Sunday feast

A rather select group of 5 of us were whisked off from the BEXCO queues in a bright yellow pre-school minibus to attend the "God of light and love Presbyterian Church" - a Swiss couple, Paul Goodliff, Elaine Storkey and me. We were again royally received with Guard of Honour type welcome, my phrases getting rather well-worn but very much appreciated. A look round the church at the various age groups already underway, including teenagers, a choir of perhaps 45 and 3 children's groups preceded a sit and chat in the vestry, before we were taken to our seats at the front of the congregation, only the elders in front of us. Nothing was done in English, but personal translation was  being given just out of my hearing. We had copies of the hymns/songs in English for us to join in the singing. The pastor was pretty young and not over-charismatic in presentation, but the church community we were told consists of around 1000 people and they have fine new 4 year old premises in addition to pre-existing halls. It seemed a good atmosphere, service pretty much an hour, but everyone scarpered at the end to where lunch was being served. As we were being served back in the vestry we didn't meet the congregation as such. Very nice meal again and some good conversation, also we were presented by fans, 'calligraphed' by an elder who was an ENT specialist and also entertained us playing the saw, Nearer my God to thee and Amazing grace. The English 3 of us remained to have a tour round some city sights, the UN War Graves from the Korean War including 668 British, followed by Red Bean Ice Cream, and then the island at the end of Hyundae beach where George Bush and the APEC nations summit had taken place a few years back - the Pacific nations is a bit of a leading role call of nations notably excluding people like us. The others then went back to their hotels and I stayed the course for a Korean cultural evening which was excellent with breath-taking drummers, children, traditional musicians and dancers, a jazz and blues singer and an amazing 12 year old boy narrating the gospel story from the dead Christ on the cross to resurrection in an old Korean style including narrative and song to a one drum accompaniment, spell-binding. The back and Neil came up to talk over our weekends, he having been in Seoul experiencing a mega-church context and visiting the border zone.