so my classes will all be conducted in the older building we just passed. When All Nations is completed later this fall, the graduate International Law School will move into the first two floors and the undergraduate School of Law will take up the entire third floor.

Several more buildings line the outside (right side) of the campus drive as we proceed down along the west end of campus. When we turn the corner to left, we're looking back east and right into the sun, so its a bit difficult for me to capture any photo's without a great deal of glare. I'll try to photograph this portion of the walk later in the day so you can get a better look. I've only shot photo's of the buildings along the campus drive. There are more buildings (Library, Student Center and others) located within the interior of campus. You can get an idea from the campus map we started with above. So now, we'll conclude our first lap around campus as we come back to the Mission House where I live.

That first lap (approx. 1/2 mile in distance) took us just a little more than 15 minutes to complete -- well, we did stop a few times along the way -- didn't we? So, are you ready for a second lap? -- maybe even three?

Foxes have Holes and Birds of the Air have Their Nests, but . . . .

When a disciple responds to the call to follow, it is not a given that he will always be provided a "place to lay his head." At a minimum, it would be inappropriate for the follower to complain about his living accommodations. So, I was thankful when told that I would have a "studio apartment" in the Mission House on the south side of campus. Though smaller than a typical room at your local Motel 6, it provides more than adequate space for all the bare necessities of life. As you can see, I have a bed and desk, table and chairs, small couch, tv (English channels are CNN & the BBC) and fully-equipped Asian kitchenette.




The combination "toilet, shower & sink" bathroom is around the corner from the frig, just to the right when coming in the front door. That's right the whole room is the shower. Though my apartment (room) is somewhat Spartan, I was quite overwhelmed when I was shown into my faculty office in the new All Nations Hall. (My office window is on the third floor, last one on the left before the glass atrium that extends to the corner tower)

The office itself entails more square footage than my apartment! So far, the support staff has moved in a desk, credenza, conference table and chairs, file cabinets, fan (the in-room air conditioning is not yet operational) and one of two bookcases. This afternoon my computer was installed and connected to the University network. I even have dial tone on my phone! Below you'll see a view looking into my office from the hallway. My nine boxes of books are still en route by ship sailing over the Pacific and are not due to arrive for several more weeks. As a result my bookcases will be a bit bare until then.

And, here's the view from the window side looking toward the door.

All in all, I'm very thankful for the provisions made for me here. The office is undoubtedly the largest I've ever had, even when I compare it to the one's I worked in during my years at Lewis Rice. The apartment will do me good during these first few months. When Sandy and I return after the first of the year, we'll be moved into the family apartments on the north side of campus.

Consider the Birds of the Air . . .

No matter where in the world you may be, God displays the wonders of His creation. While he walked the earth, Jesus would often refer to aspects of creation as a means of deepening our understanding of the Father's love and care for His own. One of my favorite commands of Christ is: "Look at the birds of the air" (Matthew 6:26) During my first week here at Handong, I've had the opportunity to take several morning and evening walks. Along the way, I've been treated to a wonderful display of the beauty of God's creation through the birds of Asia.

I mentioned a couple of days back, that one of my first sightings was of a relative of the Great Blue Heron. I found a great website with some amazing photo's of the birds of Korea -- so, though I can't take credit for the following shots, I wanted to give you a view of a few "birds of the air" that the Lord has been using to remind me of His presence here.

