Korea Trip, Day One

Day One.
We arrived at the Eastern Social Welfare Guesthouse at 8:30 Friday night, perfect time. After being up since Thursday morning, getting no sleep on the plane, I was super ready for sleep, and, even being in a strange place, strange bed, and the opposite time zone, I was able to get a good night's sleep.
Saturday morning we served in the Eastern Social Welfare babies nursery, which is in the same building as the guest rooms, another floor.
We walked down, looked at the precious little babies through the windows and oohed and awed for a while.

Then we cleaned for a while. 

AND FINALLY...we held babies.

 And rocked babies, and cuddled babies. Precious, precious babies.

  And some of us did some sewing, mending some baby clothes.

And, then, we held babies some more! That was the morning of our first day, Saturday.

Heading to Korea

This Thursday, I am leaving for Korea, with my daughter Libby, her daughter Abby, along with a group of about 15 other folks. Dillon International has put the trip together to assist the work of Eastern Social Agency in Seoul. Eastern facilitates adoption of babies, provides a home for single pregnant women, cares for orphaned children with disabilities, and serves other community needs.
Here is the trip itinereary.


2012 SHARING HEART MISSION TRIP: KOREA This itinerary is subject to change.

Day 1 (Thursday, October 18)
The trip will begin with our flight aboard ASIANA, Korean Air, United, Delta or Singapore Airlines to Korea. We will cross the International Dateline and land at Incheon International Airport - http://www.airport.kr/eng/ in the late afternoon of the following day.
Seoul: Seoul is a city with a history that dates back millennia. For the last 600 years, the city has served as Korea’s capital. Through the ages, Seoul has experienced many ups and downs as the nation passed through periods of prosperity and trial. In recent decades, it has experienced dramatic transformations and growth resulting from Korea’s rapid industrialization and modernization.

Day 2 (Friday, October 19)
Once you arrive at Incheon airport, you will go through immigration and customs. Dukkyung will greet you at the meeting area of the airport which is located after customs.  It will take us about an hour to travel to Eastern’s guesthouse in Seoul. After a brief orientation at the guesthouse, you will have time to rest.

Day 3 (Saturday, October 20)
Before we start service work in the morning, we are going to have a devotional time at the guesthouse. We will go to Eastern Babies Home to do service work and stay there until noon. After lunch, we will get on our tour bus and go to Gyeongbok palace. Local Korean students will meet us at the entrance of the palace and each student will be with our group in order to give a tour the palace. They speak English very well and you will enjoy hearing from them about the history of the palace and talking with them. After the palace tour, we will say good bye to the local students and go to Insadong Street that has art galleries, traditional craft stores, antique art dealers and traditional tea houses. The street will be very crowded as it is Saturday. We will have dinner at Insadong and return to the guesthouse.
Eastern Babies Home: EBH is located on the 3rd floor of the ESWS guesthouse. There are three rooms that make up the babies home. There are nurses and caregivers working 24 hours a day, three shifts per day. We will work in one-hour shifts, with two or three people from the group per shift. For holding babies at EBH, they will provide a pink uniform for you.

Day 4 (Sunday, October 21)
This morning, we will go to Youngnak Presbyterian Church to attend the 9:30 am Sunday Service. The church provides translation services and each of you will have an earphone to hear the Korean sermon in English during the service. The church is located in downtown Seoul and we will spend a short free time in downtown before visiting SangRok Children’s Home. (*SangRok means evergreen) There are around 70 children aged from 0 to 18 years old. Most of them entered the home because their parents were unable to keep them due to their poverty. Some children are from single parents or no parents.

Day 5 (Monday, October 22)
After eating breakfast at the guest house, we will board our tour bus to travel to Gyeongju. We will take part in the greeting ceremony put on by the Gyeongsangbuk-do province office. The province office staff and Eastern President, Dr. Kim, Jin Sook will attend the ceremony. Families who adopted children through domestic adoption will also join the ceremony. We will have a talk time with domestic adoptive families during the ceremony. After dinner, we will get an opportunity to learn Korean culture. Domestic adoptive families will help us wear a Korean traditional outfit called “Hanbok” and we will also learn how to bow wearing Hanbok. Afterwards, we will visit Anapji Pond on a night tour.
It is a beautiful and peaceful pond and you will enjoy talking a walk on the pond area. We will stay at BlueOne Resort that night. UNESCO designated Gyeongju as one of the world’s ten most historically significant sites. This area is called the “Museum Without Walls.” Gyeongju was the capital of the Shilla Kingdom for a thousand years, and the valley has many historic buildings, temples and artifacts.

