Trip breakdown: Seoul, South Korea

July 7th:

I got to go to Seoul, South Korea!!! Our plane to New Zealand stopped in Korea so I got to visit another country! Natalie, Abi, and I decided to go outside the airport and head to the beach, while the rest of the team remained to look around this famous airport.

               Leaving Taiwan in the early morning. Sleepy smile, this girl loves her food!
                And yes, it was a green tea roll.....but it was yummy!

                                            Last Taiwanese Sunrise for this year

                         Welcome to Korea!!!! I'm in the picture on the left
                         The girl with the backpack........

                Abi & my firm stance. =) The overhead voice for the escalator's was saying, "Please, stand firmly and hold the hand rail. The hand rails have been sanitized periodically for your safety." Haha....so we were standing firmly and holding the hand rail......backwards. =) Kenon was still half asleep. I don't think sitting firmly was in the instructions!!! 

                               Cool wall in the Korean airport-----all of our luggage

Beginning our 2 hour adventure, we knew no words in Korean at all!!! While still in the airport I looked up 'thank you' which is 'gam sam ni daad'. That should be good enough, right? =) We managed to find a destination, change over money, find a bus, get on a bus (that's comical!!! They don't even stop, mostly just slow so that you are walking beside it to get on), get to the beach, explore and take pictures, buy some water/snacks, get back on the bus, get back into the airport, wash off our sandy feet, and get back through security/customs all in about 2 hours! =)

           Checking out our Korean map          Um, no thanks! Lactic Acid drink---yum?

Our first shock was the bus system. We thought that the bus would slow and stop. Little did we know we had to run to catch it! =) After seeing the first bus whiz by and watch a local catch it, we were prepared for the next bus. Now that we were on the bus, we had to be constantly on the lookout for our stop!

                                                     Waiting for the bus

We didn't know how long the bus ride was going to take, or where it was since the signs were mostly in Korean! Thankfully we did get off at the correct stop. At the bus stop we were like, "Okay.....which way to the beach? Well that road goes down hill....let's take that one!"

                                         Some cool tunnels on our way to the beach

                                              Views of South Korea from the bus

                                                 At the bus stop....now what? =)

                                          Venturing down the road to the beach 

Walking down to the beach we were so proud of ourselves! We had found the beach! It was incredible and STINKY! Though the sun was shining and bright, the beach was super foggy. There were at ton of people all over the beach! It almost looked like a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean with everyone in the fog. The tide was really far out so we walked probably 3/4 of a mile to get to the water. The sand stunk so bad!!! I found a really pretty conch shell and tried to rinse it, but to no avail. I wanted to get it back to America but I only had my purse to get back inside the airport. No way was I going to put the stinky thing in my bag unhindered! So we bought a bottle of water and a few snacks so that I could get a plastic bag to tie it in. After taking a few pictures, we headed back to the bus stop and to the airport. Going through security was really simple since we didn't have hardly any personal belongings.

      The beach!          Where we came from...we were about 1/3 the way to the water

                          The tide was so low there was a boat completely sand banked

 Our feet in the water of South Korea!         My face when I realized, I'm in Korea!

                   There were lots of people on the beach            The conch shell I found


Once back inside the airport we had about 1.5 hours until our flight so we got to look around a bit. There was a cultural arts history center. I was looking for a smoothie place and all the sudden saw this royal looking family surrounded by 4 guards walking down the center of the hallway. "Oh, cool!!! Royalty!" I thought as I whipped out my phone to take pictures. Next thing I realize, "Oh my goodness!!! Those guards have sword/spear/knife things! Wait a minute....how did they get through security with those?!?!?!?!?!?" Unbeknownst to me, the cultural arts history museum was putting on a 'parade' of an ancient royal family and you could get your picture talking with them. =)

                     The ancient royal family......check out those swords!!!

So I'm hoping those swords are fake! =) In one section of the airport there was an upstairs 'rest' area. I have no idea how it was quiet since it was all open air and the downstairs was not quiet, but it was so silent up there! They had chairs that laid back so it made like a bed so people could sleep, places for you to charge your electronics, kung fu massage (not sure that sounds fun), free massage electronic chairs, art museums with soft music, food, and much more. It was incredible and very relaxing!!!!

 

                                                       Kung Fu Massage

There was also this small orchestra band downstairs that was playing beautiful music. We stayed for about 20 minutes and would've stayed much longer since it was so beautiful, but our plane was boarding so we had to leave.We were headed down under to New Zealand!

