GOOD FRIDAY AT NTC/AU, April 6, 2012

What a meaningful Good Friday! It started out riding with Val and Bob Thomson to Meadowlands (?) 

Church for an excellent service conducted by Rev. Dr. Bruce Allder, Principal of NTC/AU.  His title, “The Silences of Christ”. We observe Him silent in the face

• of false accusations,
• of multiple injustices (illegal use of the temple guard, illegal trial at night, illegal to pass judgment & sentence the save day, illegal trial during Passover, etc.
• of betrayal as He washed the feet of the Disciples
• of lack of support, like the disciples’ sleeping, Peter’s denial
•  of the high purposes of God; He didn’t argue with His Father

These silences speak of His strength, His obedience, and His submission. These can be our personal goals Therefore, let us keep our quiet time with the Lord, discipline our speech, take advantage of quiet spaces in our days and reflect on the silences of Christ.

We had communion facing the garden, then moved to the fellowship hall where the church people chatted over “cuppas”. Sister Ana gave me the receipe for the yummy bars she brought: 1 small white cake mix, baked; top with a can of apple slices, cover with sour cream, sprinkle with cinnamon, then bake again for 20 min. and serve cold.

Back on campus, we washed clothes, hung them to dry then ironed some of them. How many years has it been since I’ve done that!? We can’t get any internet in the guest room, so we have to go near the Admin office which we did this afternoon. We sat on a stack of concrete blocks so we could have a good view of the fields, hoping for animal sightings. An hour past and Jon noticed a yellow-eyed chicken-sized bird sitting near us in the brush. A few minutes later, we noticed another one just beyond. Can you spot the bird beside Jon? It has very good camouflage! They are called curlews.

 

On our way to Dr. Bruce’s house for supper we walked around campus hoping to see a koala or a wallaby. We saw a kookaburra & took a picture. Then we saw  Mrs. Wallaby – with a Joey beside her – and we got a picture! You have to look closely because they blend in with the grey tones of the forest but they're both in the picture. 

We still haven’t seen a koala and we're not likely to see one. Dr. Bruce says it’s the wrong time of the year.

We had such a special time at the Allders with two other couples as guests: George and Nancy Miller, missionaries from the Solomon Islands who came in for medical care and Ian and Ann, former parisheners of Allders. Jackie served a great meal – an Australian fish called barramundi baked with potatoes & carrots & sweet potatoes and a dish made from something we called “xuxu” in Brazil, a watery, green spiney vegetable with almost no flavour in itself. There were three desserts, including Passion Fruit Delicious. Then tea or coffee and I chose “White Tea” that Jackie recommended.

I asked Jackie about her training for special education. She did an on-line certificate. We spoke of our needing to train someone in Central Africa; we spoke of other alternatives. Jackie will be returning to work after a period in which she was giving terminal care to her daughter, Belinda, who passed away in February. We spoke of the impact of Louis Giglio on Belinda, and the star her friends named for her and gave her for Christmas. We shared other prayer requests. The pastors for their Samoan Church – where the McEwan’s attend. The missionaries, for his medical condition. Bruce – for the new directions at the college like starting a new program, The Gap, to attract a younger aged student, the coming from Nampa of the Ken Wade Family. Jon closed in prayer for all. We walked back to the guest room to read, write…and sleep.

BRISBANE CITY & MAUNDY THURSDAY, April 5, 2012

A gem from our devotional reading this morning was this one:

“I am a God of surprises – infinitely more creative than you can imagine. The universe displays some of My creativity, but there is more – much more. I am making a new heaven and a new earth. Moreover, I am preparing My people – all around the world – to live there with Me in endless ecstasy. Let this eternal perspective strengthen and encourage you” (Young 36).

