Culture & What It Means to Me

Me and one of the performer from Mexico

Well today I had the opportunity to attend the Seoul Drum Festival with two of my friends here in Seoul. The Festival is a month long event that culminates at the end of the month with a parade and a competition. Groups from around Korea and the World come to showcase traditional as well as contemporary drum performances. Most of them incorporate dance and other things as well. Watching the event reminded me of how much I enjoy studying and learning about other cultures. In South Georgia, one does not run into many other cultures very often as you would expect. It has been a breath of fresh air to see these people in native garb(spelling?)....doing what they do best. I couldn't help but to think about the fact that God created all of these people....with their different languages, music, etc. It reminds of the scripture in Revelations 7:9-10; "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." Enjoy the videos by clicking the link below!

My Korean Experience

Life Dreamlist: Live in another country.....DONE!!!!

Like many others, I took the time some years ago to create a dream list of things that I would like to accomplish during my stay here on the planet. In actuality I have done about three of these lists over the course of 31 years of living. One of the things on that list was fulfilled on March 15, 2008 when I married my beautiful wife. I figure I better add that first....if you know what I mean! Truthfully I don't know if I can say that I really expected any of those things on my list to come true, but it didn't hurt to write them down anyway. So that being the case one would expect my utter amazement when I received a phone call a few months ago informing me that I had been selected to work in a Christian school in Seoul, South Korea! Yep.....I'm in South Korea. Today I have officially been here 2 months and 2 days.  It's kinda mind-blowing when I think about all the times I sat in my old classroom back in the states, staring out of the window and thinking that somewhere out there in the world is adventure and excitement. Well God answers prayers.....evidently even when we aren't real sure that he will. I must say that I had to get over the initial feeling of being outside of my boundaries the first couple of weeks of being here. I don't know if I can explain it but I'll try. I would imagine it's somewhat like being a slave who has just gained their freedom. You have the feeling of excitement coupled with the feeling of wanting to run back to what you are used to.  I mean seriously speaking....I'm from South Georgia, not in the military, or any other commonly accepted reason for my being here because truth be told, how many African-American missionaries does one encounter? The trick, I've found, is to stay out of the comfort zone long enough to give your mind and emotions time to catch and balance out the fact that you are in uncharted territories. Overall my stay here thus far has been fantastic!

Wow!!!

Well here I go again. I haven't added anything to my blog since I started it last year and based on a few requests and the fact that so many things have happened since then, I feel the need to actually use the darn thing! So....here I go!