My Korean Birthday . . .Quite An Auspicious and Lengthy Day!!

What can I say? I think Sandy put it best in her email to me, "Koreans really know how to celebrate!"  And so began the celebrations this past week on Tuesday evening with a "Pre-Birthday Pizza Party" @ one of my students' favorite spots -- "Mr. Pizza"  That's a Hawaiian Special with the candles atop it in front of me.

After enjoying our pizza and endless salad bar feast (the true attraction here -- all you can eat salads!!), we played a hilarious game of "Pictionary" using words and phrases from the case these Law & Advocacy students are preparing for Mock Trial in a couple of weeks.  So, what picture would you draw if the phrase you were given was "in loco parentis" ?

But, the celebrations didn't end there, even though that would have been an amazingly fabulous time.  No, from Mr. Pizza we all walked down the stroll through Yukkuri (the downtown shopping and entertainment district) to what you in the States would call a karaoke club, but what is here called a noraebang (singing room).

That's right, each group that comes in gets its own room equipped with an amazing karaoke machine housing literally tens of thousands of favorite songs from all generations and genres! I'm told this is the number one form of party entertainment in Korea.  I was happy to join right in.  It was my birthday, right??  Well, pre-birthday, at least!!  Ms. YeEun Han, Mr. Vu and I crooned "My Heart Will Go On" together.  What a blast!

The pre-birthday party was so overwhelming that I had to take a day of rest on Wednesday!  Several students stopped by my office during the day, though, to drop off wonderful little gifts and cards.  One, Ms. Ha, even presented me with some home-made rich dark chocolates!!  Couldn't even eat half a bite without a glass of milk!! Amazing!

Another student, Ms. Grimi Kim, brought me two small cactus plants for my office.  Each gift was accompanied with a beautiful card containing more than just the ordinary "Happy Birthday" wishes you find on American cards.  Every card conveyed a hand-written expression of good wishes and prayers.  Then, about 9:30 Wednesday evening I received a call from Ms. Shin, the president of our Law & Advocacy study group asking if she and another student might drop-off "something" at my apartment later on that evening.

"Later on" turned-out to be nearly 11:30pm and the two students turned into over a dozen carrying with them a cake, presents and a large decorated envelope full of birthday cards.  They sang the "Happy Birthday" song twice as the midnight hour approached, and we all enjoyed pieces of the delicious cake.  At the stroke of the new day, they all became the very first to wish me "Happy Birthday" on the Fifth of May!  What amazing students I have!!

Their presents included a beautiful orchid plant for my office and a jar of hard candies that one very special and preceptive student had noticed I particularly enjoy.  They do not miss a beat!!  When I started to open their cards, though, everyone said that I should wait until after they left.  I think they knew that when I read them I might very likely start crying.  And, after they did all depart around 12:30, I read them all and I did.

So now, I have been given a "pre-birthday" party and a strike-of-midnight birthday party, but the celebrations are, in fact, still just beginning.  On the morning of the fifth, I awoke to a beautiful day and took my regular break-of-dawn walkabout campus and was serenaded by some of the most unusual bird songs I have yet to hear here in Korea.  Could it have been that my birthday made me a bit more attentive to their tunes??

By eight,  I was seated on the sidelines of the soccer field with students and fellow colleagues to watch our Law Department men engage the Engineering Department on the pitch.  Unfortunately, our men could not engineer a sufficient number of successful shots on goal, and this one went into the books with disappointment.  It was, though, a hard fought match, and after all, that is what we are daily called to give!

At eleven, I joined with my dear friends from the Pohang International Community core group and we journeyed the short distance from campus to Chilpo Beach, and what a beach party it was!!

We cooked-out and enjoyed a great meal together with the sea breeze blowing in our hair and the sun
beaming down on us!

 Pastor Richie's son, Joseph, presented me with one of my most precious birthday gifts -- an original picture drawn and colored by Joseph to remind me of our day at the sea. (It has now been posted to a prominent spot on my refrigerator).

I even tried to convince Richie that it was a great day to join me in taking a swim in the ocean, but my powers of persuasion were not (fortunately for him and me) sufficiently potent on this occasion.
But wait, . . . . it was my birthday!!! . . . .  don't I get to do what I want to do on my birthday???   Rest easy Sandy!  I didn't end up going swimming, but I did have a thoroughly good time with the best of friends on an amazingly beautiful day at the beach!!  I even jumped for joy!!  Thanks, Boyeon, for convincing I could!!