This is a Purple Heron. He's the one who was flying low over the rice fields in the valley behind the Mission House where my apartment is located. Then, while on my morning walk today, I spotted a little guy who I thought was related to a gold finch, but now I think she was most likely a mountain fulvetta, pictured below.
During my second lap around the campus, I heard a strange call in the trees that lined the south side of the road along the edge of campus near the Student Center. Using my "ears as eyes," I followed the sound of the call until I came upon a very large bird perched about 10 feet up in a tree. It looked like a magpie, but its coloring was more black and light blue, rather than black with patches of white. When I searched through the gallery of Asian Bird photo's, I found this photo of the bird I sighted:
He's called an Asian Fairy Bluebird -- amazing! One of the biggest bluebirds I've ever seen. He's about 3x's the size of an Eastern Bluebird! As I was just about to end my walk and return to the apartment some movement caught my eye in the rice fields that extend to the southeast side of campus. When I stopped to check it out, I was delighted to see again a Great Egret -- elder cousin of the Snowy White that inhabits the river bottoms along the Meramec and Missouri.
These a just of few of the wonders of God's creation that have joined together to greet me in this wondrous land! Even the little sparrow I spotted brought to mind Christ's promise that not even one sparrow can fall to the ground without the Father's knowledge! What a caring and encouraging God we serve!

Happy Anniversary, My Love!

Today, August 26, 2009, marks the 31st anniversary of Sandy's and my marriage. It is the first anniversary through those 31 years that we have spent apart -- by the distance of half-way around the globe. The most difficult challenge I had to face in responding to the call to teach here at Handong was the reality that the first few months would be a time of separation from the one person whom God designed to complete me and counter-balance me in every dimension of my life.

When God calls us, though, He grants sustaining grace and the encouragement and support of both family and fellow members of the Body of Christ. He also has given us many great memories and experiences along our path walking together. The photo above was taken of us a little more than a year ago as we were celebrating our 30th anniversary near the top of Haleakala just as morning was dawning on the Island of Maui. My mother had given us a wonderful gift of a week's stay on the island. Shortly after the photo was taken, we hopped on touring bikes and road down the mountain as we enjoyed the amazing views of the island and the Pacific! It was without a doubt the highlight of our stay on Maui.

The Lord also gives sustaining grace through the wonders of technology. Both my laptop here and our home pc back in Fenton are equipped with webcams, so Sandy and I have been able to video call one another via Skype. Just being able to see her face in real time and hear her voice is a true source of joy. Thank you so much, Honey, for an amazing journey together over these 31 years! I'm so looking forward to the coming months when you will be joining me here. Until then, hold me in your heart.

An Alien Experience

Have you ever felt like an alien? Are you an alien? For the first time in my life I both feel like an alien and I am one, too. Well, that's what the folks at the local Korean Immigration Office call me. I was taken there today in order to apply for my "Alien Registration Card." In Korea, if you're an alien, it is, without question, the card that you don't leave home without -- move over American Express! My experience being an alien, though, provided me yet another opportunity to meet and get to know a new colleague, Prof. B. Harry Jee (that's him in the photo at right).

Though a native of Korea, Prof. Jee has been in the States for many years and is a U.S. Citizen. So like me, he had to come to the Immigration Office and obtain an alien registration card. He had applied for his last week, so as I was filling out the paper work and submitting yet another passport photo of myself, Prof. Jee was picking up his new card. It looks a lot like a driver's licence, but it opens so many more doors in this highly regulated land. Without it, you can't open a bank account or even go to see a doctor -- but with it, all the benefits of living in Korea are afforded you -- well nearly. Prof. Jee explained that Korea, though a democracy (technically), is a closely regulated and guarded country. All of the various governmental agencies share information about citizens and registered aliens alike.

Prof. Jee teaches management, finance and business ethics. Before starting his academic career at Penn State and then serving as Dean of the School of Business at The King's College in New York City for the past six years, Harry had worked for both J.P. Morgan and an international investment banking firm based in Seoul and New York. He was quite the jet-setter, sometimes even traveling around the world in a week as he transacted business in Seoul, New York and London along the way. While waiting in line at the local bank, we shared experiences from our professional lives and realized that both of us had encountered similar challenges as Christians in the throws of the business and legal arenas. Harry's deep concern for imparting a strong sense and practice of business ethics to his students grows out of his own admitted failures to stay true to the path of integrity in the midst of heavy pressures in the business world.

