100 Things I Love About Korea: #98 - The Year 2012

Thanks to the apartment the church helped us buy in 2011, we were able to host small group in our home that fall and in 2012.  We really enjoyed hosting again, and John David really connected with Pete!

We really enjoyed spending more time with James, Beth, and Abby Picket.  We had lots of fun Sunday afternoons (and into the evenings) playing Catan and just generally hanging out.  We were sad to say goodbye as they moved back to the states to prepare to do church planting in Hawaii.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #97 - The Year 2011

One benefit of living in Korea has been relatively easy access to other countries.  In February, our church took our second trip to Bangladesh, with Wooyoung, HaYoung, and Il-Ho (among others).

Thanks to my mom coming to visit, Sarah and I were also able to do up our 10th anniversary in style.  We took a hop, skip, and a jump down to the Philippines to a great little resort on a spectacular beach.

We had fun times at the local park with Bruce, Susan, and Gabriel Kim.  We've gotten a lot of use out of this little park.  Emma has done countless laps around the track on her bike or inline skates.

Hermann Gschwandtner and Nathan Biswas came to Korea to talk about our partnership with Bangladesh, and we were about to tag along on a KNU culture trip.  They loved making kimchi and bulgogi.

A few months later, we welcomed John David into the world, named after my father and uncle (who were named after their uncle, who was named after ...).  My mom came over early and was here when he was born.

The icing on the cake was that Sarah's sister Elizabeth gave birth to Ella in the same hospital just three days later.  They were literally across the hall from each other for a day or two.  I'll never forget the look of terror on Michael's face when we walked into the room (after hearing Ella cry from across the hall through two closed doors).  He said, "We've got a screamer!"  She's gorgeous, but she's a feisty one!

100 Things I Love About Korea: #96 - The Year 2010.

JD Wiley entered the world with all of his cute old-man-baby looks.  That meant we were able to be with Joe and Elena for the birth of all three of their boys!

A high schooler at our church gave Emma a baby rabbit for Christmas.  After debating hundreds of normal names, Emma named her Moscow.  Unfortunately, she died a few days later (probably due to a combination of us introducing new foods too quickly and her being separated from her mother too early).  We made it up to Emma by getting her a new rabbit for Easter, whom she promptly named Charlie Brown.  After we discovered that Charlie was a girl, we changed her name to Manilla.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #95 - Annual Report 2009

Dedicating ShinHyuk Kim

This fall we are 15 years old. (So how old are we in Korean years?)  To get a feeling for how much we've grown, I thought it might be fun for us to look at some of our previous “firsts.”  

The first baby born in our church (Jenny Mitchel's daughter 2001).  (The next baby was Esther Kim in 2006.)

The first Advisory Council was elected in 2003.  For our first 8 years before that, we were just a hodge-podge group that worshiped together.

Our first mission trip (Indonesia, 2004).  We are now planning our fourth, and we're hoping to do one every year.

Our first year with regular heat in the winter (2005).  That may not seem like such a big deal, but it's easier to worship when you don't have to wear gloves and a hat just to stay warm!

Our first store room – a tiny janitors closet, which we were forced to get because we bought a drum set (2005).

Our first assistant pastor  - Hoom Jeong (2005)

Our first big attendance day: 79 (2005).  We were really excited about 79 people back then!

More than 50% of our regular attenders from outside the KNU community (2005)

First after church snack time – started just once a month (2005).  I remember our fellowship team feeling really concerned about trying to do it every week.

First website – a free blog that Susan Kim set up for us (2005)

First church members to get married (Anderson and Dianna Cheon, 2004)

First baptisms (2006)

First time to have organized children and youth activities (2006)

First time worshiping in Patch Hall and at a “normal” time (2006).  Before this, our worship services began bright and early at 9 a.m.  

First time to have more than one Korean on the Advisory Council (2006)

First time to have more than one returning Advisory Council member (2007)

First time to take in members and to be an official Church of the Nazarene (2007)

First church soccer team (2007)

100 Things I Love About Korea: #94 - The Year 2009

2009 was a year of joy and sadness.  The ever beautiful SoYoung Gu threw a birthday party for Sarah and Isabel, and lots of folks turned out to celebrate my Mom's first birthday without my Dad.  But shortly after this, SoYoung was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.  She was gone by Easter.  That was a hard, hard three months!

