All Those Jiggy With Jesus

Chow main noodles. (Tis i, whit)

This whole thing is weird you know. Having friends in Korea. And having other people, from wherever they are in the world, read about our lives here. I hope that they come visit, your friends and family that is. I'd like to meet them all. And anyone else you love for that matter. I'd say it would be nice to meet your boyfriends, but we all know that none of you (us) have any. Which is also weird.
If you are reading this blog, I'd like to meet you.
Also, if your single and happen to be male, you should come here, odds are you'd leave with a girl friend (or eight).

If it was up to me, I'd say that there is something unusual about this whole thing... this Korea thing.
It's odd how we are all here, and have managed to find each other.It's also weird how all of Biola migrated to Korea and will soon, migrate to Canada (because I know you are all so curious). What else is weird, is that more people keep coming. And not just everyday people you pass on the street, although many people do. People who you meet and want to keep meeting, over and over. People who change other peoples lives, in big, big ways. People who are all strangely good looking, talented, generous, deeply caring, have good taste in music, drink wine is mass amounts, are seeking and being sought, who want to change and be changed.
People who are so the same, yet different.
We're all a bunch of Jesus freaks, who are simultaneously being freakish in Korea, together. Which is the most baffling part of it all: we're together and it's hard to be here without feeling like we're in the center of everything good and true in this world.

Before everything changed (before I got friends), I used to sit underneath the pink and yellow flower decals left on my apartment wall. I convinced myself that I was in a secret garden in an unknown land, sent there to document its mystery through letters, pictures and horoscopes written to friends in distant counties - and by doing so, somehow move through that unrecognizable rite of passage everyone talks about - gaining insurmountable insight, maturity and understanding of everything past, present and future.

I'd by lying if I said that Korea has given me that. In many ways, in most ways, its given me everything and anything but that. I dearly miss that "secret garden" plastered to the wall of my empty apartment but I've since discerned that self-realization and oneness is nearly impossible without the help of others, no matter how inspiring the world around us may be. The secret gardens and imaginative spaces we create to draw more life out of ourselves (although small miracles in their own right) are only an illusion in comparison to the life others are called to draw out in us. It's taken me a lifetime and a year in a foreign country to figure out that community is where it is at. Which is what I've been trying to say with all of these run-on sentences.

In Acts 2: 42-47 says something like:

"All those jiggy with Jesus devoted themselves to the apostles teachings, to living life to the fullest together, and to sharing all sorts of ethnic meals together while sitting on the ground, and to praying unceasingly for each other with a sort of burning and longing that was unknown in that land.
A deep sense of awe came over all of them and they were changed so radically, everyone noticed them. They stood out everywhere they went. They were all so beautiful, as if to be a reflection of heaven itself.
Miraculous signs and wonders followed them, some got sick (and some had worms in their feet) but they were healed. Some spoke in tongues, had dreams of the future and saw angels breathe fire before their very eyes. Others prayer languages resounded through out the land, they laid hands on each other and even their bones ached with joy.
They met together at Whitney's house and shared everything they had. Their clothes were rotated between them, when someone needed something the others gave it to them, even more than half of their own kingdoms. They shared their beds and slept on each others floors.
The spirit was so alive that even as they slept, they were awake and their hearts stirred within them. They worshiped together, waiting in joyful expectation and sang while some of them played instruments.
They held hands and laid hands and their gifts were made known through their unity. For this they were filled with gratitude.
Every time they met they shared the Lord's supper. They broke bread and wine glasses, sharing their meals with great joy and generosity. All the while praising God and delighting the all the richness and goodness and beauty of each other.
And each Wednesday the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved and because of this the He sustained them by providing giant pots of homemade soup, melodious singing, modern dancing and contagious amounts of laughter."

If you were ever wondering what it was like to see Acts lived out, come visit.
Don't get me wrong life in Korea can be more impossible and undesirable than anything else.
It is easy to grow tainted by our unworthiness and exhausted by the limitations of others. We become all together too distant and too close all at once, stifled by buildings and trampled on by their shadows but our prayers are steadfast in the light of the gifts he has given us and we delight in every way to watch each other become more alive here.
God's Kingdom is alive and it is being built up all over the world... but in Korea, even the traffic lights change in heavenly patterns. So do we - all shifting and changing, together and apart - being established in realms beyond our comprehension and being appointed to make them known to those around us.

Though some of us may be drinkers and dreamers, and others just plain drinkers (won't mention any names...) one thing is for sure: its great to be drinking and dreaming in Korea, with you all.


Chow chi from the high ridge.
whit