What an encouragement to meet a brother in Christ who is so authentic and genuine! It is exciting for me to realize that I will be benefiting from the devotedness of Prof. Jee as well as his outstanding academic background and professional experiences. Harry truly embodies the spirit and vision of Handong University and, by God's grace and mercy, I hope to be formed and shaped by my service here into a more devoted and responsible follower of Christ in the midst of the concrete realities of life in the here and now -- even though I be an alien in this new land.

Adjusting to Life in a New Land

I’ve now been here on campus at Handong for a little more than two full days. I’m still in the midst of settling in and time seems to be moving along a quite a slow and steady pace. No deadlines, no demands, yet I still feel like I have so much to do before I am ready to begin the fall term just one week from tomorrow. I have a nearly constant sense that I’m completely dependent on others to make my way here – I imagine it is another gentle reminder that I am ultimately entirely dependent upon the grace of God to see my way through each day. (The photo above is of Joyful Church in downtown Pohang where I worshipped with the Enlow's and many other believers this past Sunday)

Yesterday, Eric & Danika Enlow, along with their four children, invited me to attend their home church in downtown Pohang – the church I had, in fact, visited with the Enlow’s when I was here during July and August, 2004. As I waited for them to pick me up at my apartment across campus from them, I stood for a time on my back porch and look over the open rice field that fills the valley below. In the distance, I noticed a large bird taking flight and coming up the valley towards me. As it drew closer, I recognized it as an Asian cousin to the great blue heron that inhabits many of the river bottoms and lake areas in Missouri.

The great blue has come to have special significance for me over the past years. During the summers in the mid-1990’s, I recall how graceful herons looked flying up the Current River on those early mornings when I would be preparing breakfast for my sons, Caleb and Justin, as well as a number of other young men who ventured with us on those week-long wilderness canoe trips in Southern Missouri. There was also the time I sighted a great blue feeding in a creek while out walking in Mountain Brook, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham.

These and numerous other sightings have been through the years another way that I have been made aware that we all live and breathe in the presence of God. Like the wild goose to the Celtic Christians, the great blue heron has become a symbol to me of God’s Holy Spirit. So, when I spotted what looked for all intents and purposes to be a near relative of the great blue flying along the valley behind my guesthouse apartment here at Handong, I was deeply impressed with a sense of God’s abiding presence.

Within a few minutes, the Enlow van pulled up in front and I hopped in (with clean dishes in hand from the wonderful steak dinner Eric had brought over for me the evening before) and we were off on the 20 minute drive into downtown Pohang where Joyful Church is located and a modest-sized, international congregation gathers for an English worship service on Sunday afternoons.



Believers from Kenya, Cambodia, Canada, several European countries, Australia and the States, as well as Korean Christians eager to improve their English language skills, all joined together to sing songs of praise and worship and to hear the Word preached and taught. It was a true time of spiritual refreshment! When it came time for the visitors to introduce themselves (a local custom of churches in Korea) to the congregation, I took my cue from Prof. John Lee who had taught me the wonderful expression – “The Christ in me greets the Christ in you!”

Eric preached an encouraging and challenging message from Daniel 9 on God’s covenant of love and the promise of the coming Messiah that came in response to Daniel’s prayer of confession and appeal for God’s mercy on His people. The entire afternoon provided a delightful time of fellowship with the one Body of Christ. I was reminded that there is only one Body, one Lord, and one faith for all who Christ has called to Himself!

After church, the Enlows took me shopping and then Eric treated his family and me to a stop at the new Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop. Who would have thought that I would be enjoying an enormous scoop of mint chocolate chip on my second day in Korea! What’s more, right next door to Baskin-Robins is a Dunkin Donuts! Danika informed me that this was one of their family’s favorite spots for treats, although Eric admitted that the ice cream couldn’t stand-up to Ted Drewes. I wonder if we two St. Louisans should open a Korean branch of that frozen custard fav!

