An older korean woman came up to me the other sunday. She keeps coming back to me just to say hi. I'm easy to spot obviously in a small place. She has short no nonsense hair, lithe, but hiding in somber business clothing, mirthful but currently sad eyes. She was burdened and said she could use prayer. I said I would pray for her and she gave me her business card. I caught it up like a beverage and took it home with me. And finally emailed her Saturday night. Then she came up to me this Sunday and grabbed my hand and held it and continued to press her hands into mine and thanked me over and over again. She kept saying, something happened to me this week. Your words were a comfort. They were a blessing. I couldn't quite get her to tell me what happened and when she went to explain something I couldn't understand, she dropped my hand and walked off like something she would come back to when she'd sorted herself out again. She prayed for the service and she started to cry, and I prayed with her in quiet and I thought what she said was beautiful, she wants Jeju to be the land of milkandhoney. Then when the service was over she grabbed me again and asked me what I was doing. I didn't have any definitive plans except with the 20somethings but I said, nothing and she said, come with me quickly. We'll go to lunch. She literally dragged me off in a minute flat and her eldest?son begged off and she explained since he didn't speak english he didn't want to come.
She drove me into the city and off a side street into a charming house turned restaurant, where there were private dining rooms seperated by sliding wood doors. We sat on the woodfloor and had warm water. She ordered us steaming pots of chicken stuffed with dates and rice in a broth, and a medium sized abalone. There were seaweed sides, fern, potato, minnows, 2 kinds of kimchi, and a few others. Afterward there were small sweet cakes with a sweet filling and hot tea.
She said she could tell i was spiritual and that's why she chose me and then she began to tell me her story. Her husband, may or may not have been the governor of a particular place? She uttered the word Kairos which totally thrilled me. She's met mother teresa when she lived in Italy for 4 years. Her first meeting went something like- well you know, they take on names. I said, yes. She said, well when I met her i said, I have no name. She said, Mother Teresa laughed and laughed. I can see it and it's pretty awesome to picture though I'm sorrily conveying it. Needless to say her western name was thusforward Teresa.
It was hard to figure out how fast to talk and bridging our accents on spiritual topics. To convey spiritual desolation and the consolation of new believers... to say we are a creation subject to frustration, but that we hope in God. She feels a burden for the people here and she showed me how she illustrates hope and despair to students who she shares the gospel with- which was beautiful. I was a bit blown over by her honesty and the depth to which we needed or did travel in scrunched up faces and very carefully listening ears. And talking to a couple people about the experience they all sort of gape open their mouths and say- wow, she opened up to you? You're a foreigner. I was like I don't know. Yes? But then I'm also like, frickin YES! Awesome. God is awesome.
She drove me home and I promised to meet with her again, to hear the history of her people and to pray for her.
I dashed upstairs to my new flatmate M, since i promised to meet her at 2 and was already late. We took a walk to the bustop and we saw a magpie dying on the ground. Something I had just 2months prior imagined happening, but instead of by a bush it was out in the open and staring straight at us in the grounds of a community center, twitching, possibly it's neck broken? She wanted to do something for it and I said, well what can we do but say, Go with God magpie? I said, he has his friends who are with him... and then my head already swimming a bit, we took a long busride and in the accompanying 4 hours M began to tell me her story also...
nexttime.
k.
She drove me into the city and off a side street into a charming house turned restaurant, where there were private dining rooms seperated by sliding wood doors. We sat on the woodfloor and had warm water. She ordered us steaming pots of chicken stuffed with dates and rice in a broth, and a medium sized abalone. There were seaweed sides, fern, potato, minnows, 2 kinds of kimchi, and a few others. Afterward there were small sweet cakes with a sweet filling and hot tea.
She said she could tell i was spiritual and that's why she chose me and then she began to tell me her story. Her husband, may or may not have been the governor of a particular place? She uttered the word Kairos which totally thrilled me. She's met mother teresa when she lived in Italy for 4 years. Her first meeting went something like- well you know, they take on names. I said, yes. She said, well when I met her i said, I have no name. She said, Mother Teresa laughed and laughed. I can see it and it's pretty awesome to picture though I'm sorrily conveying it. Needless to say her western name was thusforward Teresa.
It was hard to figure out how fast to talk and bridging our accents on spiritual topics. To convey spiritual desolation and the consolation of new believers... to say we are a creation subject to frustration, but that we hope in God. She feels a burden for the people here and she showed me how she illustrates hope and despair to students who she shares the gospel with- which was beautiful. I was a bit blown over by her honesty and the depth to which we needed or did travel in scrunched up faces and very carefully listening ears. And talking to a couple people about the experience they all sort of gape open their mouths and say- wow, she opened up to you? You're a foreigner. I was like I don't know. Yes? But then I'm also like, frickin YES! Awesome. God is awesome.
She drove me home and I promised to meet with her again, to hear the history of her people and to pray for her.
I dashed upstairs to my new flatmate M, since i promised to meet her at 2 and was already late. We took a walk to the bustop and we saw a magpie dying on the ground. Something I had just 2months prior imagined happening, but instead of by a bush it was out in the open and staring straight at us in the grounds of a community center, twitching, possibly it's neck broken? She wanted to do something for it and I said, well what can we do but say, Go with God magpie? I said, he has his friends who are with him... and then my head already swimming a bit, we took a long busride and in the accompanying 4 hours M began to tell me her story also...
nexttime.
k.
2 comments:
Amen.
Love it.
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