Our Experience at Korean Church

Andrew and a random excited Korean who wouldn't let go of his hand.

Our group standing in front of Andong Church: Danny and I, a random Korean boy again, Jennifer, Paul, Helen, and Andrew

A random thing that we saw after church: this Korean flag was being put together out of post it notes in the center of downtown.

I have decided that the best way to deal with all the strange things that happen everyday is to laugh at them, and our first experience at a Korean church was no exception. Our new friend Andrew goes to a church here in Andong. He took us last Sunday and warned us about a few things, but left out some interesting facts that we found out after we had been there. There aren't any English speaking services in Andong, so obviously we wouldn't understand most of what was going on so sitting quietly and smiling was going to be our plan of attack. As soon as we got there though, we made quite a memory.

Everyone was very shocked as they saw 2 new foreigners walking through the door and they instantly began staring and coming up to us to share an eager "HI!" and then would run away. After some confusion, we finally got to our seats and the service began. We had to sign some sort of card for newcomers, but little did we know that in a few minutes they would make us stand up in front of everyone and they would proceed to sing a welcome song. As they called our names and we stood up, the whole crowd gasped in excitement to see two Americans at there church. That made us feel great, but then when the pastor anounced that Danny and I were married, another ever louder gasp was heard followed by cheering. Who knew that we were such famous people in Andong! (Why didn't we come here before?) They then sang the welcome song and all we understood was the part in English that said, "God bless you, God bless you," over and over but the rest sounded very friendly. ; )

The rest of the service was great even though I didn't know what the pastor was preaching on, but it was cool to be among other believers. We met a ton of other people after church and we think this will be where we go for the next year. (It doesn't hurt that the service is at 1:30 so we can sleep in either, wink.) A word for the day to help you in Korean church: hannah neem (God)