Arrived safely in the land that bustles with life

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The Land of Morning Calm - the Land that Never Stops

Here we go - the beginning of six weeks in the Land of Morning Calm, one of the names for the ancient land of Korea. Now divided into two after the Korean War, both North and South have since been on a frantic race for supremacy. This race has been decided won, economically, by the South since the virtual collapse of the North's economy because this is a land that never stops. From the time I boarded the connecting flight from Munich to Seoul/Busan I sensed being in the midst of a people who bustle with life and are definitely on the go constantly - working and playing, for Koreans also have a great sense of fun. I managed about one hour's sleep on the huge crowded Airbus into Seoul's vast new Inchon airport before skipping on in the almost deserted connecting flight to my destination Busan in the south-east of South Korea.

I seem to have brought drizzly English weather with me as I arrived to be met by Father Hong, the Secretary of the Busan Diocese who drove me to our friends' 18th floor apartment surrounded by mountains. How lovely to meet up again with our Korean family. How genuinely kind and thoughtful they are. Now it's non-stop Korean chatting and eating and listening for six weeks! The Parks have given me their double bed so, thankfully, I have a great night's sleep cracking the jet-lag, I hope, before a day to relax before working on my schedule of visits up and down the country in the three Dioceses that make up the Anglican Province of South Korea. I am enjoying lovely home cooking - with special mushrooms from northern China, sea cucumber, fish, rice and kimchi. In the afternoon we walk up the mountain just behind us on one of the well worn paths equipped with exercise apparatus (!) to draw some sweet water from one of the mountain springs as so many Koreans love to do. We fill six two-litre bottles of water from the spring and put them in rucksacks as we wander back down the mountain through the pine trees that clothe the mountain sides.

On our way home from the mountain we hail a friend who lives on the 21st floor of a neighbouring apartment and are promptly invited up for a chat. This affords me the chance to show you what an average middle-class apartment is like inside. Taehee heads up a Christian publishing company and has translated lots of Christian missionary books and her husband, Isaac, the managing director of a trading company, is now the Chairman of the Korean Council of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship. We served with this mission we lived in Korea for twelve years in the 70's and 80's. Their apartment has rooms opening off a central wooden floored seating area with an adjoining kitchen. Although thoroughly modern, the house structure still reflects the age old Korean house layout from centuries before. Like many Korean households, they have their mother-in-law staying with them and she comes out to greet us and later eats with us - because, of course, you can't just drop in without being asked to stay on for a meal. This being a Christian home a picture of the Lord and a large Bible text in Korean calligraphy hang on the walls as well as there being an interesting painting of a Korean farmer carrying a huge burden on his A-framed backpack. Delicious Korean food arrives in twenty minutes from a locally delivering restaurant so we dine on duck cooked with various vegetables, the ubiquitous kimchi (red pepper-pickled cabbage), soup and rice.

Mr. Park and I carry the water home as Mrs. Park and Isaac and Taehee go off for their church's midweek service in their local presbyterian church. I preached there when we were here last September but this time I'm here to be with Anglicans so, keeping a low profile, I head home to write this first blog to you. Tomorrow I'm off to the Cathedral to plan my time here and have lunch with the Bishop of Busan, for whom I am one of two Commissaries (his representatives) in England. I will try to avoid being pressured to be everywhere immediately as of yesterday (what it feels like to work in Korea) and instead practice being the doddery old missionary who had his special (in the East) 60th birthday last year. How successful will I be? Wait and see!

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