And, you might think the celebrations had reached their zenith, but you would be wrong!!  We're not done yet!! After returning to campus, cleaning off and out the sand I brought back in my clothes and on my legs and feet, I enjoyed a nap.  Well, it was my birthday, right!  I had to rest because I was due to meet my TA, Ms. Juyoun Han, and three other students for a birthday dinner at Hyoam Restaurant -- the nicest restaurant on campus.

Daniel & Hojong

While it was much more reserved and definitely less rowdy (for Ms. Han would have no other way) than my midday celebration at the beach, we did enjoy our fair share of laughs as I tried to give Daniel and Hojong, who are now both law students at Handong International Law School, some pointers on wooing women.  

I don't think they thought my idea of a first-date walk in the cemetery was all that helpful, though.  Yet, they could not dispute that it at least worked for me.  Just goes to show you how loving and caring my dearest Sandy was and continues to be!  So, as Daniel practiced his French to himself ("mon chéri amour"), Hojong wasted no time in getting closer to one of the fairest young ladies on campus, Ms. Shin, who had also joined in my celebratory dinner.

Hojong, you should really smile a bit more! I know your brute handsomeness is your strong suit, but a winning smile can go far toward melting her heart!  

At the end of the dinner, the four disappeared for a few minutes only to return with a birthday cheesecake adorned with several candles less than 52 -- they would have needed special permission from the fire marshal for that!  It topped-off an amazingly fun and delightful evening.  But wait, there's still more . . . .

After departing Hyoam, we walked across campus to the playing field to cheer on our Law Department girls' wild horse team in their match against the Design Department.  Wild horse is a game combining the intensity of American football, the speed and agility of soccer and the ruggedness of rugby (sometimes). The  team presented me with a great present -- a thoroughly decisive victory!  Go Law!!

So that was it!  I barely made it back to my campus apartment before collapsing!  Although completely exhausted as I was, I couldn't have been happier to have enjoyed such an auspicious day! Sandy was indeed right:  Koreans really do know how to celebrate!  I only wish you could have been here to join in on all the fun, Honey!!

Living More AND Less

(I wrote this brief piece about ten years ago.  I'm recently finding, though, that I need to take heed to its "suggestions" even more so during my life abroad this semester @ Handong).

A common reply to the everyday question “How are you doing?” is often, “Well…okay…more or less.”  Most of us find our day-to-day lives to be somewhere in between the “more” and the “less” of health and wellness, spiritual wholeness and, if we are honest, mental sane-ness. 

May I then make a few humble suggestions to encourage us all to live “more and  less” as a means of growing beyond the “more or less” of life?  I offer these as suggestions, not reproofs.  I readily admit that the biggest beam resides in my own eye as I regularly fail the more’s and much too often practice the less’s.  To some, they may seem trite and clichéd, but I trust to others they may prove helpful in some small way.

With that said, may we all be living by doing . . .

More Reading, Less Watching  
Good books are a treasure.  Search them out!

TV (films, the web) can be a trap.  Watch, above all, your step.

More Listening, Less Talking

Do I really listen?

Or, just wait to talk?

More Walking, Less Sitting

What wondrous things we can see and ideas ponder on a daily walk!

But, oh how stresses seem to weigh us down as we sit.

More Drinking, Less Eating

Water, that is.  Cool, clear water!

Food, yes, food.  Start by reducing portions.

More Helping, Less Hounding

“How may I help you?” is a wonderful way to encourage someone.

“What can you do for me?” is an attitude that often prompts us to pound someone.

More Asking, Less Accusing

Seek to understand before expecting to be understood.

Attribute the best motives to others, rather than accuse them of the worst.   

       

More Giving, Less Keeping

Remember Jesus said that you will be happier by giving than by expecting to get.

The less things we hold on to, the less hold things have on us.

More Thanking, Less Expecting

In everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you.

The way we thank others reveals whether we truly thank God.

So, see the acts of others as their gifts to you, not as efforts to fulfill your expectations.

More Singing, Less Sighing

When a song is first in our heart, then it authentically resounds in our voice.

Sighing, however, is a true downer wherever it resides.

More Conserving, Less Consuming

The good things in life are few – they are to be savored.

The fast things in life are plenty – they favor by fattening.

More Serving, Less Summonsing

Jesus summed-up his life’s purpose in the words: “to serve and to give.”

Don’t expect someone to wash your feet; take up the basin and the towel – today.

What a Wonder a Walk Can Be . . . When Only We Open Our Eyes and Look Up!

Ordinarily on Thursday's my lunch hour is spent with faculty colleagues, but this week's midterm exams prompted the cancellation of our regular departmental meeting.  I was delighted, then, to receive an invitation to join two of my best students for a relaxing lunch on the patio of the campus restaurant.  We sat outside to enjoy the sunshine and the increasingly warmer temperatures that have finally started to make their way to the eastern coast of Korea -- a bit later this spring than usual, I am told.

