The Soul of Seoul

Last week I returned from a visit. Korea has changed so much that I can hardly recognize the place, especially the capitol city of Seoul.   In fact, the shock I experienced in Seoul was similar to the culture shock on my first visit to America.  This time I was a foreigner in my own homeland.

Tall buildings were everywhere and all the stores looked alike.  The apartments all looked the same.  I marveled that anyone could find their own way home. Luckily I can speak Korean and when I got lost I was able to navigate through that thick forest of buildings.  Once I gave an address to a taxi driver and he could not find the place I was going.  He told me that there are over ten thousand people living in an average apartment complex, thus one needs to know the name of the building with a reference to a subway station.


Seoul is the one of the most populous cities in the world.  Almost half of South Korea's people live in the Capital Area.  I was dropped off  in the midst of the busiest part of Seoul; with a million people crowded within a few blocks. You can imagine my confusion.  While I was looking for directions, I read hundreds church signs. It was comforting to see that Seoul has a soul.  My friends told me that many Seoul churches have memberships of over ten thousand.  I can believe her after seeing all those church signs.

I am happy to report that Korea has become a Christian nation.  Korean Christians are passionate about winning souls and I can see the evidence of that.  When I was in college many years ago, I was the only Christian among my eleven college friends.  On this visit, I discovered that all eleven belong to either a Protestant or Catholic Church.  I visited my alma mater which is a secular university.  Yet Christ is lifted on campus by both Christian professors and students.  They share a passion to declare the Gospel and to win souls.  It was good to see my homeland become a prosperous nation, not only economically, but spiritually.

Children are our teachers

I have learned so much from my own children, here is a proof that children are great teachers if adults would let them.  A twelve year old girl is teaching us how to be good teachers and parents.  Here is some info about Adora: 
 "A voracious reader from age three, Adora Svitak's first serious foray into writing -- at age five -- was limited only by her handwriting and spelling. (Her astonishing verbal abilities already matched that of young adults over twice her age.) As her official bio says, her breakthrough would soon come "in the form of a used Dell laptop her mother bought her." At age seven, she typed out over 250,000 words -- poetry, short stories, observations about the world -- in a single year.
Svitak has since fashioned her beyond-her-years wordsmithing into an inspiring campaign for literacy -- speaking across the country to both adults and kids. She is author of Flying Fingers, a book on learning."