It's about time for an update.

Hannah and I both apologize. It has been quite a while since we updated our blog; we have been super busy and also a little lazy all at the same time. So, I will try to wrap up our past month fairly quickly.

I think the most notable development has been our time with our church and some of the friends Hannah and I have made. It’s great to see the body globally and no matter our many differences: linguistically, culturally, family background, etc. We have our need for Jesus in common and it’s really neat to see that played out around the world.

We got to go to an orphanage with our church (www.lovesoyang.org) about two weeks ago and it was really great to be sort of outside of our kids whom we teach English to everyday and actually get to hang out with them (without our lesson plans) and show them Jesus.

Our Church (there were like four different cameras from four different angles, I missed the center camera)

The orphanage has around 80 children (youngest is six months old and the oldest are university students). The kids have to learn to play two instruments, take English courses, and learn the Bible in order to stay there. There is a worship service every Sunday and they also have a world-class choir that tours the world (they had just returned from Disneyland).

Some of our church with kids from orphanage

My friend Drew came to see us. We picked him up from a train arriving from Seoul on a Thursday night and he hung out around Changwon for the day and on Saturday we did a number of things I have wanted to do. We started the day at the largest seafood market in Asia and I was able to eat live octopus legs, still moving and sucking to the inside of your gums and mouth. It didn’t have much flavor (except for the soy sauce). After I saw the many octopus eyes looking at me on our plate, I decided it was time to end the meal.

After this, we went to a jiljilbang (I believe that’s how you spell it). It is essentially a hot water spa where you can spend all day for about 10$ if you like. There was a huge centerpiece of what was essentially a hot tub. Peppered around the hot tub were different kinds of ‘bathes’. There were milk bathes, kiwi bathes, cold bathes, and philosophy bathes. It was quite the experience.

You get nude to start, I felt like I was a freshmen in high school again having to take a shower with other guys; it was a very ‘unique’ experience. There were men and boys of all ages, from around five to at least 70 years old. It doesn’t help that you are a foreigner and everybody is staring at you. After a little while we eventually got used to the stares and took it in stride, it turned out to be a great, and almost exuberating experience to walk around and sit naked for a couple of hours. 

Then we went to a professional baseball game (Lotte Giants, they are a team from Busan and they are in first place currently in the Korean leagues). Unfortunately, my cheapness got the best of me. We sat out and had to scalp tickets for a Saturday afternoon game and these Korean men were laughing at us because we had a set price (I wasn’t going to pay 40$ for a ticket quite yet, even though they have slowly become my favorite Korean team). We eventually got in for 10$ and there was a ‘general admission’ section in the outfield, first come, first seat essentially. It was about the third inning and after we made our way through the fans with the bottle rockets and buckets of chicken and full size pizzas (yep you can bing in your own food into baseball games and movie theatres, it is lovely) we couldn’t find a seat and eventually left. Wish we would have prepared for that L

Finally, and this is something you can feel free to pray for, I met a student’s dad at book club (occasionally we have to work on Saturdays and read with children, we both like it because we don’t really get to do that during the normal work week) about two months ago. He started the usual conversation and wanted to work on his English a little, which I’m okay because I want to work on my Korean sometimes. But, he eventually invited Hannah and I out to dinner with him and his family and I said, “absolutely”. So, we finally went to dinner with this family on Saturday (06/23). He took us to a BBQ restaurant in a valley of this town beside the river (Korea is a peninsula so there really are beautiful parts that are begging to be seen. Unfortunately, we do not have a car).

Hello Kitty sand castle festival  in Busan

This restaurant was incredible; we ate probably six pounds of duck meat and proceeded to take a walk along the little coast. On our walk, I find out this guy is a professor of chemistry at a University in Busan and his wife is a history teacher at a middle school. I told them that my granddad fought in the Korean War and they were just gushing over him telling me how much of a hero he is and I agreed. The girl really loved Hannah and sent her a text telling her how much she loved her after we left, I really think the dad likes me. He wanted to play basketball in his valley home and have a wine party; it was all great. The thing I would like prayer for is that the first thing the dad asked about when we got in the car was, “So, are you Christians?” We, almost shockingly, proclaimed, yes!” We got to talk a little more about it, but we didn’t really feel the spirit leading us to unload the gospel on Him at that time but please pray for the other times we are together. This relationship is definitely one that will last and hopefully the Lord will bless us with getting to be the blessing in this guys life.

We have many more stories that I’m sure will trickle into blog conversation later on, but as for now, I believe I will conclude this chapter. We both hope to stay more up-to-date with our blogs. Shoot us an email if you need prayer or have any questions for us.

-Love,

Hannah&Traylor