Day 6 (Tuesday, October 23)
After breakfast at BlueOne Resort, we will meet with the domestic adoptive families again and have another talk time for one hour. We will share what we discussed at the talk time the night before and will hear what other groups talked about. It is a neat experience for you to meet domestic adoptive families and you will learn what adoption issues they as domestic adoptive parents face.
After the talk time, we will travel by tour bus and arrive at Sharon’s home in Gyeongsan. We will meet the women at the home and will cook together for our lunch. After lunch, we will do service work at the home and leave for Seoul.

Day 7 (Wednesday, October 24)
In the morning, we will visit Eastern Social Welfare Society. We will tour the offices, meet the president of ESWS, Dr. Kim, Jin Sook and the staff and tour Eastern’s Babies Home. Dress code for the morning will be Sunday dress.
The last service work of the day is to cook a spaghetti dinner for the women at the home for unwed mothers next door to the Eastern office. The women stay during their pregnancy and receive physical and emotional support from Eastern. There are seven locations of the homes throughout the country.

Eastern Social Welfare Society was founded in 1972 by Dr. Kim, Duk Whang, a lifelong Christian and an elder of a church. Since that time, ESWS has helped needy children find families, provided shelter and education for disabled children and strived to make children's dreams come true through sponsorship. Their purpose is to make a contribution to Korean society by providing various welfare services to the less fortunate. Dillon International is the first US agency that ESWS worked with, dating back to both agencies’ beginnings in 1972. The founder, Dr. Kim, passed away in May 2011. The current president of Eastern is the daughter of the late Dr. Kim.

Day 8 (Thursday, October 25)
Today, our tour bus will take us to Sodaemun Community Center. SCC provides diverse programs for the local community: a day care center, after school program, job training programs, cooking class, physical therapy for seniors, lunch delivery to senior, etc. Our service works will be delivering a lunch box to home bound seniors, playing with children at day care center, serving lunch to seniors at the center, and teaching English to children at the after school program. In the evening, we will enjoy the Nanta Theater Performance. After the performance, we will have our farewell dinner sharing our experiences of Korea.

Day 9 (Friday, October 26)
It is time to say good bye to Korea. We will take many unforgettable memories to our home. The time we had in Korea is short but we did many things, serving many people. Korea will welcome you whenever you come back.

Fall Festival for Homeless

I had a new adventure today. It all started a couple of weeks ago when I got a phone call from a friend of a friend who helps out with a ministry involved with homeless people (is that correct terminology, it seems a bit insensitive?) in East Fort Worth. Several ministries were working together to hold a Fall Festival in a park behind the Union Gospel Mission in Fort Worth. The Union Gospel Mission has grown and increased their work until it covers a couple of blocks off of East Lancaster, near downtown. A vacant lot has been turned into a sort of park, where outdoor activities are held. 

The friend of a friend, Mindy, reminded me that we had met several months back when I showed interest in helping out with the inner city ministries, and invited me to bring a group to help with face painting and mingling at this festival. 

I put the word out, and today 6 of us headed out to the big city, really not sure what to expect. None of us were really proficient at painting faces, but we all were good at mingling, which Mindy said was an important aspect to the festival. 

I knew where the Union Gospel Mission was, but had never been there before, and was shocked to see the number of people in the area, just walking around, sitting on curbs, standing on sidewalks, walking in the streets...We had to search for a place to park the car, then joined the crowd at the festival. Fortunately, there were plenty of people painting faces, so we just visited with people. 

We had a BLAST! 

There was a lot going on besides face painting; a lot of booths giving out food, a jump house, games, a prayer tent, and a stage area with really great worship, sharing, and entertainment. 

I had a long conversation with a woman who is living in a hotel near the mission with her husband and two children. Her husband lost his job, and in a few months, they lost their apartment and are paying $30 a day to stay in a motel. Her husband has been working day jobs, and has been hired for a permanent position starting Wednesday. She goes to Texas Workforce every day to look for a job. We had the sweetest fellowship about faith, trusting God, His provision, His care, and His love for us. I don't mean I was teaching her, I mean, she shared with me, and I responded, in a special way of true fellowship. 

I noticed one woman who was enthusiastically encouraging a singer who was also speaking. I introduced myself to her and said, "I love your spirit." She said, "Thank you, God gave it to me." and we were bonded! I stood with her as we held hands and sang, "We are the World' and danced to "Take the Shackles off my feet". Afterward, she said, "Jeannette, you are blessed. God has a plan for you, and He will bless you." 

Who is ministering to whom???? 

My friends also walked around and connected with people, listened to their stories and prayed with them. I won't try to tell about all of them. But, I really have to tell one more story. The festival included a talent show. WOW. These folks blew me away. I wish America's Got Talent could have been there. 

I am uploading a few pictures. They are not good pictures, just random group pictures, because I did not in any way want to make anyone feel like they were on display

 Later, I will try to upload the videos of some of the talent show, which do not give the performers justice, but will give you an idea of what we experienced.