As our lunch progressed, though, the wind started to pick-up and even blew some exam review papers from the books on our table.  I had to make a quick dash to dab them before another gust took them over the wall and into the woods.  It also started to get a bit darker as some clouds rolled-in.  Today's forecast is calling for rain tomorrow, but it appeared now to be on its way to making an earlier arrival.

Following lunch, one of my students accompanied me on a walk back across campus.  We continued the conversation from our time around the table as we walked.  Then, all of a sudden, she stopped and said, "Professor, look up!"  As I did, I saw what can only be described as a broad brush stroke of blazing color across the clouds.  It wasn't a rainbow.  Yet, the full spectrum of light, from violet through every hue to red, was flowing over the clouds that had gathered above.

We were both stopped flat-footed, awestruck.  It was as if the Aurora Borealis were dancing in the midday sky.  As we stood gazing into the heavens, a few other students came walking by.  Some passed by without a pause, but a few wondered what we were looking at.  As they turned and looked-up, their mouths dropped open.  What a sight!  And, it didn't disappear in a few moments.  It lingered as the clouds moved slowly across the sky.  This "floating rainbow" stretched out its waves of brilliance.

Had I stayed in my office today and done what I ordinarily do -- focused my view on what is below -- the demands of the day -- I would have entirely missed the beauty that was shining above.  I'm thankful I was invited to take a walk.  I'm thankful I was urged to open my eyes and look-up!

In one of his most precious songs, Michael Card sings to his children and tells them of his prayers -- a father's longing for his children to see increasingly the wonder of life that will bring the sunrise of their smile.

Now close your eyes so you can see,
Your own unfinished memories,
Now open them, for time is brief,
And you'll be blest beyond belief,

Now glance above you at the sky,
There's beauty there to blind the eye,
I ask all this then wait awhile,
To see the dawning of your smile.

Looking ahead to Easter morning's sunrise, may I always be reminded to glance above me at the sky!

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.   ~ Colossians 3:14

If I Stand, Let Me Stand Upon the Promise . . .

Something dawned on me the other week.  Actually, it has hit me like a ton of bricks!  I'm at Handong this semester teaching without Sandy.  She's back in the States continuing her nursing studies -- and doing quite well in them, I might add.  When we thought about me returning to teach here this semester, we thought that I could once again make it through a semester even though we would be separated by half a world's distance.

That expectation was based upon the fact that I've done it before.  In 2009, I taught here for a semester while Sandy was still back in St. Louis.  When I returned over the Christmas break that year, Sandy then joined in our return to Handong for the new semester that began in February 2010.  But, there is a big difference now.  Why it hadn't struck me before, I will never know.  But, I know the difference now.

My first semester's hermitage here at Handong in 2009 was during a Fall term.  This time I'm here in hermitage during the Spring!  You know, that time of the year when trees blossom, flowers bloom and birds begin to sing.  On top of the seasonal impact, there are also the many vivid memories of times Sandy and I spent just one short year ago exploring the Korean countryside and culture together.  Consequently, I find myself "longing for my home" a whole lot more these days than ever before while I've been here.

When I get into one of these increasingly more frequently-occurring "down" times, I have resorted to listening to my favorite musicians as a means of encouragement and comfort.  One particular concert given by Rich Mullins and his band back in the late 1990's is available in its entirety on YouTube.  His songs have become favorites and reliable sources of strength in these days when physical weariness only compounds a deeper psychological and spiritual disheartenedness (if that is even a word).

Here's one of Rich Mullins' songs that has been a special blessing to my soul during these cloudy days.  "If I stand, let me stand on the promise that You will pull me through . . . . "


. . . and if I weep, let me weep as a man who is longing for his home."

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 


In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.   (1 Peter 1:3-8)

Playing the Fool . . . and Teaching, too

I'm always trying to engage my students through new approaches that I hope will prompt them to examine different perspectives on the persistent questions of life.  So, this past Friday I thought I might take a slightly different approach to April Fool's Day.  I came to class dressed in a brown Franciscan-like habit and without my glasses or shoes (and sockless, too!).

To say my students were taken aback would be putting it somewhat mildly.  Now, you have to understand that in Asian culture in general (and Korean culture in particular), students are taught to accept what their teachers present to them.  That being said, many were still trying hard to suppress their laughter.  Has professor gone completely crazy?  Has separation from his wife and family driven him mad?  Does he really think that he has become a monk?

