Korea vs America

     As I mentioned before, I was in Korea for my church's world mission report. I thought it would be fun to write down some differences between Korea and the US. I've sorted the list in the viewpoint of Korea, with good, neutral, and bad differences as categories.
Good

• Ice cream is cheaper.
• Ice cream is generally better.
• More traffic signs are lit. For example, chevron signs light up at night.
• From what I observed, there are better soccer fields and basketball courts.
• English is used a lot. I was surprised at how often signs had English and Korean.

Neutral

• There are no shower curtains. I put this as neutral because shower curtains are both good and bad. They are good because they prevent the whole bathroom from getting wet from the shower. They are bad because they get moldy.
• Most car windows are heavily tinted.
• Rice fields are everywhere.
• Coffee cafes are everywhere. I had some awesome coffee in Korea.
• People almost always park backwards.

Bad

• Koreans use washcloths as towels i.e. the towels are small.
• People pull over randomly and block traffic often.
• Pollution in Seoul is pretty bad, but there are places in America I'm sure are just as bad.
• The light switch to the bathroom is always outside of the bathroom. There were no exceptions. I assume this is because the shower has no curtain, so water could short the light switch. In any case, I put this in the bad category because people can turn the light off when you are in the bathroom.
• Many roads are too narrow.

     So that's all I could think of at this time. Keep in mind that I haven't been to a lot of places in either the US or Korea, so my list might not be 100% correct. I hope you enjoyed reading.

-Smart

2016 World Mission Report Testimony

“He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”
-Deuteronomy 8:3
      I attended my church's world mission report in Korea and wrote a testimony based on what I learned. I hope you are blessed by reading it.
At this conference, one theme that seems to keep coming back to me is the importance of the Word of God. The first message by Ron Ward talked about the command to read the Word all the days of your life. His message spoke to me because I often don’t read the Word in the way I should be reading it. I often read the Word hurriedly, without taking much time to meditate on what I have just read. Ron Ward told us to read the Word deliberately and patiently. Only through careful meditation can the Word of God penetrate my heart.
     The first Deuteronomy lecture by James Kang stressed the importance of obeying the commands of God. It wasn’t enough for the Israelites to know God’s commands, they had to follow them. Only then could they truly live. When they disobeyed God’s commands, they suffered terrible defeats from their enemies. When they obeyed God, they became conquerors. In the same way, I must learn to obey the Word of God by applying it to my life. The Bible is called the Sword of the Spirit. A sword is only useful if it is held. Similarly, the Bible is only useful if I hold it in my heart and apply it.
     Finally, today’s message by Joseph Kim focused on the value of the Word. One quote that stuck out to me was this (paraphrased)- “Physical bread cannot give you life. Only the Word of God has life.” The Word of God is life itself. I almost never think about the Bible in this way. I often downplay the importance of the Word. Everyday I eat food without exception. I know that food is necessary for life. Yet, I don’t treat the Word of God with the same importance. Today I learned that I cannot live on bread alone, but on every Word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
     At the conference I’ve learned to read the Word, obey the Word, and value the Word. How can I put these lessons into practice? Right now I use a Bible reading plan, but I haven’t been the most faithful to it. I want to follow this plan more faithfully. Furthermore, I want to approach the Word through prayer. Prayer opens my heart the Word, and invites the Holy Spirit to work. I want to read the Word patiently instead of trying to just check off the Bible reading plan. I think the best way to do this is to set apart a good amount of time just for Bible reading and prayer. I want to start with 30 minutes, and adjust the time if necessary. Please pray for me to read, obey, and value the Word of God.
One Word- Read the Word, obey the Word, and value the Word.

Pixar's Inside Out

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."
-Revelation 21:4
     I finally got the chance to watch the movie "Inside Out" by Pixar while on a plane to Korea. I was very impressed with how good the movie was. The plot was fairly simple, but still carried a lot of depth by presenting the story in a unique way. I would absolutely recommend that you watch it. Here's the point in the blog where I have to give fair warning: if you haven't seen "Inside Out", I'd recommend seeing it first before reading this post. There are no major spoilers here, but I am going to talk about parts of the movie that some could see as a spoiler.
     If you're reading this part, I assume you have seen the movie already, or have no interest in seeing it anyway. For those in the second category, I will give a brief description of the movie. The movie follows a young girl named Riley whose emotions are controlled by five characters- Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, and Disgust. Naturally, each of these characters can only induce the emotion that they are named after, i.e. Joy cannot induce sadness. Joy is the leader of the emotions, because each of the other emotions agree that they want Riley to be happy. They also push aside sadness often, because they feel that Sadness ruins Riley's emotional state.
     Later in the movie, Joy realizes that in order for Riley to truly cope with her situation (I won't spoil this part), she must experience sadness. The "core memories" that Riley has were only possible because she experienced something sad. The other emotions also realize that Riley must experience a balance of emotions, or she will experience catastrophe.
     After watching this movie, I thought about our emotions. In some sense, we all want joy to be the dominant presence in our lives. However, as the movie suggests, we cannot truly be happy all of the time. Thinking from a Christian point of view, shouldn't we always be joyful? Yes and no. We experience sadness because the world is corrupted by sin and death. It is completely fine for a Christian to express sadness in times of grief and sorrow. There's no need for us to suppress sadness. Even Jesus wept because the world is hurting.
     However, there will be a day where we can and will experience joy forever and ever. Revelation 21:4, written above, states that Jesus will wipe away every tear from our eyes. We will no longer mourn because Jesus will make all things new. No longer will we weep because of the death of a loved one. "There will be no more death". Christians should look forward to this day. This hope should be enough reason for us to be joyful in the here and now. Even when something sad happens now, we can experience joy knowing that Jesus will one day make everything right.
-Smart