The Roberts in Korea

Dragon Hill Excursion

Last weekend Dina and Ryan had a fun little excursion to the Dragon Hill Lodge in Seoul, South Korea.  The Dragon Hill Lodge is a U.S. Department of Defense owned luxury hotel that sits in the middle of the Yongsang Garrison Military Base.  The Dragon Hill Lodge is one of a few Armed Forces Recreation Centers around the world.  The Lodge is located on the military base and is available for use only for those who are active or retired military, Department of Defense employees and/or their friends and family members.  Dina and Ryan were able to stay at the hotel as friends of David Suhs, who is retired military and is also a current employee of TCIS.

The trip to the resort hotel and the military base served two purposes.  We relaxed and we got to watch the boys' district soccer tournament.  The TCIS boys ended up taking fifth place in the tournament.  It was fun watching them play.

The weekend at the hotel included a lot of Western style food.  There were many nice restaurants located in the Dragon Hill Lodge and lots of Western fast food places scattered throughout the military base.  On Friday night we enjoyed eating at a taco bar that was located in the lodge.  We ate way too much.  On Saturday morning we visited the in house bakery for some great donuts and for lunch we ate at a nearby Taco Bell.  We ate way too much.  (As you can see, we are taco deprived here in South Korea.)  For dinner on Saturday night we ate a wonderful steak and baked potato at a very up-scale restaurant in the Lodge and then for breakfast on Sunday we ate at a delicious breakfast bar in a Denny's type establishment in the Lodge.  Yes, we ate too much--but it was fun and oh so good.

Being on the military base was very strange.  It was like stepping right back into U.S. culture.  All of the signs were in English, there were very few Koreans walking the streets, there were lots of American made automobiles on the base and the stores were filled with all the goods that are so common in most of the grocery stores in America.

It was a fun trip.  On Sunday afternoon we stepped off the base and back into the adventure of Korea.  (Oh, and we started on a diet.)

W.O.W.

Tonight our high school student ministries department sponsored a Walk of Worship (W.O.W.) night for any interested staff and students.  It was a great event.  There were five worship stations that we moved through as a group.  The first involved corporate prayer, the second was a skit/message that my daughter, Sarah, participated in--it was powerful.  (Below I have included a video of the presentation done by a different group of students in a church in the USA.)  The third station involved a journaling/reflecting process on our response to the skit's message and the promptings of the Holy Spirit upon our hearts.  The fourth station involved praying in small groups for one another and the final station involved a time of celebratory singing, praise and worship.  It was an incredible night of worship--and it was completely led by high school and middle school students.

Here is the video of the skit.  Actually, it is a skit done to a song by Switchfoot.  The combination of the skit and the lyrics are very meaningful.  Take a moment to watch and listen to the video and be ready to be challenged and blessed.

Redheads and Ruffians

You may recognize this bulldog from an earlier post.  He is the pet of one of the families that run one of our school dormitories.  The dorm sits right outside the side gate of TCIS and the dog is the resident of a very small fenced-in area right next to the busy sidewalk that runs between the dorm and the street.  He looks like a ruffian, but really he is a softy.  He gets lots of looks by Koreans that pass by his dwelling and some of the children (and university students) that are walking by take the chance and reach in and pet him.  He greets them with a grunt and a slobbery lick of his tongue.  He is more of a zoo attraction than a pet.

In the next picture you see a pair of redheads (almost).  It is Becca and Levi Miller working on a project together at our house.  It seems like just the other day these two were a couple of imps swinging on the tire swing in Idaho and playing outside in the mud.  Now they are buddies sitting at the kitchen table, with their laptops open, working on a school project in Daejeon, South Korea.  Levi's hair isn't naturally blondish red--it is brown.  He dyed it while he was on a mission trip to an orphanage in Thailand over Spring Break.

Look around...you never know what you will see.  God's beauty is everywhere--even in buddies and bulldogs.

Basketball at KIS

On Saturday, April 18, we all boarded a bus and headed for Seoul and the Korea International School (KIS) for the middle school basketball jamboree.  Sarah participated in the tournament as a player and Becca participated as a coach--in fact, as Sarah's coach.