None of those questions were expressly stated, but you can be sure most of them were puzzling more than one student's mind.  So what was the point of this first of April performance?  I wanted to do for my new students at Handong what I had first done for students at Missouri Baptist University seven years ago on another April fool’s Day.  In the attire of a follower of Francis of Assisi, I told them his story and how he came to be known as Francis the Fool.

I had been assigned the responsibility of giving the message for the student chapel service at MBU on the first of April.  Earlier that year, I had read G.K. Chesterton's Life of St. Francis.  Chesterton's portrayal of Francis challenged me to think more deeply about what it means to follow Jesus fully.  Francis sought to live as Jesus lived and to love as Jesus loved.  He reached out and touched the leper just as Christ had done.  He left behind the wealth and security offered him by his family in order to find the fullness of life as he took seriously Christ's teaching to consider the birds of the air and the flowers of the field.

Having been so challenged by Francis' life, it was quite obvious to me that I was meant to tell his story in that chapel service on the first of April seven years ago.  I thought it would make a more memorable impression if I told the story as Francis himself.  So, now here at Handong, I wanted to continue the tradition and pass along the lessons from the life of the one who was called "Francis the Fool" -- a name that I'm sure he did not resent since he was seeking to follow the one who many had regarded as "God's own Fool."

Evidently that chapel message seven years ago was memorable.  When one of my Handong student's posted the picture above to facebook during our Friday morning class, one of my former students from MBU, who was on-line at the time, commented within minutes: "I remember that robe!"  I guess, playing the fool can sometimes be an effective means of teaching.

A Most Delightful Place, A Sacred Place, My Favorite Place!

Do you have a favorite place?  A place that you would go if you had the opportunity?  A place that brings you joy? A place of delight?  A place that brings you refreshment?  When my wife Sandy and I first began traveling abroad in the summer of 2001, we tagged along on a mission trip sponsored by Missouri Baptist University where I had been teaching, by that time, for a number of years.

We traveled to England and spent two delightful weeks doing physical labor as we worked on the rehab of a 16th century manor house that had been transformed into a youth camping center.  That place -- The Oakes -- became one of my first favorite places.

Sandy and I were able to return there in May of 2004 and see first-hand the on-going development and growth of a wonderful community led my our good friends, Dan & Billie Thaw. We experienced a true sense of joy as we visited the Oakes and met even more people who were continuing to contribute to its renewal. It has become a special place where the light of truth is being shared with many young people from across the entire United Kingdom.

On that same visit to the UK, Sandy and I were also able to travel to Ireland for the first time.  There we spent a delightful time touring in Dublin, Bray and the surrounding Counties.  One place, though, completely captured me.

It became my favorite place in all of Ireland (granted, I have been everywhere in Ireland, but I'm quite confident that this place will be hard to beat if I ever get back to the Emerald Isle).  The place is called Glendalough -- the valley between the two lakes.  It is the site of an early Celtic Christian community founded by St. Kevin, who lived in the generation just after Patrick.

Later during this tour of the UK, Sandy and I were invited to visit friends in Brecon, Wales.  Our hosts took us out for a day of sight-seeing in the South of Wales.  We drove along the Wye River Valley and came upon one of the most sacred sites in all of Wales -- Tintern Abbey.  It was just above and overlooking this Abbey that Woodsworth wrote his "Few Lines . . ."  My heart had been captured my yet another special place.

Though the Oakes, Glendalough and Tintern Abbey remain my favorite places in England, Ireland, and Wales, my fondness for them has, I must confess, grown somewhat dimmer these days.  Having now returned to the East, one place in all of Korea has become and I'm sure will continue to remain, my most favorite of all.  I first visited this place in July of 2004 when the students who were taking my short summer course at Handong International Law School (HILS) suggested that we take a break from our studies and enjoy a Saturday touring sights in a nearby town.

They drove me to Gyeongju -- the ancient capital of Korea -- and then up the mountains surrounding Gyeongju to a place called "Bulguksa" -- a Buddhist monastery. The experience I sensed upon walking up to the central structures of this place was much like the feeling I had had at Glendalough and Tintern Abbey -- I knew that I was venturing upon a sacred place.  Interestingly, Bulguksa's founding dates back to about the same time as the founding of Glendalough -- around the 8th century.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of making my fourth visit to Bulguksa.  Each time I've been there, I've seen something new.  This time I paused along a path and looked back toward the main stairway that leads up to the central worship area.  I took the picture you see here.

On my three previous visits, I followed the guide book and stopped at a point well to the far west of this main stairway.  This is the perspective you see in all the photo's.  Its a beautiful sight, no doubt (just take a look below), but I now realize that this view does not convey the fullest sense of the beauty of Bulguksa -- the beauty that shines as you see how the structures built there are so carefully balanced with the surrounding natural setting.  I had unknowingly limited my perspective by just looking from the well-known perspective.

