Saturday @ Empower 2007

Woke up at 5:59am (had my alarm set for 6am), took a shower and headed to the main auditorium for the morning prayer time in the perfect Korean fashion. The speaker shared on 2 Corinthians... can't remember the chapter, but it was about not losing heart in ministry... we had some time to share with others about prayer items and spent some time in prayer. Headed off to breakfast (yummy pancakes, eggs and fruit) and sat with Hyoung, Jason and Heidi. Hyoung is a medical doctor from North York General... humble servant of God; Jason works for Samsung (I know someone who works there!) and Heidi, who is married to one of the Lintons. The L family have a long missionary history in Korea and her husband is a third generation American-Korean... As she shared with us at the breakfast table about some of the things that she's seen while in NK, her eyes teared up as she shared people's stories.

Missed the seminar track to take a needed nap ;) and then trekked to the auditorium again to listen to CK, a worker who runs a goat-milk business inside NK. Shared about the need to be neighbours to NKoreans, more so than a visitor. His stories about the "everyday NKoreans" were both humourous and heart-breaking. Heard from a friend that CK and his wife doesn't teach their kids written Korean (but they can understand verbal Korean) to avoid reading the overt propaganda around them! What a different world it is...

Okay... gotta go... I think Elisa wants me to get off the computer and stop typing so that we can "debrief" a bit and pray together for some personal things going on in our lives. It's been good to have Elisa here with me in Chicago to talk and joke with. She's on the verge of burning out and I'm nearly there...

ttyl =)