We shared the breakfast table with new friends – our hostess, Val Thomson’s son, Matthew who is a missionary with Mission Aviation Fellowship, her long-time friend, Barbara Scott, who served with her husband for years in Papua New Guinea, Denise, who’s father is a pastor of a church near-by where there are many Samoans, and Phillipinos, and Paval, the father of the Indian family next to us. What a flurry of conversations!  Matt knows our MAF friend from Nampula, Mozambique – David Lepoidevan.

We packed a lunch for a day in Brisbane City. Val took us to Cleveland to catch the train to city center. 

  
We got go-cards for public transit and also rode the free redline City Center Bus Loop. We bought Aussie souvenirs at a shop that sells Ulu Boots (made in Australia). In spite of Jon’s aching ankles, we walked a lot – into the Botanical Gardens to eat our lunch by a pond with a fountain and a variety of visitors

 

– mostly pretty birds, but also a few “water dragons” or whatever the 2-ft long hooded lizards were. The long, curved beaks of the large Ibis birds and their raucous calls are very familiar to us from South Africa. We didn’t know what the black birds were with bright orange over their snout. Maybe loons or coots. Such a variety of birds! Reminds me of our devotions this morning – “The universe displays some of My creativity, but there is more…”

We walked through the gardens and across the Brisbane River on the “Good Will Footbridge” to the South Bank of the City, recommended by Dr. David, last night, and also by two of the other walkers who helped us find our way through the Gardens to the Bridge.

 

After the bridge, we walked along the South Bank, filled with parks, resting places, children’s play areas, terraced restaurants, and ferry boat stations. We decided not to take the ferry, but to take the train.

By the time we got to the South Bank Train Station, we were pretty tired, so we decided to have a “long expresso” (nice) at a corner café. Just as we were leaving the café, we noticed they sold “kibi balls”.  Kibis are friend meatballs made of ground lamb, bulgar and pine nuts. In Brazil they have a black olive in the middle of them.

We first met “kibis” our first month in Peace Corps/ Brazil in Cachoeiro de Itapemirim (hometown of Roberto Carlos, a very popular singer, then). A little Lebanese lady had a kind of general store. When we went to look at her things there, something came over me, and I felt very faint. She came to my rescue and took me behind the counter to a little room with a bed and a table. She had me lie down for a few minutes then she brought be two things – a kibi and a glass of yogurt – to refresh me. I had never had either before. I ate both of them and felt refreshed. She must have served Jon, too. You may never have had these, but I MUST learn how to make them. We ordered one to take with us to the train station. It was just as tasty as we remembered! Quite a treat for us. =)

The several rides we took today gave us people-watching time. We talked throughout the day about what we were seeing. In general, Brisbane Area reminds us of urban South Africa. (This is a pleasant association; we traveled from Mozambique to RSA quite frequently for educational meetings, my studies at U of Pretoria, and for shopping 2.5 hrs. from Maputo in Nelspruit.) What is similar? The laid back attitude of the people, going barefoot in the street, the shape of the men’s hats, the kinds of birds, the kinds of cars, the obvious camping/athletic mode shown by back-packs, skateboarders, bicycling, jogging, and outdoorsy activities, the classy shops that actually looked different than European ones.

 

Anyway, we had a very enjoyable day as tourists in a very modern, tall, clean, stylish city.

The train brought us from Brisbane to Cleveland, where we shopped for the holidays coming up as stores are closed from today through next Monday.  We peeked at some other shops in the mall there. Shells like the ones we brought from Africa were in one shop – very, very expensive! Easter is a four-day holiday! LOTS of people were shopping for food! Val met us at the food-store and brought us back to campus.

Tonight we were pleased to be able to attend a very unique Maundy Thursday service at Redlands Church of the Nazarene. We got a ride with Gretchen and David Freeman, who are assistants to the Field Strategy Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand. They are most recently from Tucson, AZ but also served in Europe and know our missionaries in Romania – Dorothy and Roberta! We didn’t get to talk to them very much because the ride was short.