The day was filled with lots of basketball, lots of walking all over the huge KIS campus and a long bus ride to begin and end the day.  Sarah played some great basketball.  Her team played four games throughout the day and they won two games and they lost two games.  Sarah scored some baskets, pulled down some rebounds and played some tenacious defense.

We had a great days watching some basketball, playing some basketball, coaching some basketball and being together.

Big Strawberry

Here in South Korea the landscape consists of two things:  either the ground is covered with concrete, buildings and city or it is covered with foliage, fields and greenhouses.  The Korean people love to grow things and they do it well. 

This spring we have been enjoying some delicious fruit here in South Korea.  Because of the "central" location of the Korean Peninsula in Asia there are a lot of wonderful choices when it comes to purchasing and eating fruits and vegetables in this country.

Over the past few weeks we have been enjoying some delicious and huge strawberries.  Becca and Sarah are not holding an apple, they are holding a strawberry.  As you can see, the strawberries are big here in South Korea.  For perspective I put that strawberry next to my size 13 shoe.  After I took the picture...I ate it.  (The strawberry, not my shoe.)

Happy Easter

“Live to the hilt every situation you believe to be in the will of God.”—Jim Elliot

These are the words of a man who lived his life in the light of the Resurrection.  Just over fifty years ago Jim Elliot and four missionary companions were speared to death on a remote river beach in Ecuador, South America.  The missionaries were there to share the gospel of Jesus Christ—the Risen One—with the Auca Indian tribe.  They gave their lives to share with others about the God who is greater than death.  In the light of the Resurrection, they found the freedom to truly live.

How are you living your life?  Are you living in freedom?  As the sun rises over the empty tomb on this Easter morning are you living in the light of the Resurrection?  Are you living to the hilt your life and your situation in God?  Regardless of where you are, what your condition, or whom you are with—you can live your story fully and completely for Jesus Christ—leaving the details to be played out in the eternal light of the Resurrection.

Today, the Auca Indian tribe exists as a community of Christ followers.  The warriors who brandished the machetes and spears so long ago are now preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their own people and to neighboring tribes.  Some of the warriors have passed on from this life and are now walking the streets of heaven with Jesus, Jim Elliot and the other missionaries.  In the light of the Resurrection, their story continues—and so does ours.  Eternity will tell the stories of our lives.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain that which he cannot lose.”—Jim  Elliot

He is Risen!  Live life to the hilt.

Holy Saturday Thoughts

I (Ryan) woke up this morning feeling a sense of dread for the day.  I felt blank and blasé.  I didn’t want to get out of bed and I have no idea why.  I have no regrets.  I am not sick.  It is not raining outside.  I even got to bed at a decent time the night before.  There is no reason for me to feel this way.

Today is Holy Saturday—the day after the crucifixion of Jesus and the day before His glorious resurrection.

I did finally get out of bed this morning and I read John 19—it is the account in the Bible of the crucifixion of Jesus.  As I read about Jesus on the cross, my attention went to those who witnessed the horrific event:  Mary, John, the disciples, Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the others.

Chapter 19 in the book of John details the crucifixion of Jesus and chapter 20 tells of the resurrection of Christ on Easter morning.  But what about Holy Saturday?  In my Bible there is an inch of space between the end of John 19 and the beginning of John 20 that is as blank and empty as I felt this morning.

If they slept at all, I wonder how Mary, John, the disciples, Mary Magdalene, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus and the others felt on that Saturday morning?  I can’t imagine-but what I do know is that their doubts, questions, feelings and fears did not go unaddressed.

I don’t think we are supposed to spend too much time and energy in the realm of the painful, awkward silence of Holy Saturday—rather, give it its allotted space and read on to the next chapter.  We need to rise up from the gloom and despair of Holy Saturday morning realizing that with each tick of the clock we are inching closer to the hope and life of Easter morning.

"Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." (Ephesians 5:14, NIV)

Good Friday Thoughts

Here are a few things to reflect upon this Good Friday. The cross of Christ and the empty tomb should not be considered independent of one another. In the cross of Christ and the Resurrection we find a God who truly knows the extent of our sufferings, who redeems us from the pit of our sins and makes us new, now and forever more.