                                           The Orchestra band: pianist, two violinists, and a cellist

                                                  A wreath made of folded, collared, lace shirts

                                                             Trees in the airport

Trip breakdown: Tainan, Taiwan Shine Conference part 2

                                     All of the students and leaders spelling-SHINE

July 2nd-6th:
Something that I didn't fully realize and comprehend until I was back in the states was the way my spirit connected with the worship songs. All of the worship songs were in Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese. Worshiping to songs where you do not understand the words simply because they are in another language is very different than when you can understand the words. Understanding allows your mind to decide what is important for you or not as well as to tune out from the meaning of the song. When you have to depend on feeling the Holy Spirit inside of you and what he is emphasizing for you, it removes any hindrances you may put up. I didn't realize until I got back to the States and would hear the worship songs in English, recognizing their tunes, and hearing the Taiwanese/Chinese in my head the meaning of the song. I then realized that the meaning was exactly what I was feeling as I was dancing and worshiping in Taiwan! Needless to say, it brought many tears to my eyes here in the States realizing how much Jesus loves me and cares about me and how near he is to my physical frame that he could talk to me through words and music I could not understand linguistically.

                                                           Jacqueline Chen & Jenna

                             Jenna & 222 leaders           Lydia Chen, Emily Hong, and other 222 leaders

      Kenon, PeiPei, and Esther Wang                 Josh, Kirsti, Emily Hong, Jojo & Nemo Shao

 

                          Middle: Vickie Huang & PeiPei                    Esther Wang & me

  Natalie, Jacqueline Chen, me, & Rose Marie Chen     222 leaders, Kirsti, & Rose Marie

                                                   Abi & Candy            Abi & Rose Marie Chen

 

     Stephanie Chen (purple) Rose Marie Chen (pink)      Rose Marie Chen (pink) & 222 leaders

                                            Candy Yao, me, and cute little kid

This also happened when we would dance. For the harp and bowl sessions (basically like a 2 hour set in the prayer room where it cycles from worship to prayer to worship to prayer) we would dance. We divided the room up into 4 sections so each section followed a person on stage. It was really cool to see the whole room dancing together or in groups! Several Taiwanese leaders would come up to us and be like, "You won't believe it, but when they were singing, you were doing those exact movements to match those words! How did you know what they were singing?" It was cool to see the Spirit using our dance as well without us even knowing.

  Following Jenna during Harp and Bowl           Following the leaders on stage

Since the conference was in Taiwanese, we would typically grab one of the 222 student leaders and have them translate the announcements, sermon, prayer facts, alter calls, etc....One time I had 2 people translating! =) The speaker was preaching in Taiwanese, so one girl was translating into Mandarin. The next girl was translating the Mandarin into English. It was pretty funny to see us sitting in a line playing telephone. =) Each day we were busy dancing, serving, helping, praying, hanging out, and loving on the kids from 7am to about 11pm or later. It was a tiring, but really good, week. We even got to share some. Jenna shared her testimony during one of the sessions about purity. Many of the kids related to her story and came up for prayer. It was powerful! Most of our meals consisted of the 7/11 gas station convenient store foods or what they call box lunches. It's a box that has rice, a type of meat, and 2 or 3 veggies in it. Super yummy!!!

 

                           Box lunches!!!                               Jenna sharing her testimony

                     Grabbing snacks from 7/11                              Team meeting

One of the really cool memories I have is of us dancers waiting on stage for our music to start for one of our evangelistic performances. The kids were cheering and screaming at the top of their lungs because by this point they had grown to be friends with us and loved seeing us dance. That feeling of tempting power and fame and popularity was so close and it was a very tangible, scary presence too! As I groaned inwardly and every part of me wished that Jesus would cause them to stop clapping for us and stop seeing us as famous and popular, I realized that all of us dancers were all praying under our breath. It was really a blessing to see that Jesus was the main desire of our hearts and our main goal was that they would see Jesus in us and not see us at all. It was so cool to see that our hearts were united in the same goal and reach, joined by the Holy Spirit inside of us.

We arrived back in Tainan on Friday evening (5th) and returned to the Huang house to gather our laundry and pack. Saturday (6th) after a quick debriefing with the Living Waters leadership we left on the high speed rail for Taipei, Taiwan due to having such an early flight on Sunday (7th) for Korea and then New Zealand. Taiwan is so dear to my heart! I love the Chinese/Taiwanese people groups and I love the people of Taiwan. I miss seeing my friends, laughing and hanging out with them. Being in Taiwan and among people where my heart feels so at home, made it difficult to leave. But I know eventually, in God's timing, I'll be back in Taiwan. Jesus, release your presence over Taiwan. Touch the Living Waters Church, All Nations, and the kids that got saved. God, visit Taiwan with a mighty wave of glory and revival. Let them join in saying, "Come Lord Jesus!"

                                             It was July 4th---white, red, and blue!!!!!

                            Debrief at Bus7                   Driving to the high speed rail station

 

                 Talking to my mom through wifi----but it was only in the hallway!
        I didn't want to get locked out because my room mate was in the shower,
            so I was laying all comfy half-in/half-out of my room. =)

                             Last sunrise in Taiwan for a while......=)

                                           Haha.....we had 4 luggage carts like this.
                                Everyone would sit on the luggage one behind them
                       so it made a train and the last person was pushing them all.