Shabbat Shuvah in Beverly Hills

Today I visited Rabbi Stuart Dauermann's Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue in Beverly Hills as it is Stuart's birthday. Jewish people are celebrating High Holy Days and today was the sabbath of repentence (year 5768 in the Hebrew Calendar). The Rabbi spoke on "Take the words with you and return to the Lord" from Deut 32. Here is a photo of the Rabbi praying a blessing on those gathered at the close of the service.
A key phrase was, "When we repent, God throws a party" taken from the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.
This week was also the start of Ramadan (year 1428 in the Islamic Calendar).

Patterns in Korea

While Dan taught I was free to explore and was really taken with the lovely "patterns" where we stayed. From flowers, to butterflys, to temple structures, to statues, to clouds--it was wonderful.

Some fun shots from Korea trip

As I reviewed our blog I see there are some great pics I didn't post so here they are. I really like this one with Dan shopping in the market in Pohang! Then some of the student involvement as Dan teaches. The man writing is the pastor for the Kingdomizer church where the class met and the woman is the Prayer pastor.

Sept 8 07 in Seoul, Korea

Today we had a relaxed day shopping and locating some of the shop keeps Dan has visited over that last 30 years. They were all so pleased to have him return. The 90 year old man in red vest sold Dan a very old book written on rice paper, the pottery artist holding the lamp made this specific lamb we bought. The lady embroidered the robe for me and the artist did this piece for "happy home" we bought.
Last night we attended the Chongdong theater and experienced traditional Korean music and dance, even had this photo taken with two of the performers.
We are tired and ready to return to California tomorrow. The Lord has been so near and dear to us during this trip and is answering our prayers at the DMZ according to current news coverage.

DMZ in Korea

Yes we spent time at the DMZ between North and South Korea. We walked down the 3rd Tunnel to the point where the the North tried to infiltrate the South. We saw the barbed wire fence on the south with guard stations at regular intervals with armed soliders on guard. We went to the highest lookout center and could see North Korea. There we prayed for reunifiction and peace for the Korean nation.
We learned that there are some 300,000 Korean children in China orphaned and at risk of being captured by Chinese police and sent back to N. Korea. A worse senerio is that they are stolen by mercenaries and killed for body parts that are used for illegial transplants--truly children at risk.
At the DMZ is a peace park with a temple and a blue art piece done for reunification, also the split orb with figures putting Korea together again. If you click on a photo it will become larger to see the details.

New Friends on JeJu Island

Our host was Missionary Kim (wonderful Korean man and his family with a warm heart for helping North Koreans and missionaries).
Our guide was Mr. Cha (in front of rock formation), a Korean who helps migrant workers in Korea and China. A young North Korean man, Mr. Park, went everywhere with us as well. Here he is studying the postcard I bought at the DMZ. Mr. Park escaped N. Korea to China with his family, but was arrested 3 times and sent back to N. Korea (escaped everytime) now he is a University student in Seoul.
We visited a huge temple where it is reported to have 80,000 buddha figures, in the photo you can see rows of small gold buddhs behind the men as they look up at the opposite wall filled with the same kind of images. It was fantastic.

JeJu Island in Korea

We spent 3 full days on the gorgeous JeJu Island and had a fabulous time making and meeting new Korean friends and missionaries. This Island is strange as it has two kinds of caves together, volcanic and limestone. In the photo Dan and I stand with Dragon Rock in the background.
One photo is at the south beach with seasame seeds being dried along the cement wall.

Making pottery in Korea

Yes, today we got to make our own "coffee" cups at a pottery shop near Seoul. The master potter (pictured on wall) came in as we finished and checked our work before it was to be fired. I was reminded that "The Lord is the Potter and we are the clay in His hands to fashion as He chooses."
The cups won't be ready for a month and we are anxious to see how we did. We are back in Seoul for 4 days before flying home to California. It has been a jam-packed trip filled with wonderful people and experiences.