6-1....More fun with friends and family in Korea

The friends in Korea were VERY hospitable and kind. We have so many people to thank for their generosity and hospitality.

This sister and her husband love to visit Guam. They come every winter. So we look forward to hosting them this winter.

 We knew at some point that we would try to get in some dancing with the friends. So we played a round of "Just Dance". Its a good way to get guys who would not normally dance to get up and dance. :)

Let the competition begin














Our last Saturday in Korea started off perfectly. The service group surprised us with a nice breakfast and we looked at some nice pictures and videos of the congregation.

Me, Jude, Yoonwha and Stefany decide to go have some lunch after service and surprisingly it was a rare moment for all 4 of us to sit down and hangout. Everyone is so busy doing good things and so it was a nice moment to hangout and laugh.

After lunch we went with Yoonhwa to find a taxi...nice walk

Almost 1yr old Kimchi.....authentic and it tasted so good

 

Some of Yoonhwa's family members came over to say goodbye. We enjoyed getting to know her nieces, sister and brother-in-law.

She drew a picture of me and Stefany :)

Yoonhwa's sister giving us another gift....very rich chocolate

Yoonhwa being a wonderful host

I don't know if this video is an example of laziness or just plain using your brain. Either way, we thought it was effective and creative. We started the video about halfway into his process. Enjoy the video.

May 31st....Prison tour & visit with his mother

Thanks to the generosity of a sister in one of the Seoul Korean congregations, we had the wonderful privilege of visiting one of Jehovah's Witnesses in prison. The ones in prison are younger in age. Because of making the choice to not serve in the military, they are sentenced to around 2yrs in prison. In order for us to visit this brother in prison, his mother was willing to sacrifice one of her 6 opportunities to visit with her son.

We showed up that morning and it was kind of surreal to see many other Jehovah's Witness family members, mothers, aunties and grandparents in the lobby writing letters to their sons, nephews and grandchildren. If they write the letter from the lobby they are able to get the letter to their loved one much quicker. This is also the best way to send them money.

The amazing thing that occurred was that the authorities allowed the mother to join us on the visit along with the two of us AND my sister-in-law who arranged this prison visit!! The mother didn't have to give up one of her visits for the month. All of us were so excited to be able to visit with her son at the same time.

Our pictures are limited because we couldn't take many pictures of the outside of the prison and cameras were forbidden on the inside of the prison. The brother we visited mentioned there are 40 young Jehovah's Witnesses serving their sentence in that prison. It was obvious to see that they are very strong spiritually and their spiritual routine keeps them focused on remaining faithful to Jehovah. As usual, i'm confident we were more encouraged by his words than he was from what we said. One of his comments really stuck with us. Regarding prayer, he said that all of his fellow Witnesses in that prison...."know that Jehovah answers their prayers before they even say amen". That is the kind of faith they have in Jehovah helping them while in prison. The Witness prisoners have many privileges within prison because of being trusted to handle certain tasks and not cause harm to anyone else. One example is that the Witness prisoners have been given assignments in the kitchen with the utensils that could otherwise be used as weapons.

Although the visit was brief it was the greatest moment of our entire trip!

Stefany with the beautiful sister who made it possible for us to visit with her son in prison

Wonderful gift from this sister.....very tasty chocolate

my sister-in-law and our host for the prison visit

Outside the front gate of the prison

May 29th.....enjoyable meeting with the friends in Korea

Every meeting with the friends was enjoyable and we truly felt the loving worldwide brotherhood at our first congregation meeting in Korea. We certainly have life long friends in Korea.

Russel pretending to speak broken Korean :)

The brothers in Korea and very sharp dressers

Russel w/Breifus who is a longtime missionary in Korea

We were really impressed how the sisters hold their own microphone when they participate on the school. I was amazed how they were able to skillfully juggle the mic, with gestures, with notes, etc...

