What is it like being a Christian in Korea?

Table Rock....Home Sweet Home

Answer to that question is different and hard to describe.
Being a Christian here is something you can talk openly about in some circles and stay quiet about in some other situations. Even when you are in a nondenominational Christian school. What I can say is that whatever those in Korea choose to believe, they believe with the whole of their heart and soul. I learn that more and more every day. Sunday church services here are what we would describe at home more as praise worship or early morning worship services. Most of the music is newer than the old hymns I know. Some are sung first in English and then in Korean. Sometimes there are all English services if you find the place and time.
The churches seem to be very active and at the same time transient. People come to most churches for fellowship and worship not for necessarily specific denominations although there are those around. Many of us our still looking for our "home" church as we settle here. Today though was a particularly memorable one for me with a peek at how many Koreans practice Christianity and it isn't even a Sunday.
As I have told many of you, our school has been severing ties with our sister school due primarily to financial issues and this has caused a great wave of changes in administration and school boards and board of trustees as well as PTA. Everyone is affected and your word and honor and pride are very big issues in this country. After 2 days of particularly tense meetings by all of the executive boards, a group of parents wanted to offer a time of prayer for teachers as well as themselves to come together and seek the right answers for the school moving forward. I felt that this was a good thing and I decided since I had the time today I would go because I do believe that coming together is the only way to solve some of these issues. I thought we would have a quick time of prayer and that would be it. I was so incorrect about that.
What I ended up with was a 90 minute glimpse into what it is to be a Korean Christian. The group consisted of 10 or 11 women and about 7 faculty members, 3 of which were administrators. Granted it is hard to take time out of your day to attend something because you don't want to be rude and leave.
First the leader of the prayer group gave us a song sheet, all in Korean but I am okay with that because it is the spirit of the music being shared that is important. She said that most of the meeting would be held in Korean and she apologized that she didn't have a translator at the time. No problem, just being in worship is all that matters right?
So we had several songs first which is very common. Then she would stand and ask for prayer on a certain issue and would translate it into English as best that she could and then all would bow their heads to pray. This is a type of praying I had never been in presence of. They pray with all they are. Incessant praying out loud, to keening to chanting, and many tears shed because of wanting for something so much. Bodies would rock back and forth and it would swell and then all of a sudden it would die back down. Another passage from the bible would be read. It would be related to the school situation in some way and the ritual would begin all over again. You cannot help but be moved when surrounded by that kind of atmosphere. It doesn't matter if you understand the language or not at that point. By then however, another teacher who could help translate had come in and did so. By that time I was the only waygookgin (foreigner) left in the room. How did that happen? It didn't matter. A King James Bible with Korean on one side and English on the other was shared and I read parts of the scripture with the others. Once the main "service" was over the ladies stayed to talk more about who knows what. All I know is I left after witnessing something I will never forget and am grateful I took part in.
Now it is my hope that it will help heal some wounds so that we can move forward with the ideals and mission of the school for the sake of the kids.  God had to have heard that service though. I don't know how he couldn't have.