Later that evening after returning to campus and setting-up the apartment with a few of the items I’d purchased (fan, desk lamp and CD player), I prepared myself “breakfast for dinner” – something I’ve been known to do around the Schulten household. The menu – scrambled eggs, bacon and toast – however, the bacon is as thin as paper – nothing like the thick slices provided by my mother from Jenning’s Market in New Franklin that had become a standard item for our monthly men’s breakfasts at West Hills. All-in-all though, it set well and ushered me off to my second night of sporadic sleep – still trying to get adjusted to living on the other side of the earth from St. Louis.

Reminders Along the Journey

By God’s good and gracious hand, I have arrived safe and sound here at Handong. (The photo to the right is the new Library and at the far right is the connecting wing to the new "All Nations Hall" where the School of Law is located.)

Each stage along my flight travel path was marked with reminders of God’s presence. My connections from St. Louis to Los Angeles (LAX) and then along to Seoul (INC) Incheon were smooth sailing and on time. I even was able to sleep a total of 6 hours on the 12 hour flight across the Pacific – well actually, the flight path went north to Alaska and the over the Bering Strait to the eastern coast of Russia and down ultimately to Korea. There was hardly any turbulence and the flight seemed like the shortest I’ve ever flown from the U.S. to Asia.

Once I arrived at Incheon International Airport (one of the largest in the world and recently rated one of the best) very early Saturday morning (Korean time), I began to encounter those reminders I mentioned before. As I made my way through Immigration and Customs, I was directed toward an elevator that would convey me from the International terminal to the Domestic one, though, I wasn’t sure which way I was to go upon leaving the elevator. I was provided a guide in the person of Kim Jong Il (not the dear leader of the North but a pastor of a Presbyterian Church in the city of Daegu).

As we conversed during the elevator ride he asked me where I was headed, and I said that I was looking for the Asiana flight over to Busan and then from there I would be provided a ride up to Pohang where I would be teaching at Handong Global University. To my very pleasant surprise, Pastor Kim advised me that he not along knew of Handong, he had even met Prof. S.K. Lee while on a mission trip last year in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This was an amazing and wonderful confirmation of the Lord’s direction.

While back in St. Louis, it was not usual for me to experience two degrees of separation when I met a person for the first time (the person knew someone that I also knew – since as it is often said, that St. Louis is the biggest small town in America), but to experience two degrees of separation with the very first person I met in Korea was simply a wonder! As we continued to talk, Pastor Kim told me that he was also familiar with Covenant Seminary in St. Louis since he too was a Presbyterian. He had even heard President Bryan Chapel from Covenant preach at a sister seminary in Seoul a few years back. In short course, Pastor Kim had guided me to the Asiana ticket counter, encouraged me in the Lord, and even invited me to preach at his church in Daegu which is only an hour’s drive from Pohang. Any yet, the reminders of God’s presence and directing hand were only beginning.

As I sat down near the ticket counter, I noticed a sign indicating that the counter would not be open for over an hour. No problem, I had plenty of time to check-in and make my connecting flight to Busan later that morning, so I settled in a chair nearby and began to read. I soon noticed a young lady at the end of my row who also had an open Bible in her lap that she was reading in between times of closing her eyes and opening her palms upward it what I could only conclude was a posture of prayer. How often would you see that in an American airport? It was to me another gracious reminder of God’s presence in this amazing country!

Later, when I took my place in the ticket line, I was standing just behind a young Korean woman who turned to ask me, in nearly perfect English, where I was traveling. When I said that my final destination was Handong University in Pohang, a smile came over her face. She told me that she was on her way home to Busan from California (she had actually been on the very same flight I was on from Los Angeles to Seoul). She had just graduated from a small college in California where her aunt and uncle lived. Before college, she had also attended a Christian high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania – totaling six years in the States and explaining why her English was so fluent.

