Our New Church

Today we learned some things about the church we have been attending. First, it is called Kwangsung Church and it is huge. I thought it was pretty big before, but today we learned that the building we go to (the English service is small, but is part of a much larger church) was pretty large. It can probably sit one to three thousand (very rough estimate), but today we learned that this building is not even the main building. What I thought was another church nearby (a couple minutes walk away) is actually the main church building; it is four stories high, and has a subterrainean parking garage.

Second, the church is a Presbyterian church, but as I have learned in other foreign countries and in the States, you cannot judge a church by their affiliation. From what I have observed, they believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and use good hermeneutics (how you understand Scripture). From everything I have seen and gathered this is a good, solid church. We have been praising God that He has brought us to a good church so quickly. That was one of our bigger concerns about coming to Korea, finding a good church, so this has been a real blessing.

Today we met several people at the church, including a man named Hoon, whose job at the church is to help the various foreigners who come. So now we have a very friendly person who is very willing to help us out with whatever we need. At this point we are not aware of anything in particular that we need Hoon's help with, but it is nice to have someone we can call or email about things. Hoon also speaks very good English and is a very friendly man.

We met several other nice people, and we have been invited to a party at one family's house on Saturday. They invited a large number of foreigners (foreigners in this case would all be English speakers). There are people from the U.S., Canada, South Africa, and probably other countries too. Of course, Koreans are also present. Actually Koreans make up the majority of the people who go the the English service, but since they speak English too it is pretty neat.

The church also has a cafeteria/restaurant that is open after the church service. The food is Korean and it is pretty good. It is also inexpensive and provides a good oportunity to fellowship with some of the other believers after the service without anyone having to shell out a large sum of money. The price to eat is only 1000 won (less than $1). Actually there is a cafeteria in each of the two large buildings, which is nice since they are a bit of a walk from each other and across a busy street. We forgot to take our camera with us this week or we might have had some pictures to post with this. Maybe next week.