The service leader at the church is from Holland. The service consisted of a musical presentation by Sebastian Johanne Bach called “Mateus Divino”, an Easter concert from the Passion of Matthew’s Gospel put to music and interpreted by solo voices of Jesus and Judas, choral voices of the Disciples and the crowd. He told us that this is performed all over Holland (and probably Germany) leading up to Holy Week. It seems to be used like Handel’s Messiah leading up to Christmas, but neither Jon or I had ever heard of it. We certainly appreciated the 10-minute selection he played for us. The singing was in German, with the words in English projected on the screen in the darkened sanctuary. We had communion, sang a hymn and left the church in silence.

But outside the church we didn’t keep silence. Our new friends, the Kerrs, were at the service and wanted to talk to us =). They had worked on their Timbercrete blocks on campus all day so had stayed for the service. It was really nice to see them again.

To close the service, I wanted us to sing, “Man of Sorrows” instead of “Crown Him with Many Crowns”. Maybe we’ll sing it tomorrow in the Good Friday service. “Man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came. Ruined sinners to reclaim, ‘Halleluja! What a Savior!” We are quiet this evening, thinking of the Last Supper, thinking of Jesus’ agony and suffering, and thinking of the high price He paid for our salvation.

CAMPUS, SEA AND FELLOWSHIP IN AUSTRALIA April 4, 2012

Considering places for an Easter-Week retreat, the warm wind rustling through the eucalyptus leaves and the quiet privacy of this campus certainly would make this spot a superb choice. God has gone before us to choose this spot for us. The campuses of KNU and this NTC are very different. KNU campus is a go-go with students up and down the halls and the elevators, in the laundry room, bouncing basketballs on the two courts below the guest apartment. It’s location is smack dab in the midst of bustling city life, with coffee shops, restaurants, department stores, cell phone boutiques, etc. all within a two-minute walk from campus, even three Nazarene churches on campus. The NTC/Australia students are on break so we share the kitchen with only one other set of guests, an Indian family with three children, and interface in the building with only them and the Talbots, and find share campus with only the administrators. What a great retreat setting!

From our readings this morning, this verse spoke particularly to us, as we find ourselves farther away from home, geographically, than we have ever been, 12 time zones from Seattle, 15 from East Coast of USA, yet seeing God at work in us, in this place, down-under, at the other “end”:

Isaiah 52:10 God has comforted His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. He has rolled up his sleeves. All the nations can see His holy, muscled arm. Everyone, from one end of the earth to another, sees Him at work, doing His salvation work.

Praise Him!

The administrators made the school van available to us so we borrowed it and the Australia Atlas and drove East to the beach at Victoria Point. Bob Thompson told us which way to go to it, and the coffee shop to stop at on the way. We drove to the closest beach – Victory Point. Bob had calmly observed, “It’s not much of a swimming beach.” This is the understatement of the year! I think walking 25 feet through the muddy muck between shore and water would make apt scenes for “American’s Funniest Videos”! So, we ate our sandwiches in the van, then meandered South down the coast for 15 miles and saw other fishing beaches and other ferry crossings to the islands just off the coast which do boast golden sand that we can see from the shore.

The town to the East of the college is called Victory Point. We stopped at the shopping center there to see if we could get internet and a senior coffee at McDonalds. Yep, it had free wi-fi. What’s more it had our choice of senior coffees – for free! That was a pleasant surprise!

We shopped other stores looking for products from Australia We found several packaged in Australia but…you guessed it…made in China. Harumph. We’ll keep looking for Australian things.

Back on campus, late in the afternoon, Jon put his cold/flu down for a nap while I walked down the road again to see if I could spot those two wallabies again or, perhaps, a koala in one of the trees. Nope. But then I walked slowly to the small open meadow behind John’s Timbercrete Bricks. Across the open space, a wallaby with babe in pouch met eyes with me! So cool. She didn’t stay long; she hopped into the bush. But I saw her! Even though the giant posters in the airport yesterday told us there are more than 2,000 varieties of spiders in Australia, and warned that if we saw one of them with its foot in the air, we should smash it quick (!), there is something very amazing about having wallabies in your back yard. Think of it. Instead of squirrels and deer, out our windows we could see these wondrous jumping creatures, shyly looking back at us. Too cool.

