Church

Yesterday, I looked out of our window and saw tents set up about a block away. Being the curious kid I am, Jacob and I went to explore the tents. It turned out to be a church fundraiser for the poor complete with food and clothing for sale. As we turned to leave, we were followed by Mr. Moon. Mr. Moon introduced himself to us and told us to come in and have something to eat. We didn't see anything wrong with eating so we said sure. He ended up buying us this huge "pancake" that had cabbage, onion, and meat inside that was very good. We also got some homemade pumpkin soup - gotta love the harvest season! We talked with him for a while and met some of the other members of the church. He was very kind and polite, spending about an hour just talking and eating with us- showing us around. Jacob agreed to see him Sunday for church because Mr. Moon said there would be food after. Hm...we don't even go to church in America!
Sunday morning. I have mixed feelings about this. As I previously stated, we don't go to church in America. Jacob and I have differing religious beliefs - neither of which are Christian in any way. So it was strange to walk into a Korean Presbyterian Church. We entered and took our seats...my gawd. The money that churches have. There were huge televisions and projectors, a good sound system, and even a four person orchestra. But, alas, no air conditioning. This seems to be relatively common in Korea - AC is a luxury. We were polite for the hour that the sermon went on. Jacob sat next to Mr. Moon, who explained what the Pastor (Preacher? Priest? Elder?) was saying. Apparently there seems to be an uprising of Muslims in Korea, something the Christians aren't too happy about.
After the sermon, we were taken to the food. We stood in line, shook tons of people's hands, and waited to get food when we were ushered out of our line and escorted to a private room. Before entering the room, we removed our shoes. We were seated at a low table and had to sit on the floor (traditional!). Then came the food. Bulgolgi, seaweed salad, spicy bean sprout, little fishes, kimchi, soup, and yummy pumpkin bread - all homemade and all delicious. We ate and talked, discussing the upcoming holiday. I found it humorous that I was sitting with Christians, discussing a Pagan holiday that they were about to celebrate without even knowing it was Pagan in origins. Chuseok is a holiday to celebrate the harvest - Fall Equinox celebrates the harvest.
We had just finished eating and were getting ready to make our exit when Mr. Moon informed us that he was going to take us to the foreign church. Not wanting to be rude, we complied with his wishes. We walked outside and they still had the little tents set up so I bought a little cute military style jacket (military style is in!) and we went to his car. A few minutes later, we found ourselves in an entirely different world.
The Korean church had been huge with several large screen televisions, drinks and coffee for everyone, food galore, kitchens, several levels with rooms for kids, libraries, and offices, etc. The foreign church was one room. 12x12. If that big. Unlike the Korean churches four person orchestra and 20 member choir, the foreign church had one keyboard. One preacher. One dry erase board. 12 or so stackable chairs. A refrigerator and a broken AC unit. Oh and a fan. I would call it less of a "foreign" church and more of an African church. There are six members of the African church and one Korean woman (who apparently works at the school with me). The service was completely different from the Korean service. Instead of just sitting in our chairs, listening and staying quiet - here the men got up and walked around, everyone constantly said "amen" "jesus" and "thank you" while the preacher spoke. When he asked everyone to pray, everyone spoke their prayers out loud - none of this quiet prayer stuff, oh no! When the service was over, he asked everyone to welcome Jacob and me to the group. He asked that we come every Sunday and worship with them. We got to talking and we explained that we weren't Christians and they seemed fine with that. The preacher said we were still welcomed to come and spend time with them. We were given juice and some tasty green bread, a small bible, and thanked many times for coming. We gave them our number and we were on our way.
Oh! The preacher explained some of the events they had going on. One of them was a pray-a-thon (not what he called it but what I surmised it to be) in Ansan. They are going to pray for 24 hours straight. The group is also raising money to buy books for Liberia.
All in all...Christianity seems the same everywhere in the world. Now that I've gone with Jacob to a Christian church, next I'm dragging him to a temple service. Buddhism here we come!