Her smile, though, came from the fact that she was in the process of applying to attend Handong in the next academic year. I don’t know who was more encouraged by the encounter – her or me. The young lady’s name was Choi and she said that while she was very excited about the opportunity to attend Handong, she was a bit apprehensive because she did not know if she could meet the university’s rigorous admission standards. I encouraged her to seek God’s calling on her life and trust Him to lead and open the doors for her further education and service.

A few moments later, Choi struck up a conversation with a young, blond, mid-20ish looking American fellow standing behind me. He was on his way back to a town in the country side of Korea where he will be starting his second year as an English teacher. I was shortly brought into the conversation and learned that the young man had graduated from Colorado Christian University in Denver. He is also planning hoping to do graduate studies in international relations after he finishes his second of teaching.

I commended him for choosing a great “gap year” experience (though in his case, it was “gap years” – the year or two between completing one’s undergraduate studies and before going on to graduate or professional school) and then told him of my son Caleb and daughter-in-law Micaela’s experiences traveling around the world with Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Now, this young man now began to smile. His name was Caleb, too! While many might say this was just another “coincidence,” in my book of life experiences, it was yet again a small, yet wonderful reminder of God’s presence and guidance in our paths. And, those reminders were still to continue this day.

Upon my arrival in Busan, I was met by the smiling face of Professor Seong Hoon Kim, who directs the undergraduate international law program in which I will be teaching as a visiting professor this year. During a beautiful two-hour drive north along the eastern coast of Korea, I learned that Prof. Kim and I shared a number of professional experiences. He too had practiced for a large law firm before leaving the practice to teach. One of his main practice areas was, like mine, business litigation. His area of special interest in his teaching focuses on Antitrust and other unfair competition laws. The course I had taught at Handong International Law School back in the summer of 2004 was U.S. Antitrust law.

And the parallels don’t end there. Not only is Prof. Kim engaged in full-time teaching at the University, he is also a PhD candidate at a university in Seoul where he travels each week to attend one class a term. For the past three years while teaching at Fontbonne, I’ve been a PhD student at Concordia Seminary, taking one class a term. And, while his studies concentrate on Korean business competition law and my studies revolve around the intersection of law and theology via ethics, we both need to gain a competency in the German language – for him, because German law has been the greatest influence upon the development of Korean business (commercial) law and for me, so that I can read Bonhoeffer in his the language in which he wrote.

Are you saying “coincidence” again? Well, maybe – but when so many are added one upon another in such a short space of time, I can only say that they have been an amazing series of touches to my heart and mind as I undertake this new beginning in a place half-way around the world from those I hold so dear who I’ve been called, at least for a time, to leave behind. And, you might say that the reminders I’ve experienced thus far in this day should be more than enough to encourage any doubting heart, but God was not finished reminding me that he not only was now directing my path but that He has also been directing it to this place at this time for many months and years past.

This final reminder came after Prof. Kim had treated me to a great Korean bar-b-que lunch (known as “galbi”) and then shown me to my apartment in the University’s faculty guesthouse. As I was settling-in to the apartment, I noticed that there were a few items I needed from the campus convenience store. So, I took the short walk to the store and began searching for the items I needed. I walked up and down several aisles and then turned to the next only to nearly collide with a young man – a student – in fact, a law student from Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I had met Samnang there in January, 2008, when I was with Prof. S.K. Lee teaching a seminar to both Cambodian and Korean law students at the Royal University of Law & Economics. Sam is the first of the RULE students to come to study at Handong International Law School. His smile was the biggest of all that had greeted me this day!

My first day here at Handong came to a delightful conclusion as Prof. Eric Enlow (also from St. Louis) and his young son, Gunner, came over to my apartment with their arms full of treats and household items – a warmer welcome wagon gift has never been given! We enjoyed an encouraging conversation as I recounted to Eric how God has been extending His gracious hand of blessing through reminders of His presence throughout the past 24 hours. The verse from Psalms came often to mind: Let us give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy is everlasting!

Here's a photo of the Guesthouse where my apartment is located. My door is the one on the lower level at the right.