What I needed to do was to look at things from a new perspective.  When I did, the wonder and beauty of this place only expanded in my mind.  It has become my favorite place in all of Korea in a new way.  The early blossoms of Spring hint at a coming beauty that will explode across the hillsides as more and more of the cherry trees bloom.

As you walk along the paths that lead you through the grounds, the delight and beauty of this place only become more and more apparent.  Each time I visit, my spirit is lifted and I feel a sense of refreshment that is much more that just what comes from a vigorous walk on a brisk day.  It is more than a physical rejuvenation, it is truly soul sustenance.  In fact, it is difficult to put it into words, because words in themselves seem a too limited means of conveying what the whole of my person experiences in this place.

Simply put, it is now my favorite place. I can't wait to go back!

Truth is Truth whether from the Lips of . . .

I look to C.S. Lewis as one of my model teachers. The portrayal of Lewis' tutorial with his students in the film, Shadowlands, is one of the finest displays of formation-in-process that I can point to in contemporary culture. He challenges his students to explore the significance of a rose as a metaphor for desire. Through a series of questions, he guides his students to ponder a persistent question: "What is desire's one essential quality?" When one of his pupils shrugs-off the answer proposed, Lewis exhorts him into a deeper debate. The student though, at this early point in their relationship, is reticent to take up the gauntlet.

Now, I don't know if Anthony Hopkins' Lewis is an accurate portrayal, but it is an authentically inspiring one to me, and I think it is quite consistent with the Lewis we come to know in his books, especially Mere Christianity and his essays contained in God in the Dock. Lewis' thinking (and his teaching, I would imagine) was significantly formed by the works of the Scottish pastor and novelist George MacDonald. One of the books by Lewis I ever purchased after reading The Screwtape Letters in my high school years was a little paperback entitled, George MacDonald: Anthology. In the preface to this collection, Lewis wrote: "In making these extracts, I have been concerned with MacDonald not as a writer but as a Christian teacher" (14).

Though he had never met MacDonald, Lewis recounts how his works and life, as told by MacDonald's son in the biography he wrote of his father, substantially shaped his approach to writing and to living. One of the most telling quotes that Lewis includes among the 365 extracts (most coming from MacDonald's sermons) composing this little volume is this: "Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam" (27). From the very first time I read that line nearly 35 years ago it was indelibly impressed upon my thinking. MacDonald's words have continued challenged me to listen carefully to many speakers, to read thoughtfully many authors, and to watch observantly many actors.

The search for truth -- true truth, as Francis Schaeffer has called it -- will take us in a variety of directions. I was reminded of this just last evening. As on nearly every Wednesday evening, I was engaged in a discussion of the Scriptures with some of my fellow colleagues here at Handong. Our focus was the first chapter of James, and someone pointed out how this passage emphasizes the need to look into the Scriptures as a mirror that can reveal to us our true selves. This comment led another participant in the study to mention a book entitled The Man in the Mirror. When I heard that phrase, my thoughts turned to a pop song with the same title from the 80's by Michael Jackson.

And being the sort of "quick to speak" guy that I am, I told the group that Jackson had written a song about the "man in the mirror." The mention of the "king of pop's" name must have struck a dissonant chord though, because another of my colleagues promptly declared, "But Michael Jackson got it wrong!" I replied, "Did he? Didn't he just express what Gandhi had said -- "Become the change you wish to make in the world"? Well, my mention of Michael Jackson and Gandhi in the same sentence seemed to be quite enough to alert the group's leader that we (read "I") had now gone way too far afield in our discussion. It was a Bible study for heaven's sake!

But hold on! Truth is truth, right? Whether spoken from the lips of Jesus or Balaam, right? Whether spoken from the lips of Gandhi or sung by Michael Jackson? -- Well you tell me. Did Jackson get it right or not? Here's what he sings:

"As I, Turn Up The Collar On My
Favorite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See Their Needs
"A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya' Know
'Cause They Got Nowhere To Go
That's Why I Want You To Know

"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,
And Then Make A Change.

"I've Been A Victim Of A Selfish Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No Home,
Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not Alone?
"A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Somebody's Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
They Follow The Pattern Of The Wind, Ya' See
Cause They Got No Place To Be
That's Why I'm Starting With Me

"I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself,
And Then Make A Change."

That's what Michael Jackson sang. Here's what James wrote:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. ~ James 1:22-25

If truth is truth no matter from whose lips the message is spoken or from whose pen the words are written, then it would appear to me that a question of first importance is indeed: Have I made a change in my life?