The second church we went to, Central Baptist, was an incredible church. Our leader, Pastor Oh, grew up in this church and Moxomin (pastor) and Somonim (pastor's wife) were his youth pastors. It was a lot more comfortable in this church since we weren't always on our guard to try to make the best impression, which is expected in Korea. The church had about 40 people in it and was out in the country. Moxomin has a huge burden for an intercultural church. Many Russians, Afghanistans, and Pakistani men go to Korea for work and leave their families behind, sending them money every month to survive. He is hoping to reach out to them and add them to his congregation.

Moxomin and Somonim and several families of the church were incredible. The first day we were there, Somonim met us and took us to a restruant. Moxomin, after excaping from the hospital due to a car wreck, met us there in his scrubs because he was so excited to see us. The team instantly fell in love with them. Three different families from the church picked up the tab for each meal. The first meal alone was $300. There was only one room for guests to sleep in, so the pastor and his wife slept in the living room while we were given their room. They were so good to us and wouldn't let us try to repay them. I've never met such loving and giving and sweet people in my life. At the end of the trip the two of them gave us each presents from their own possessions: Moxomin's cologne for the guys and jewelry from Somonim for the girls. The necklace she gave me is probably the most precious gift I have ever received in my whole life.

The top picture is of Moxomin and Somonim and me. To left the left is Moxomin, bored at the mall. Below that is a church woman who helped us incredibly with interpretation and paying for meals, Rosa, Somonim, and me.



We did a lot of the same things at this church as we did at the last one. We went to apartments and trudged through fields to homes and warehouses to hand out tracks for the church. People were a lot more accepting of the tracks in the country. We also got to go to a handicapped children's home. We put on a program for them, and then visited the severely handicapped children who lived their lives in a chair. One boy had elephantitus, there were lots of downs syndrome kids, and many other handicaps. We told the kids they were beautiful and that we loved them. One little girl was so excited to see us that she started kicking her hands and flailing her arms, her eyes bugged out and were trying to look everywhere at once. We could see another little girl trying to smile and even though she couldn't focus her eyes on us or talk or even move, tears flowed down her face just to know that someone loved her.





Saturday night we held a party for the youth group. The girls were really shy at first and wouldn't talk, but by the end of the night, they were yelling and blabbing as much as everyone us. They were struggling with their English and we didn't know Korean at all, but we managed to laugh our way through the evening. We played several American games and some Korean ones after miming the instructions to everyone. We also had some relay races which they acted as though they had never seen before. It was a really good time