100 Things I Love About Korea: #71 - Mr. Pizza.

Shrimp Nude Pizza.
Potato and Bacon Pizza.
Golden Cheddar Crust Pizza.
Sweet Potato Crown Pizza.
Secret Garden Pizza.
Chestnut Pizza.
Bulgogi Pizza.
Roasted Garlic Pizza.
Crab, Lobster, Octopus Pizza.
Asparagus Steak Pizza.
The best pizza motto ever: "Love for Women."

Need we say more?

Well, Korea is the home of the original pizza after all.

100 Things I Love About Korea # 40: Paris Baguette

They’re like mushrooms after the rainy season.  They’re sprouting up everywhere.  And for good reason.  They’re awesome.

Paris Baguette has simply dominated the Korean bakery market.  

First of all, they have nailed the mixture of high end Korean baked goods, fusion baked goods (like ddok-bread), traditional western deserts (like knock-out cinnamon rolls), and fancy-shmancy foo-foo pastries like fresh strawberry cream-puff tarts.  Very often, I just want to try one of everything.

Second, they were the first (and best) bakery to capitalize on the coffee shop trend.  They have shrewdly layered expresso based drinks and small tables to turn almost every bakery into a European styled street cafe (except the tables are always inside).  

I’ve heard there are a few Paris Baguette’s breaking into US markets, and I fully expect to be googling them to see if there are any within driving distance when I start pining for a taste of Korean-esque memories.

100 Things I Love About Korea: #2 - Universal Health Care

     Don't let the fear mongers win.  Universal, government-controlled healthcare is great!  One of the best parts of living in Korea is having very cheap, very good health care, and it's all extremely accessible.  Just walk in, and you usually see the doctor within 10 minutes without an appointment!  Nobody tells me which doctor to see.  I have full freedom of choice.  It's just that the government is everybody's primary insurer.
     An average doctor's visit costs about US$3.  An average prescription costs about $4.  Can't beat that.  Prices go up for specialists and special medicines.  My allergy medicines cost a total of about $25 for a six week supply, but that's for three different brand name drugs.  In the USA, that would easily cost over $100 even with insurance.
     The downside of the the government insurance is that it's great for the small, normal stuff, but not so good for the really expensive stuff.  Korea has a booming market in supplementary insurance for large medical costs.  However, for about $70 a month, our whole family has basic insurance.  That would be a massive improvement over the US system - almost beyond the power of adjectives to describe.
     And, in case you're concerned about the quality of care, my layman's estimate is that the quality is about 90% as good as in the USA.  And those deficiencies don't stem from the system itself, but rather from the fact that 50 years ago Korea was one of the poorest nations on earth.  It's still catching up in some areas.   For a more thorough look at Korea's health care system, check out this excellent explanation on Ask A Korean.

Retro Poem #14: Good and Gone

It was good

And it is gone

Though not completely

In my memory room

There is a special box of memories

With her name 

And pretty face

Why Does God Allow Suffering? (Talk Back Series)

If God is love, and God is good, then why does a good God allow suffering (emotionally, physically, socially, etc.)?
[This is a response to a question shared on a "Talk Back" card at our church.]

When I was in Europe, I took a midnight train from Paris to Zurich. I was too cheap to pay for a sleeping car, so I ended up talking all night with a man named Yacov. Yacov described himself as a secular Jew. He is Israeli and grew up in Israel. He was educated in the Jewish faith.
However, when he saw a documentary on the Holocaust in school, he became an atheist. He said to himself, “There is no such thing as God or the chosen people, or else this would not have happened.”
Yacov is not alone. Many people have lost faith in God because of the suffering they see in the world. How can a loving God allow so much suffering? This is a huge question.

Take a minute and think about one instance of serious suffering. It can be something you went through, something that happened to someone you know, or something you just heard about. You can make it as personal or impersonal as you want.

How can a loving God allow so much suffering? This is one of the hardest questions for both Christians and non-Christians. I want to give a few disclaimers before we set into our discussion tonight.
1. The Bible does not give a complete answer to this question. The Bible is more focused on how to overcome suffering rather than focusing on why there is suffering in the first place.
2. There is no way that I can give a complete answer today. You and I both will probably leave here feeling at least a little unsatisfied with the answers we talk about today. Even though I can’t answer the question completely, I hope that I can at least make this issue more manageable for us.