At 6:00 p.m. we walked to the home at the front of the campus where Dr. David & Chris McEwan hosted us for a lovely evening of food and fellowship. David is the Dean who does motorcycling. We noticed that in his office decorated with racing pictures. Jon shared with him about our closest biker friends -- Randy Hayes, Pastor Dave Rodes, cousin JD Johnson -- and his desire to get into biking sometime. How fun to find that some of our dearest friends are also their friends – Geoff & Jane Austin, the Tarrants, Fili Chambo, Ken Walker, and others. Praise God for His family.

As we walked a bit in the dark from their home to our lodging, we listened for creatures, presuming  they were there, but not hearing any of them. That was probably better. I’m not sure how I would have slept if I’d come face-to-face with an Australian creature, cute as they may be – in the dark. =)

FLYING TO AND SETTLING INTO AUSTRALIA April 3, 2012

We had never flown Korean Air before but we had been told that it is a very friendly airline. It seemed to be. The stewards and stewardesses walked the aisles with frequency and were always available. The plane, even in economy, was a bit roomier than some others. It wasn’t full, so after supper I went to an empty two-seater so that Jon and I would both be more comfortable and have room enough to sleep some on this 9 ½ hr. flight. There was the problem, though, about sleeping because of the many good movies to choose from…choices, choices.

Speaking of choices there were three dinner meals – Jon chose the beef stew, I chose Korean rice and received it in three sealed containers to mix together and another container of hot sea weed soup. I think the way Koreans eat must be very healthy. They all seem slim and trim. The meals have more than one watery soup served with. Surely this is significant, too. Last night, in the traditional food restaurant we enjoyed with Hongs, there were four soups, plus 15 other dishes (!).

Jon has been reading along at Leonard Sweets’ book, The Real Church in a Social Network World, and shared with me these thoughts today:

“Not only did Jesus dislike eating alone, He ate with just about anybody. He was an equal opportunity relationship builder. It was in His DNA to invite the strange as well as the stranger into a table relationship. It makes sense when you consider Jesus’ actual DNA. A Moabite woman, Ruth, a forbidden foreigner stands at the start of the Davidic line of Jesus. The book of Ruth ends with the genealogy of David where there is not only Jew but Moabite and when Jesus said, ‘Do this in remembrance of me, he was instructing: share table companionship with Moabites and Levites, with idolatrous outsiders like Ruth, and adulterous insiders like David” (Sweet 27).

In the Brisbane airport, the customs’ scrutiny seems tighter than other places. They used a small dog to check out our bags.  He discovered something in my backpack so the officials opened it and found a small Tupperware that had some fruit juice in it from the cut up melon we had brought and eaten in the plane. Way to sniff, doggie!

We had sent our picture to John Kerr who walked up to us as we walked through  customs. He and his wife, Lorraine are parents of a friend of ours, Jillian, from European Nazarene College days. We wrote to her when we were considering a stop in Australia for this trip, and she encouraged us to come and volunteered her very mission minded parents, “retired” pastors to help us get settled in, since she lives 

5-6 hours away from Brisbane. Help us they did! With such a loving, kindred spirits. We had a great day with them. They were the perfect welcoming team for us. Thank you, Jillian! Thank you, John and Lorraine.

As we wheeled our 4 suitcases to their car, we noticed a nice feature about airport parking – there are fixtures of led lights along the backside of the parking spaces. When a car is there, when lights are red, when the space is free, the lights are green, so drivers can simply look down the row of lights to find an open space. Clever, huh?

