You ever wonder why Asians from other countries always flash the "peace" symbol with their fingers in pictures?


Well...it means cheer up or smile. That's why. That simple. In just about every picture that I have taken with Korean's here, they have held up the peace sign.

Anyways, we have just returned to CTI (if you don't know what or where that is check previous posts) from CBF (previous posts) and a Bretheren church camp near Namhae which means South Sea. Namhae is in Southern South Korea and is right on the South Sea. It was a pretty sweet time with all the believers and young people there. We did the usually singing and speaking at the camp for all the ages. On top of that we made some good friends. Everyone there, like most of South Korea was so nice and kind to us. All ages. Young and old. We were warned that this area was a very conservative area and that many of them had probably never seen anyone other than a Korea. I think it was true. We were stared at like crazy! And we took more pictures with random people than you can imagine. One day we went on a little cruise around some islands and people who weren't even part of the conference would come over to us and take pictures with Sam and I. It was pretty funny to all of us. As I mentioned this was a much more conservative area so we were worried about honoring tradition and custom while there. I think we did so with extra bowing and even going a little lower than normal. They loved hearing all of us trying to say "hello" and "thank you" in Korean. They would either be very impressed or just laugh at us. Either way it was good.

One day while at the Namhae church camp, Stephane and I went on a rafting trip on the South Sea. There were about 7 rafts and each had about 10 people on it while we paddle through the Sea. The trip lasted a good 3 hours, but it was so much fun. It was especially fun because we had no idea what people were saying to us or what they wanted us to do, so we had to figure things out!

We were at Namhe from the 28 - 31...I think. Before that we were at CBF.

The two pictures up top are from CBF. The first picture is a view of the mountains that we had. So sweet! 70% of Korea's land is mountainous! The second pic is one of Dwight and I singing for CBF.

Our time at CBF was such a great time. Most everyone there was a freshman or sophomore in college and was eager to learn the Word and about the USA. One night most the young people asked us (Sam, Lear, Alex and I) to answer questions for them about the Bible and America. We talked for a good 3 hours with them about so many different things, but it was apparent that they were curious about life in the USA and how we perceived them as Koreans. One big concern they had was whether we blamed all Koreans for the Virginia Tech shooting. The shooter was Korean and they thought Americans would hate Koreans because of that..kinda ridiculous!
I think I will be seeing some of these people in USA in the next few year...I hope. Because we are so different from people that we normally see, we are like instant celebrities with all the people. And Lear had some girls after him from CBF!
God has been so good to us on this trip. No one has become sick and everyone has had a great time so far! We have made some wonderful friends and I can only imagine we will make more.
I will post some pics of Namhae and some stories too!