WOW!!! Asian style

Well it is the end of day two in country, that is Tuesday. Got to San Francisco early and went about finding the check in desk for Asiana after grabbing my checked bag. I turned the corner and there were my peeps! A line had started even before the desk opened of friends from different parts of the country.

Started finding the peeps for bus number 9 and discovered there were just two buses on our flight, 9 & 10. The desk opened at 10 and we started getting our boarding passes. I scored an exit seat and next to the wall, no window. Sat next to the Jacksons who are on the same bus. Called Damoudes and found out they were on their way and after checking in hung out waiting. Also while in line Br & Sis Brown our DO came.

Damoudes got checked in and we went to our gate and met some more peeps and after a little bit Aaron & Angie showed up. The area was getting pretty crowded and noisey with the sound of excited proclaimers of Jehovah!

The flight crew, all Korean - we think, were so very attentive. The first meal we had a choice of some beef dish or of a Korean meal. Got to choose the Korean and there was Kimchi (pickeled cabbage with chili sauce); and veggies with rice and shreeded beef that also had a chili sauce and sesame sauce that you added in. Fortunately there were directions on how to eat this meal!

When we got our bags and were headed out to our bus we were greeted first by one lone woman in traditional Korean dress. We thought maybe she belonged with the tour company. Pretty soon there were more women who joined her and then there were young men in suits and then we saw the sign welcoming the delegates to the international Keep on the Watch convention. We knew these were our brothers and sisters!

Pictures galore and feeble attempts to communicate, lots of smiles and bowing filled the next 20-30 minutes. Four young brothers came over to Angie, Aaron and I and we tried to communicate. Spanish words were all I could think of despite by attempts to learn Korean. A & A were doing Arabic. The brothers were mighty confused. They spoke only Korean and a little English and one was learning another language which unfortunately I have since forgotten. : ( Finally three words of Korean came back to mind Ke, Tea en gee and kookedee (Dog, plane and elephant). My efforts got a thumbs up from our 4 brothers!

At the hotel there were even more friends to greet us. We made our way to our rooms and by 8:30 - 9 we were in bed and asleep.

This morning was a wakeup for 5:30 (I felt like a drunken sailor because of lack of sleep and dehydration) and off to breakfast and ready to go by 8. Met a couple that were from Portland and the sister's grandparents are the Baileys in McMinnvillle. She said I looked familiar. Later I saw her husband and saw his name tag. He was Scott Roisland from pioneer school and it ended up his wife was Lisa Miller also from pioneer school (which was in the early 90's).

The Korean Village was a cool adventure and included an amazing marching band (unlike anything we have as you can see from the pics and the video) and a tight rope walker. (Major wedgie time). An amazing Korean lunch.

Next was the piece de resistance! The tour of the Korean Bethel! The last international held in Korea was 12 years ago. The preparation that the brothers took in anticipation of our visit is undescribable in words. Each department had found a new way to say welcome as you can see from the pictures. They prepared a nice refreshment, live music, the joy and love was able to pass over the language barrier loud and clear. It truly wrapped us up in a bundle of warmth and love and feeling unworthy of all this attention. All we are doing is coming for a week to a convention. The witness that this is producing to Jehovah's name however is yet to be determined.

One example is our tour guide who had read about the brothers being imprisoned for not going into the military. She knew nothing more than that. She went on the tour of Bethel and was so impressed and awestruck by the joy on the faces of all, the warmth, friendship and love expressed by people who had never met before. She also was helped to understand how it would not be right to go to war and face the possiblity of killing one of our brothers just because they belonged to a different nationality.

Our day ended with a group of 11 going to an authentic Korean restaurant where we say on the floor and ate from communal hot plates. And they also gave us some beer with our meal, and it was even better than the beer in the D.R. WOW, WHAT A DAY! TTFN, lj PS ran out of time will load more pics tonight!!