We traveled in their car from the airport on the NE corner of the city to the college south of the city, in a place called “Thornlands” so we had good time to talk with them. We found out that they are currently church planting in the North part of Brisbane where there are far fewer churches, but previously they pastured and built one church near the college and also pioneered the work of a new district in the huge province of Western Australia that has the cities of Sydney and Perth. They lived in Perth, where their son and four grandsons live now. Lorraine’s father was Greek, so she and her children read Greek. Their son is in a Greek Church of the Nazarene in Perth.

Arriving at Nazarene Theological College of Australia, we met Rev. Bob and Val Thompson, who live in the building where there are guest flats. 

The guest-house complex sits in front of a dormitory unit which is not needed for resident students of theology at this time so is leased to a Christian organization called “Transformation” which is a social rehabilitation program for former drug users.

Val showed us several different room arrangements, and we chose Guest Room #3. The complex has a shared kitchen where she assigned us an empty shelf in the cupboard and in the frig for us to use during these days.  Kerrs had planned (well) for us to sleep, then to take us to lunch, shopping, then to tour the campus. The planned worked great for us. The two hours of sleep on the plane were off-set with a morning shower and nap, so we were ready for them to take us to Australian Sizzler. The salad bar had several concoctions with greens, seafood, and/or fresh fruit in them. We had a lingering lunch sharing how we came to know the Lord and be called to ministry, discovering people we knew in common, and discussing ministry to Gen Xers. Rich fellowship. We shopped at a local bakery and bought “tiger bread” (like we had in Queluz, Portugal), at an IGA, and Jon bought a cell phone chip so we have a working phone here, the first time in three weeks!

Back on campus, Kerrs took us to the Office building where we met the President, Dr. Bruce Alder, the Dean, Dr. David McEwan, who had helped us via e-mail to get set up for the visit, who I had read and heard at the Global Nazarene Theological  Conference in Guatemala. We found out he’s a friend of Filimao Chambo. We also Richard Giesken, Dean of Students, who is South African, from Witbank, which we know well from trips from Maputo into Johannesburg. We set up a few plans for the week: dinner tomorrow at McEwans’, Mateus Divino (?) service Thursday night with Richard, Good Friday with Dr. Bruce and sunrise service at 5:00 a.m. It’s Holy Week!

John Kerr walked us down the road that leads through the 28-acre campus, beautifully wooded with eucalyptus trees. We spied two little wallabies in the grass near one of the faculty houses but they hoped away before we could take a picture. John said kangaroos still show up occasionally, but not as much as before because of the construction of a residential project behind the campus. We heard kookaburras and saw magpies and Asia Minors, a bird new to us. 

He showed us the blocks he made to build a building that houses the chapel and the lounge on the ground floor and classrooms on the floor above.

As John led us in prayer before he and Lorraine left to journey northward, he prayed for the new friends who seemed like friends of long, long years. Ahhh, such is the truth we experience in the family of God, and even more especially in the Nazarene family of God. Imagine what fellowship is going to be in heaven!

For me sleep deprivation was a stronger force than hunger for anything to eat. For Jon, his sneezing and coughing was moving to his chest and he was fevered, so we fell into comfortable beds by 7:30 p.m. Now even the kookaburras’ chatter can’t bother us. Zzzzzzzzzz.

LEAVING KNU, FLYING ALL NIGHT TO AUSTRALIA. April 2, 2012

The visit to Korea has been exquisite, beyond expectation. We had breakfast with Peter Scott a new friend -- Tim Elliott, and discussed a possibility for home stay in the US for his business students. We have to ask Pastor Bonnie more about her experience with exchange students. We also discussed how to set up around-the-world trips as he has enough miles. We said "good-bye" last night to the Wilsons, and Hongs. Today we did one last lap around campus and then Mr. Tenny and Simon saw to it that we got from the campus to the bus station which took us to the airport. Rev. Ron Thornton who teaches at KNU came with us as he is meeting his wife at the airport.

