Sorry for the silence, to any who have been reading my blog. I’ve been in the midst of moving to the other side of the planet, and I now live in Cheongju, South Korea. My uncle who apparently was here during the Korean war thought that this place was backward. Of course, a lot can change in 50 years, especially with much of the world now using devices designed in Korea by Korean corporations (Like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, or Kia).

I am living in a town with a population about the same as the province of Newfoundland, and work as the new English pastor for the International congregation at SangDang Presbyterian Church, a fairly large Church by my standards, pastored by a very good preacher who is also apparently quite funny…. I will need to work on my Korean.

Since I arrived on Friday, I have been going nearly constantly (or at least as constantly as 12 hours of jetlag will allow me to), getting introduced at services, preaching my first sermon as a church leader, getting to know far more people than I am going to be able to remember, and again spending time with people who I knew from the last time I was in Korea, and I am still not done any of that. Today I also get to run the many errands that are part of relocating to a new country.

What has been interesting in all of this, though, has been how I feel somehow connected to people I often do not even share a language with. When believers in Christ become the new creation that is referred to in the Bible (2 Cor. 5:17), we also get (re) born into a new family with a myriad of new brothers and sisters. I am here away from the culture I am used to and was raised in, but at least I am here also with family.

Indeed, both in Canada and here, I am away from home, but as with all travels, the pilgrimage of life is made sweeter, since we travel it with family.