Korea was a wonderful experience. I am definitely a changed person. I have
so many things to share that it is hard to know where to start.
We got there and we stayed on the US Military base in Seoul. I was asked to
lead worship for the Women’s Conference there on the base called Faith Lift
and also give a concert during one of the evening sessions. The conference
was great! About 300 women from all over Korea attended, all spouses of the
military or involved in the military themselves. They were great!! I was so
blessed by them! I made some friends for a lifetime I am sure! Also, the
Key note speaker for the event was Dr. Roseanne Coleman. She was great and
come to find out from Nashville! So we had to go all the way to Korea to
meet.
John and I were met by the Chaplain and another man that is the worship
leader at one of the churches on the base. We were suprised to find a guitar
there waiting for us as a gift! He somehow had found out that we had a
guitar that was cracked and very badly damaged by FedEx and he wanted to
bless us with a new one. It is a very nice new one I might add. I was
really taken back that this man we had never met gave us a guitar. Not only that.. He had emailed us before we left for Korea to find out what kind of
acoustic guitar we wanted to borrow while we were over there instead of
lugging one on the plane. He said to be very specific. So John emailed him
some features not knowing he was going to go out and buy it for us. We were
so thankful and humbled!!
We also had the opportunity to attend 4 churches on Sunday. Three of which
we played at. The one that we didn’t play at but wanted to visit was called
Yoido Full Gospel Church. It is the largest Church in the world! 765,000
members. That’s like 8 Texas Stadiums. It was AMAZING!! So many people were
saved in just that one service! Even though there was a language barrier you
still felt the presence of God.
I was also asked to sing at a prayer meeting at Billy Kim’s Church. Pastor
Kim asked me to come and sing one song for his congregation. Billy Kim is
also an evangelist. He is known there, like Billy Grahm is known here. It
was an honor. I was so floored by the believers of South Korea. At Billy
Kim?s Church, 15,000 members, they have a prayer meeting EVERY MORNING at
5:00AM 365 DAYS A YEAR 7 DAYS A WEEK !!! At the prayer meeting we attended
we had to get up at 3:00AM to get there at 5:00AM. We were in the churches
parking lot about 5 til 5:00am and we got out of the car and I just stopped to take it all in. There were bus loads of people filing out of the buses
and RUNNING into the church to pray. Just swarms of people. And it was
still dark outside! So we headed up to the door and someone was waiting for
us and He said hurry hurry we are running late…RUN…So we ran through the
church with our guitars and he led us to a set of doors. He flung the doors
open and there we stood …He brought us through the front stage to seat us
in the front of the church. I probably looked like I was in shock because of
the numbers of people I saw praying and what I was hearing was nothing like
anything I have ever heard. I had chills all up and down my body. There
were 5 pastors up on the stage all leading in different prayers outloud. And
a couple thousand people in the congregation rocking back and forth with
their hands raised praying outloud to our God!! Then we sang and had a
translator.. then Billy Kim Spoke. As soon as he got done speaking they
immediately turn the lights out so people are free to come and go and pray as
long as they want. People were in the dark on their knees and in the pews
praying. THEY DO THIS EVERYDAY. Maybe you heard me say that earlier, but I
want that passion and that desire! I saw it firsthand and know it is only
possible through our Father in Heaven. Their view of God is so large. He is
absolutely everything. And they have such a deep respect for the Lord. He
is Holy and very much so viewed in that way. I was changed by what I saw and
heard. It is a big big world out there and we are only a small part of it.
He is Lord over ALL of it!
We were kind of submerged into 2 cultures at once. The Korean Culture and
the Military culture. We stayed on the military base, as I said before, but
also got to be in several of their homes! We were also invited to the home
of the General! What an amazing time!
I just want you all to know that I met so many leaders of our Military and
there are some Godly men leading this country! I have a whole new respect
for the military! They kept thanking me for coming to sing and minister to
them but I thank them for blessing me and for risking their very lives
EVERYDAY for us! They are definitely servants! They need our prayers. Alot
of them don’t get to see their spouses but once a month because of the danger
involved in some of the locations.
SPEAKING of Danger. We got to go to the DMZ, or ‘the Axis of Evil’ the
border between North and South Korea! We were escorted on a VIP Tour of the
DMZ by the Chaplain and an Intelligence Officer and another solider. They
loaded their guns before they took us up there…that is when I knew this was
pretty serious. We went up there and the first thing I noticed when we got
out of the van was how quiet it was. Soldiers everywhere but no one talking.
They were on guard at all times …We saw the North Korean soldiers across
the street looking at us with their binoculars. Pretty weird feeling. The
North Koreans had propaganda blaring through speakers they had put up saying
‘Come back to North Korea…Come back to the land of prosperity!’ (And It
also said pretty bad things about Americans that we were evil and some other
things I won’t mention) It was so sad! I know that seems like such a little
sentence to describe what I saw…but it is really all I can say..I was
saddened. Please pray for the leaders of North Korea. They are separated
from their loved ones in South Korea. The North Korean Military takes 40% of
all the N. Koreans income to put back into the military. A million North
Koreans died just last year from starvation and disease!
Please pray for our guys watching over the South and North Korean Borders.
Just for their protection and their spirits!
I was moved by so many things I saw and heard. The people blessed us so much
by their kindness, their giving, their words, their passion and their Joy! I
told John I almost felt guilty because of the kindness we received. I was
truly humbled and did not deserve so much love. I was truly shown the love
of Christ and I will never forget!
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