We are sitting in the Seoul - Incheon Airport which is rated the best in the world for the last seven year. Because of Jon's gold card, we in the Prestige Lounge, where sushi, pizza, muffins, soup and all kinds of drink are served free. We are almost ready to leave for Australia. Wow. Can the next stop be as lovely? We are SURE that our Shepherd will continue to lead us and care for us.

PALM SUNDAY IN CHEONAN, KOREA, April 1, 2012

First I give a shout out to our granddaughter, Zoe Elisabeth Lucia, on her 9th birthday today. She is very special to us, of course. In two cars last summer, we went with her family from East Coast to West Coast so we got to know her smile, her caring, her tenderness very well. Praise God for Zoe! May she have a very special day and year, in the path of the Lord.

John 12: 12-13 “… a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and cried out: “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel.”

We celebrated Palm Sunday at Yeadam, Church of the Nazarene, just a 5-minute walk from the guest apartment where we are staying on KNU campus. Wilsons met us in front of the apartment and we walked over together. The pastor is a smiling, dynamic lady, married to Dr. Hong, who is head of the Department of Missions at KNU. We enjoyed several hours of the day with them.

The smallish-church was very full. We were very pleased that two of our new Korean friends, Simon and Gi-Hoon, answered our invitation and joined us in the service. The hymnals and the choruses projected on the screen were in both English and Korean.

The congregation responded very enthusiastically as Jon and I alternated back and forth in speaking and Dr. Hong translated. We shared that palm fronds were used to praise in Jesus’ times, but we may use the palms of our hands to praise Him, too, putting them together to clap for Him. We asked them to clap for many of the victories in Mozambique and Africa that we were reporting.

Martha Wilson explained to us that most services serve a light lunch after the service, then there is a second service around 2:00 p.m. That’s what happened in church today. Almost everyone stayed and ate finger foods and visited in small groups around the sanctuary. The English speakers then left, and the Koreans continued for their second service.

We went back to the guest apartment to write, and pack and nap! We went back to the church at 6:00 p.m. to be taken to supper by the pastor and her husband. Six of us piled into their mid-sized mini van (Jon, Martha, pastor & I in the back). It reminded us of packed vehicles in several other countries we had lived in!

They took us to a lovely, traditional Korean restaurant where we sat on chairs, not in the wells. As part of the tradition, like the restaurant that Tenny and Simon took us to on Thursday, there is not a large dining room, but each party is seated privately behind sliding bamboo doors. This system allows for great conversation as everyone can hear each other. Dinner was indeed delightful as we discussed their trips to the US, his studies at Asbury Seminary, their wedding performed by Brent Cobb, the norms of Korean fare in the home, our adventures with the Wilsons out to the West Sea, our hopes for the multicultural training center in West Seattle, and even the possibility that one or some of his missions’ student might be called to be a Tentmaker around Federal Way where there are so many Koreans living. The food was extremely well presented and tasty. I was very surprised to like the raw beef dishes...

As we were leaving the restaurant, the manager stopped the pastor to present to her a Gideon’s New Testament – in Korean, of course. She then signed it and gave it to me – for our use in Federal Way! Martha and Larry also got them, but gave them to us with a prayer that the little blue book will be used to bring someone to the Author. What a wonderful way to cap off Palm Sunday, praising God for what He is going to do in the future.

GYEOKPO, SILKWORM MUSEUM, GREAT KOREAN SEA WALL AND SONGTAN, March 31, 2012

I think the only way to really do justice to today’s sites is to see dozens of pictures from these oh-so-fascinating and unique places of the world, but I'll write a bit and post a few pictures. Gyeokpo is the beach town where we ate last night and spent the night.

It seemed to be frequented by mostly Korean tourists. We were happy to be in the care of Larry Wilson who speaks the language from his time here as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The place where he first served in PC wasn’t too far from the areas we were visiting. The Koreans were happy to hear him speak to them!

The Silkworm Museum defies description! You may need to put it on your “bucket list”!
Who knew what kind of fantastically beautiful and ornate moths come from silkworms?!