“In the cross of his Son, God took upon himself not only death, so that man might be able to die comforted with the certainty that even death could not separate him from God, but still more, in order to make the crucified Christ the ground of his new creation, in which death itself is swallowed up in the victory of life and there will be ‘no sorrow, no crying, and no more tears’.” (The Crucified God by J. Moltmann)

Finally, please take a moment to listen to the song, "To a Broken God" by Michael Card.  The lyrics are below.  Have a Good Friday.

Didn’t see you there, didn’t know you were weeping too;
I think of tears as a human wound.
Though of course you care, you have shown you were human too;
They say you cried at Lazarus’ tomb.

I was unaware how it is with a broken God;
I thought of you as above my pain.
Lost in my despair, so it is with a broken heart;
I never dreamed you could feel the same.

Once…,
In a magazine I saw a face,
Wrinkled up in grief and travailed grace.
I kept looking to that face,
Some sad refugee in some sad place;
And in his eyes the sorrow of our race.
And then I saw, it was the face of God,
the face of God, your face dear God.

Some say you’re not there, just a myth for a lazy life;
An artifact from an ancient scroll.
But I have known you near in the gift of a weary sigh;
Lord of the lost and the lonesome soul.

I was unaware how it is with a broken God;
I never dreamed you could feel the same.

Spring (Break) Walk

Wednesday morning Ryan hustled Becca and Sarah into the shower and wrangled them out of the house to go for a walk.  (Needless to say, they weren’t to thrilled.)  We headed to the outskirts of town for a walk through the fields and on the trails near Chicken Foot Mountain.

The sights we saw were beautiful and many of the Korean people that we met along the trail thought the girls were a beautiful sight.  (Many of the Korean women smiled and said the Korean word for beautiful as they walked past us—I don’t think they were talking about Ryan.)  Becca and Sarah looked pretty fancy with their long hair, fair skin and posh sunglasses.

 On our walk we saw lot of fields and greenhouses that were recently planted or in the final stages of being ready to be planted.  This is the time of year that the cherry blossoms are blooming and we saw many beautiful, flowering trees.  As the trail meandered through the trees the petals fell from the trees like snowflakes in winter.

Along the trail there were benches for sitting, wide spots for stretching and a stone walking course.  The stone course is made up of many sharp stones that people walk on with their bare or socked feet.  The stones serve as a source of pressure on certain points on the soles of the feet—a form of Asian/Oriental medicine.  The stones are very painful to walk on but following the experience it is amazing how you feel energized and refreshed.

Midway through our walk we came upon a small Korean “snack shack.”  In it was a little Korean lady selling coffee, ramien, odang (pressed fish) and bondegi (cooked silkworm larva).  We stopped for a coffee break and drank the water and ate the candy bars we brought along with us in our backpack.  It was a good stop.

The Spring (Break) Walk that started out with some grunts and grumbles ended up being a good time.  We taxied back home (in ten minutes), grabbed some Kimbap for lunch and told Dina all about our adventure.  Becca and Sarah did most of the talking—they must have had fun.

Outside Severance

While Dina was resting quietly in the room, I ventured outside the walls of Severance Hospital in Seoul, South Korea.  I didn't have to go far to find signs of the city.  One block beyond the front gate of the hospital and the entrance to Yonsei University I found a busy street, filled with signs, buses, taxis and the potential for lots of people.

It was early in the morning when I took my walk out and about.  Because this area of town is right on the edge of a huge university I suspect that in the evenings there are tens of thousands of people walking the sidewalks and visiting the various eateries and coffee shops along the way.

I visited a three story Starbucks that was very near the hospital and I found it interesting that I could look directly out the front window of the shop and see a three story Holly's Coffee Shop right across the street.  You know there must be lots of people at one time or another for these two huge coffee shops to survive in such close proximity to one another.

On my walk I paused to enjoy the beauty of a huge church/cathedral along the way.  Some people gave me some funny looks as I was taking pictures of the facility.  I am sure I looked like a tourist in more ways than one.  There is so much to see outside our front doors (wherever those doors may be).  Shouldn't we all be tourists--always looking to enjoy the wonders of the people and places all around us?