Rift Valley Academy, the school where I am the college counselor, has a Korean population that is 15% of our student body. I’m probably like most Americans; I knew there was a war in Korea during the 50’s that killed many people, but besides that, I had never thought about the country much. But when an invitation came to speak at a university because of CNN (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=451a94jO5I4), it was too good of an opportunity to pass up.

With 80 Korean students, we only have one Korean couple on staff, Jay & Ann Park. Jay was in Korea, and he would go with me as I tried to visit 25 colleges in two weeks. I love Jay, but I have never had full confidence that we completely understand each other, so I knew it would be challenging. It turned out great, although Jay has vowed to not be in a room with me for the next six months after two weeks of being with me constantly.

I had thoroughly prepared for the trip: I had learned one Korean word, but I knew it WELL and used it OFTEN. The word is kimbap, which is a kind of sushi. It is my favorite food in the world, so I was thrilled to be able to eat it often. You could buy it so cheaply; a roll of it cost about a dollar, and it is made of seaweed, rice and vegetables; it is actually good for you.

Korea has a great subway system, and we started onto our first college, the University of Korea. It is a large campus of 25,000 students, and we were well received. I heard the line that I was to hear several dozen times: “I thought you were going to be a black guy.” It wasn’t until the third college that I came up with my retort: “But I knew YOU would be Korean.” As was the case for the entire trip, my humor did not translate well.

When you make a trip like this, you look for signs that you are doing the right thing. We were at Yonsei University, and we went into a tiny cafeteria to meet with a teacher. In that obscure cafeteria, in a school of 25,000, a young woman heard my voice and as she walked over I began to hear myself sing: “Here comes HaSun do da do da; Here’s comes HaSun.” HaSun is an RVA alum who suffered through the thrilling experiment of me teaching eighth grade English, and one of the many exciting things I did was assign every student a personal theme song. It was so amazing to get to see her, and it was a sign that we were where we were supposed to be.

I was asked to speak many, many times. I grew suspicious of Jay because I would tell a hilarious joke and get no response, and then say something serious and get laughs. Jay reminded me that I never got any laughs in Kijabe either, which actually comforted me.

Highlights included:

• Koreans love to eat, and they took me to so many wonderful restaurants. Alost every one of them involved taking off your shoes and sitting on the floor. I amused many by my grunts when I would get up from the floor.
• You might think that with my natural coordination, eating with chopsticks would be a breeze. I was SO good with them that at one restaurant some little girls started staring and giggling because of my ease with chopsticks. They were made to come over and apologize to me by their parents, and Jay informed me that the parents had revealed to the little girls that there was something WRONG with me, and that is why I ate the way I did.
• It seemed like every meal had twenty courses, and then the main course would come when there was no chance you could eat another bite. I honestly don’t think I have ever eaten more in my life. Eating soup with chop sticks was also a challenge until I realized that you fished out the big stuff with the sticks and then picked up the bowl and drank from it. You don’t want to know what happened before I figured it out.
• After one of the most spectacular meals of my life, in a beautiful setting overlooking the ocean, we were driving back to the campus while I tried to calculate how many weeks it would take before I would be able to eat a meal again. We had eaten for three hours. They stopped the car and bought roasted squid for a snack. It is actually delicious, but I marveled that anyone could think of more food after that. (To be polite, I ate all the squid they gave me and most of Jay’s.)
• I was trying to do this trip as cheaply as possible. Some of my air fare was going to be covered, and so I stayed in a $19 a night guest house room, which had all the quality and cleanliness you might expect from a $19 a night room. One day, we had traveled on a bus for four hours and I had slept for much of it. When we finished for the day, Jay walked me from the subway to the mission house, and he went to be with his sister. I wasn’t tired, and there was a cyber café down the street. There are tons of them in Korea, and they are populated by young men who are gamers and play each other all night long. I wrote to my family and many students who were telling me their results for college, and after two hours I had enough. I walked back to the mission hotel, and it was locked up with no way to enter. It was raining, it was midnight in Seoul, and so I walked back to the cyber café. I don’t know about you, but after two more hours on the internet, I was bored. I asked the guy next to me if I could play the same game they were all on. You might imagine that the social skills of young men who spend all night in a cyber café gaming might be not all you would hope for, but they somehow figured out what I was asking, and I entered the game. I had no idea what was going on, and I knew I was suppose to shoot things, but all the lettering and voices were in Korean, so I ran and shot. At one point, I picked up something in the game and threw it behind me, which was sad because I was trying to FIRE it in FRONT of me. Anyway, it caused everyone ELSE to DIE and I WON the game. Not only that, but I scored the highest score in the history of that café. Having young Korean men yell and high five me at 4:30 a.m. was an experience unlike any other.
• When the language is not your own, it is good to pay attention to HOW your mind wanders. I was in a church, and suddenly I was singing in my head that song from Beauty and the Beast when Gaston proclaims, “I’m especially good at expectorating.” I puzzled at that because mostly I thought about the Cubs winning the World Series in four this year. As I pondered, I realized that to the uneducated American ear many Korean pastors make a sound similar to what I make when I am going to spit …
• I was on the subway, and this guy came on and started trying to sell surgical masks. Almost 10% of Koreans I saw on the streets wore them. I got no gripe with a guy trying to make a buck, but he yelled for ten minutes. After one stop, when six people got off and no one got on, he continued yelling. Suddenly, I began singing “Take me home, country roads” and the entire car started singing along in Korean. He tried to yell over us but we were determined, and when he left the car, I received many handshakes and slaps on the back.
• Going to a church service on Easter when you don’t know the language can be the most spiritual thing you can do. I didn’t understand a word, but I heard remorse and gratitude from someplace beyond the voices.
• It was a wonderful two weeks, and I know it gave me insights on how to help my students. What I love about the Lord is how He uses all things. I discovered that many Korean colleges wanted Kenyan students, and so it may be possible that Korea is a place for many of the students I work with in the poor schools.

It was a wonderful two weeks, and I know it gave me insights on how to help my students. What I love about the Lord is how He uses all things. I discovered that many Korean colleges wanted Kenyan students, and so it may be possible that Korea is a place for many of the students I work with in the poor schools.

But more than that, Koreans send more of their own people to the mission field than any other country. They have a passion for the unreached, and they express it in a way that is uplifting and exciting. Being in Korea fed me in a way I didn’t expect; the last few months of our lives have been so crazy, and between mourning the separation from the older kids, the destruction going on in Kenya, and the guilt I felt about the CNN thing when there are dozens of people I know so much more worthy, I’ve been more discouraged than I had realized. Being with people who were thinking big (Handong’s theme is “Why Not Change the World?”) brought me out of my stupor.

There was a point a few months ago when I wondered if it was time to pull the plug. I don’t understand why we were chosen to be on CNN , but it happened and we are going to be grateful for it. For whatever reason, we have a shot to really impact this country.

And in my heart of hearts, what I want to say is this:  I will not give up.

I may go down, but I will go down fighting.

Your pal,
Steve