Who knew that silkworm moths can be colored in any number of combinations and that even their cocoons may be colored white, tan, yellow or green?

We expected to find giant beetles in Malawi – we hunted for them all during our trip in December. We found dozens of them (preserved) in cases in the museum.

Who knew that eating mulberry leaves gives the larva their best growth such that the motifs of the museum are both stylized, cartoonified larva and mulberry leaves, trees and fruit?! The souvenirs for sale there are mulberry “everything” – decorative soaps, teas, wines, syrups, powers, vitamins, and ice cream. We ate cones of mulberry ice cream. Yum.

However, they sold no silk souvenirs. I thought that was curious and un-enterprising. Wouldn’t it be a logical place to sell silk items?

The museum did have another large hall, separate from the silkworms, which housed a play area for children with many stations where one could interact with a few live animals or view stuffed ones in their habitats or preserved ones in boxes. I liked it. I thought it was a replicable model. A tame macaw was there. A museum staff member helped the bird to perch on our shoulders. Obviously today, Jon is taking most of the pictures! Thanks, Luv. You've done such a good job.

On our way to the seawall, we tried a unique-to-us fruit. I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s an apple-sized melon that has a pleasant taste like a cross between a hard pear and a honeydew melon. There was quite a pile on them alongside the road where we stopped for Larry to open a Geocache. 

I expected such a pile of produce to mean “inexpensive” like in Africa and Romania, where piles like that mean the produce costs a dollar or two for a sack. Wrong. The sack of 10 or 12 of them cost $10.00. Ouch. They weren’t THAT good. =)

The Great Korean Sea Wall is an incredible engineering undertaking and projected vision. It extends miles and miles from one outcropping peninsula to another separating the waters of the great Western Sea, leaving sea to the West and shallower lake-sized bodies of water to the East and play areas all along the four-lane highway of the dividing “wall”.

We had planned to have a picnic lunch at one of the spacious rest stops which we did even though the wind was not too kind. Still the fellowship was warm and we enjoyed the stop. The whole project is a giant work in progress, planned for completion in 2020.

Songtan is a shopping area located just outside the Osan Military base, hence the entry gate below.

The stores there cater to the foreign residents so we heard a great many people on the street speaking American English. The shops sell in US dollars and Korean won, and the shop-keepers speak English, too. Martha has a few food items that she typically buys in Songtan so she was happy to take us there. I was happy that we could shop for silk items there, but not so happy to see the prices! Nevertheless, we bought a few. And we also opted for Brazilian churrascaria – all you can eat meat plus rice, beans and salad. This was quite a contrast from last night’s smorgasboard of seafood, cold and raw, hot and salty. The Brazilian dessert was roasted fresh pineapple dripped with a syrup of sugar and cinnamon. Mighty nice. We chatted with the manager, a Brazilian from the state Parana', near the Falls of Iguacu. He told us that some Brazilians show up at the restaurant, associated with the base, but no Portuguese. 

Throughout the day, we were writing the text for our Palm Sunday Message to Dr. Hong, the Missions Professor at KNU, who will be our translator, so the Scriptures from it filled our hearts all day long:

Rev. 6:9-10 …behold a great multitude which no one could number of a nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed with a white robes, with palm branches in their hands

10 and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!

11 And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying

12 Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom,

Thanksgiving and honor and power and might

Be to our God forever and ever. Amen.

We will be sharing stories from Africa tomorrow, from nations and tribes who will be standing before the throne and the Lamb, knowing that, “Salvations belongs to our God.” We look forward to sharing these stories from the Mozambican miners in South Africa who took the Gospel to Southern Mozambique, from the Shangaan in Southern Mozambique who took the Makhua in Northern Mozambique, and then the moving of the Holy Spirit today all across the Continent. We entitled the message, “Palms of Praise from Africa” and are praying for the Lord to use our testimony to His glory.