Beth has been going to a particular church in Incheon pretty much since she arrived here in July. The church has a small English service as well as three Korean services. Sometimes Beth will go to both a Korean service as well as the English service. I told Beth I wanted to go to both this Sunday! I have been anxious to worship in a Korean church with other Koreans speaking Korean!
The Korean service we went to was at 12 pm. The church is basically just a walk down the street! Beth says that no one comes early, so we started walking to the church around 11:45 am. We arrive at the church and many people are excited to see us and very welcoming. Beth has a Korean friend who attends and he was there, we'll call him James. James' mother loves Beth and ushered us both to fill out a welcome card. James helped us fill out the card, since it was in Korean. We wrote our names, birthdays, and address. James brought a friend. Unfortunately I couldn't get his name. He was a friend of his from the Air Force. Korean men are required to serve in the military. Anyway, the four of us go into the service and sit together. The singing had already started. I recognized the song. They were singing "I Have a Friend in God". There was a stage with a group of about 8 people singing, mostly men. The band included a drummer, piano, and two guitars. There were more people at the service that I was anticipating. Around 100 people I would say, but probably more. The other worship songs that I recognized were "Amazing Grace" and "We Want to See You".
The church website: http://www.pyungan.or.kr/
After the worship there were what I assumed to be announcements. There is a video on the screen about an upcoming conference. Beth and I probably shouldn't sit together because we whisper and try not to laugh but it is hard to control! Everything is in Korean so you just pretend like you know what is going on. One thing that made me laugh and whisper to Beth was when someone brought the pastor an envelope and I'm like, "Oooo what's the secret message?!" I keep asking Beth about the secret message. Then the pastor opens the secret message...and Beth says Oh no, its our welcome cards! But then we doubt ourselves and say no it's not the welcome cards. But then he spreads out the papers and its clear they are the welcome cards! Oh no, do we have to stand up in front of everyone? Well, turns out we do! He says Beth's name first and then mine. We stand and wave. He also reads James' friend's name and another woman in the audience. Then the singers come back out and Beth says, "I think they are singing us a welcome song". After the song the pastor speaks in English to me and Beth and says something about how he's sorry that the other church members are shy. Beth thinks they were supposed to come and lay hands on us during the song. Then the pastor speaks in Korean to James and James stands up. We don't know what's going on...and then we find out the pastor is asking James if he can translate for us. He says he can't, so the pastor finds someone else that knows English to translate for us. A young man comes and sits next to me. He texts on his phone and then shows it to me: "I'm here to translate". He writes a line on his phone to me about every 5 minutes. I get the gist of what the pastor is saying and it was helpful that we knew the scripture passage, so we knew what the pastor was probably saying. The service ended with a couple more songs. All in all, I enjoyed the service. The people really got into the songs, everyone would clap along. The pastor was animated and kind.
After the service we were invited to a room where the pastor is sitting in a chair. It looks like a board room and we sit at a nice long table. We have no idea what is going on. James and his friend come with us, along with the other woman who was new and her friend. We are given tea. The pastor introduces himself and welcomes us. He says he would like to meet with us. He asks me where I'm from and I explain where Indiana is. He says he would like to meet with us again in a month.
Next we go up some stairs to where lunch is served. Apparently, lunch is free for foreigners and 1000 won for Koreans. I'm told that the food isn't the greatest, but we go to be with people. We have to stay anyway because the English service begins at 2:00 and it is very close to 2:00! I get some rice, rice cakes, and spicy soup. I tell Beth we definitely need to eat again after church :) We eat with James and his friend, sister, and mom. I mainly just eat a lot of rice. There are a lot of people eating and helping serve. It is neat to see everyone from church hanging out together.
The English service takes place in another room of the building. It is full of plastic chairs and has a small stage. The regular pastor is on vacation in Africa, his home. So a husband and wife team are leading the service. The wife is from the Philippines. She sings and prays. There is a drum and piano, along with James singing as well. The words displayed on the projector are in English with Korean words often underneath. The husband comes up to preach. The scripture is read and then lessons are pulled from the scripture. It was a great message on a scripture that I've struggled with in the past. He gave the background information and gave us a way to apply the message. The service was very informal, with his kids running around on stage and around the room. There were more people at the service than normal, apparently. I'd say around 20 people. Sometimes Beth said there are only 3 people! After the service we went to a meeting with the pastor and people who do worship. The pastor discussed when the regular pastor will probably be back and if we had any ideas for the service. We finally made our way back home around 3:30. We had been at church for 3 and a half hours. Long time!
So first impressions...from my experience more Koreans were involved in the worship time than my church in the States. Almost everyone was clapping and singing. They are very welcoming, especially to foreigners it seems, as you can see we were invited to meetings and met with the pastor over tea. Other than that, not many differences that I noticed.
So there you have it! My first church experience in Korea!
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