Emma embraced life with her characteristic drama and flare.  Never a dull moment!

After many years of trying, Paul and Hoom returned from Turkey to start the baby boom in our church - 9 straight boys!

We initiated more people to the good times at DaeCheon beach.  This time around it was: Keith, Megan, Shannon, Heather, and Stephanie.  

Not wanting to pay an arm and a leg for turkey (extremely expensive in Korea), I made duck for Thanksgiving.  It was definitely tasty.  The only problem was it was one scrawny bird!

100 Things I Love About Korea: #92 - The Year 2008

2008 brought us some friends from Russia.  Ilya, Yulia, Sasha, Mirek (and later Misha) moved into the same apartment complex, and our girls became fast friends.  We also started wonderful a tradition of celebrating New Years together (which is the big holiday of the year in Russian speaking cultures).

English camps brought in extra money as well as extra friends and family.  Here are my dad and Jerry and Raylene Tucker, who adopted Emma as a grandchild of their own!

As always, we had lots of fun, including a KNU trip to Busan, our annual trip(s) to Daecheon Beach, and the annual halloween costume party at Outback.  Bruce and Susan Kim usually have the best costumes of anyone there.  Here's Susan (the cafeteria lady) polishing my boots!

Adam, Robb, Houston, and a few other folks also hosted a charity concert at the "Helicopter Bar," which is actually inside a restored chinook helicopter.  Amazing location, amazing music.

100 Things I Love About Korea: # 90 - The Year 2007

Ah, the joys of the McDonald's highchair train.  Life doesn't get any better than this.  For a spell, about half of our church would gather for Sunday lunch at McDonald's.  Not so healthy for the body, but oh so healthy for the heart in other ways.

In March, my Mom and Dad came to visit so they could witness my ordination.  (And that, by the way, was an interesting story.  Apparently, the KNU President and the District Superintendent kind of pushed me through the ordination process, skipping over several steps, so that when our church was officially organized in April, we could have an ordained pastor at the helm.)  While my parents were in town, we went to the zoo and the folk village, and our friend YoungMin took us out for Bul-Dalk (Fire Chicken).  Thankfully, YoungMin was wise enough to bring along a few liters of milk to cool the flames in our mouths!

100 Things I Love About Korea: #89 - No Tipping

The price you see is the real price.  No guessing.  No estimating.  No guilt.  No trying to figure out how good your service was.  Best of all no 10-25% extra charge at the end of your meal.
Korea gives great service, and they simply pay their serving staff enough money to keep them happy, without relying on tips.  I love it, and I'm going to miss it - especially when I have to start paying tips again.
(Thanks again to Ron K. for pointing out this excellent part of Korean culture.)

100 Things I Love About Korea: #87 - The Year 2006

We started out the year 2006 with a visit from Sarah's parents.  Teaching at KNU's English camp enabled them to pay for their airfare and stay for about a month.
Not long after they left, I had to make an unplanned trip back to the USA to help care for my Dad who had major back surgery.  While I was gone, Sarah had to move our apartment without me.

But the move was for a good cause.  We were making space for our good friends Joe and Elena Wiley who were coming with their two boys, Brett and Ian.  That summer, we began what would be a long tradition of taking friends to DaeCheon beach.  On this go round, we had our good friends Mark and Naomi, and later the Wiley family.  This picture is one of my all time favorites of Emma.  They look just like an old retired Korean couple enjoying a day at the beach.

We also enjoyed lots of good fun doing small group at Belle's house. We went through books of the Bible and various books about life and Christianity.  But most of all, we prayed for each other and just generally supported each other and had a good time.   These are some deep and lasting friendships.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #85 - The Year 2005

Sarah babysat Suhyun (the daughter of our good friends YongGi and KyoungRan) for most of this year.  She is just a few months younger than Emma.  I don't think either of the girls remember these early play times, but they were tight from the very beginning.  It's hard to believe now, but Emma was actually much bigger than Suhyun then.  Emma used to take her toys and push her around, and Sarah and I used to say we wished Suhyun would just sock Emma good for once to teach her some manners!