May 30th....DMZ tour

Our trip to the DMZ was an eye opening, interesting trip on many levels. It was just a few weeks before our DMZ tour when the tensions between N. Korea & the USA/S.Korea were on very high alert. So they resumed the tours shortly before we arrived in Korea and so this is why we were able to take a tour to the DMZ. It was an upfront view into man's failed attempts to bring about peace. The general feelings among the S. Koreans toward the N. Koreans is distrust and a bit of fear. We're confident that the feelings are the same in the other direction as well. The tour guides were very informative about the formation of the DMZ, what it really means and the other areas, tunnels and barriers separating the North from the South. From various points of the tour we were only a few yards away from the North border. In certain areas we were not allowed to use cameras of any kind. We were told when we could use our cameras. No waving, no gestures and no loud speech. The pictures below are from the areas where we were specifically told that we can use our cameras. It is interesting to see how the S. Koreans are much less aware of the inflammatory talk of the N. Korean leader than others are especially in the US. It was a fascinating trip into areas that seemed as if time stood still.

The bus that we took to the DMZ and the officer is validating our passports with the list of names on the roster.

A briefing about the DMZ and reminders about do's and don'ts

The infamous JSA area that we often see in the news clip

This is one of the moments when we sensed both the seriousness and silliness of the situation. The South & North Korean soldiers just stand there staring at each other. The S. Korean soldiers are in the 1st stance of Taekwondo to show their readiness for battle (this is what we were told by the guide). This is also the area where our soldier guide got very serious about us not taking out our cameras unless instructed and he also was very adamant about the tourist not making any gestures towards the N. Korean soldiers who would often take out their binoculars to watch our group.

Notice the line midway in-between the blue buildings...that is the border!

Notice the closed fist stance

North Korean soldier staring towards the South and watching our tour group

Why do I have such a big smile while only steps away from the N. Korean border? I guess knowing the real solution to mankind's problems kind of gives you the peace of mind excels all thought...plus I kinda felt like smiling :)

Finally in an area where we can take some pics

More North Korean soldiers observing us on top of this building....like I said...we were pretty close to North Korea

Big grey building is N. Korea

N. Korean soldiers

If you stood closer than an arms length to the soldier we were told that the soldier would show us the 2nd stance of taekwondo and we didn't want that! So we happily stood outside of the arms length range. Its also a more closeup look at the 1st stance of taekwondo that the soldiers were in because of the increased tensions between the two countries. This soldier is standing there to make sure that a N. Korean soldier doesn't go thru the door behind us and grab people. This has happened before and once you are grabbed well then I guess you become a N. Korean citizen whether you want to or not.

This is the table where "peace" talks are supposed to occur...the left side is S. Korea and the right side is N. Korea

There were a couple of lookout points and this is one of them. The beginning of the trees and beyond is N. Korea.

The famous bridge of no return

One of the worlds largest flags..its the North Korean flag
The Panmunjeom flagpole, the world's third-tallest, 160 m (525 ft) in height, flying a 270 kg (595 lb) flag of North Korea over Kijŏng-dong, near Panmunjom.

You can hear the propaganda music from these overlooks. At one point the tour guide had everyone stay quiet so that we can hear the loud speaker coming from the village/city.

stakes marking the border

another view of the bridge of no return

We are now visiting the last station on the train station line. This station was built with the thought of connecting the two countries once peaceful relations are established. For now the station is basically a museum and tourist attraction.

Stefany has identified which way is North :)

After a long bus ride it is important to stretch

Since we didn't hear of any news reports of friendlier relations between the North and South we figured it would be ok to take a nap on the train tracks between these two countries

Again no news reports of friendly relations...so why not workout on the train tracks between these two countries

At this location we were able to walk thru the under ground tunnels that were dug by the N. Koreans to have a surprise attack on the South...the tunnels were later discovered and so it was no longer a surprise. Cameras were not allowed inside the tunnels.

More lookouts into N. Korea

organized lunch for the tour group...rice noodles

This was the last part of the tour where we could use cameras. All in all it was an interesting tour that was very educational about the DMZ, the issues between the two countries and the fear & distrust between both countries.

After the tour we went to Seoul and did more sightseeing and enjoying some local foods and some universal foods.

Margherita pizza and homemade mozzerala balls....yumminess

Wonderful Bingsu (Korean dessert).. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Bingsu

typical marketplace & shopping in Seoul and in the various suburbs of Seoul

Fried squid anyone?