For our annual anniversary mini-trip we stringed together a babysitting relay team, so that we could go away for a night.  Someone recommended a spa in Asan.  Little did we know, it was actually in old town Asan.  But we still had a good time.  We got away to a mountain for some hiking.  At the train station on our way home, there was some kind of protest (probably for Dokdo), and some of the protesters recruited us and outfitted us to join their ranks.


We also did some cooking lessons for our good friend Belle's son, EungChul.  This was his birthday "cake."  E.C. joined me on a trip to Bangladesh in 2010, and he will probably be coming to live with us in American in a few months.

One of our favorite special occasion treats was going to Outback for a little taste of home with the Bloomin' Onion.  (Outback Korea no longer serves these because they were having supply chain problems, but they were good while they lasted.)

100 Things I Love About Korea: #84 - Automatic Banking

No more check writing.
No more balancing check books.
Just stick your bank book in the ATM, and you get an up to the minute, accurately balanced bank statement.
Need to pay a bill or send money to a friend?  Just input their account information, press a few buttons, and it's in their account.  It's like magic.
Korea's electronic banking takes a little getting used to.  But it will be hard to go back to the dark ages of filling out checks and then flipping to the register and writing the info in those tiny little lines.
(Thanks to Ron Knickerbocker for reminding me about this - one more thing I'll miss about Korea.)

100 Things I Love About Korea: #83 Vietnamese Food

OK, I know that sounds weird.  Vietnamese food is not Korean, but I discovered it in Korea.  And I probably would never have tried it without living in east Asia.

Here are a few of my favorite dishes:

• Beef brisket noodle soup.  A mild, but steaming broth holds long white noodles and strips of pink beef (which cook right before your eyes).  You add in bean sprouts, onions, peppers, and sauces to your own personal taste.  Great on a cold winter day (like today)!
• Wol Nam Sam.  Imagine a huge party tray with thinly sliced vegetables, meat, and shrimp.  Then, you dip a small piece of "rice paper" a into a steaming bowl of water to soften it.  Then, like it's a tortilla, you fill it with all of the veggies and meat and add sauce.  Finally, roll it into a ball and eat it in one bite.  Sweet goodness.  (Best of all, since it's mostly vegetables, I can pig out and not feel guilty!)
• Vietnamese Shabbu Shabbu.  This is almost the same, except that about half of the vegetables and beef go into a boiling cauldron right at the table.  Then you spoon them out and eat it either as soup or in the rice paper wraps.  Can't go wrong with this.

100 Things I Love about Korea: #81 - Pepero Day

11-11, AKA November eleventh, is Pepero Day in Korea.  Pepero are classic Korean snack cookies shaped like sticks and covered in chocolate.
According to one legend, middle school girls in the southern tip of Korea spontaneously invented this holiday on November 11 (because the one's look like the Pepero sticks).  They gave each other boxes of pepero along with the wish to be "as tall and slender as pepero."
But cynics say that the holiday is nothing more than a shameless marketing ploy by Lotte Confectionary, the manufacture of said snacks.  Either way, they get more than half their annual sales during the month of November, so I'm sure they're happy about it.
I love it because it's just good fun.  Who doesn't like eating chocolate covered cookies?  We all need another reason to celebrate life and taste a little more joy.

By the way, there are 10 different Pepero flavors.  Can you name them all?  What's your favorite?  Mine is almond - hands down.

100 Things I Love about Korea: #80 - Black Day

Finally, singles have a holiday all to their own.  Unfortunately, it's called Black Day.
In Korea, after Valentine's Day (for men) and White Day (for women), comes the singles' holiday - Black Day on April 14.

For all of the folks who didn't have anyone to celebrate with on the previous holidays, they can get a few other lonely friends together and go eat some jjajjangmyun (noodles with black sauce).  I'm not sure I support the idea that being single is a cause for sadness or mourning.  But I do appreciate that singles are included in the holiday festivities.  Another plus is that this holiday encourages folks to get together - even if it is to commiserate in their mutual singality.  

100 Things I Love about Korea: #79 - White Day

After the male-focused Valentines day, it's payback time for the women with White Day on March 14.  Men should now give a gift to any women who gifted them a month earlier.  Some traditions even have a triple return - where the men give the women something 3 times the value of the gift they received.
Traditional gifts are marshmallows or white chocolate, but nowadays, almost anything works.
Basically, this is just splitting up the big Valentine's Day romantic holiday into two separate celebrations.  I kind of like this.  As I said before, men need all the romantic help they can get.  Also, it spreads the intentional expressions of love out for another month.  (The candy makers don't mind all the added business either!)

100 Things I Love About Korea: #78 - Valentines Day (All for the Men)

Korea has scored major points in my book by focusing Valentines Day on men.  Every February 14, women are supposed to give gifts to the most important men in their lives.  Men are officially off the hook.
Don't worry women, your day is coming.  It's just delayed a month to White Day.  But breaking them up like this actually gives men a fighting chance to remember the holiday.
Also, the women go first, so they set the gift-giving standard.  That takes a lot of pressure of the guys.  You don't have to guess how big or how nice you should go.  Just match what you got.
So making romance easier on men ... yeah, we definitely need that.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #77 - 2004 Annual Report (or Lack Thereof)

About a month after we arrived in Korea, it was time for the annual meeting.  I knew all about the nominations for the church board (or in our case Advisory Council), and I had that covered.

After we did the voting and reports from each outgoing board member, I was just about to close the meeting with prayer.  Then, Cathy Williams (bless her heart) said, "Um, Josh, aren't you going to give a pastoral report."
I said, "Oh, am I supposed to do that?"
"Well, traditionally speaking ..."
"Um ... well ... I just got here, so I don't know much of what happened over the past year, but I'll try to do better next year."

100 Things I Love About Korea: #75 - Alameda

As far as I know Alameda is the first restaurant in Cheonan to serve western style breakfast food.  Not to knock McDonalds, but a McMuffin can only go so far in restoring the feelings of home.
Alameda is a small, owner-chef cafe near the Galleria.  Look across the street for the Cafe Bene and keep walking in a straight line.
The atmosphere is simple-chic, and the food is very good.  The owner serves as chef, and his girlfriend is the friendly waitress.
Sarah ordered the Alameda Brunch - with pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, fried potatoes, and - oddly - a small garden salad.  Even giving it the bonus of being the only place to get Western breakfast in Cheonan, this was still a very good meal.  Everything was well prepared and well presented.
I ordered the grilled mushroom salad, and I have to say that it was the best restaurant salad I've had in Korea.  (I have to add that restaurant caveat because my sister-in-law makes a mean spinach-pecan-strawberry salad which may be the best I've ever had anywhere.)  The greens were varied and fresh.  The mushrooms were also varied and well seasoned.  There were even chunks of fresh cheese.
Even the music was great.  The only downside to Alameda is the price.  Plan on paying around 15,000 a person.  At that rate, it's a little to much to become part of our regular circuit, but when we get the hankering for pancakes, waffles, or knock-out salads, now we know where to go.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #74 - Fusion Food

Fusion Food can be almost anything.  Usually, it is mixing two ethnic foods together into something new - like Shanghai Spaghetti (a very popular pasta dish in Italian restaurants, with a spicy sauce and lots of seafood and vegetables).  But occasionally, it is mixing two foods that don't normally go together (like sweet potatoes or chestnuts on pizza).

A few weeks ago, Sarah and I stumbled onto a very interesting fusion restaurant: Carbone.  It has a funky urban vibe, and it was quiet even though busy.  

We ordered "Salad Pasta" and "Spoon Pizza."  Now, that's not pasta salad, like those twirly little noodles you might get at a church potluck.  That's actually lettuce salad over a bed of spaghetti.  It sounds crazy, but the creamy honey mustard sauce actually made it work.  The Spoon Pizza is a deep dish pizza with a soft crust and lots of toppings, and naturally, you eat it with a spoon.  

Good times.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #72 - Neon Nights

I love cities at night.  With a high population density, Korea's downtowns with lots of tall buildings really pack in the neon.
Here's a cool time-lapse photo video of downtown Cheonan by my friend Andy Phelps, who is an outstanding photographer.