12/6/2009

Today, I attended my first Reformed church service ever. The sermon and Bible study afterwards matched up completely with the reading and thoughts and prayers I have been having lately. It was just on Friday when I finished reading 1 John and it just so happened to be the book in the Bible that the sermon was based upon. As the pastor stated, it was providential (not coincidence) that this happened.

Here is what I have been thinking and was solidified today after hearing the sermon and attending Bible study, which tied into the sermon:

Jesus is not my therapist. Jesus is not just my helper. He is not my feel good buddy. He is not just a good teacher.

Jesus is my Savior and I am his servant. Jesus is my idol. He is a stream that never ceases to flow.

I am a pool. I am a well. I have been made this so I, too, can overflow with his pure, life-giving Life (Word) and love. For God is love. Therefore, God is patient, God is kind. God does not envy, God does not boast, God is not proud. God is not rude, God is not self-seeking, God is not easily angered, God keeps no record of wrongs. God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. God always protects, always trusts, always hopes, and always perseveres.

I am called to live like Christ. 1 Cor. 11:1 says, “Be imitators of me, just as I am of Christ.” Therefore, I, too, should pour out love.

If I only take in and do not live out my faith through works, then the water (love) that Jesus pours into me becomes stagnant and begins to rot. It becomes worthless and poison to my soul. I then become a place where friends and family come to and can find no place to replenish themselves. I will end up being a ship on the poison waters that I do not allow to flow out to the world as love and my tongue becomes my water. I then become like a sprinkler, spitting forth poison on those around me.

What dams up God’s love? The idols of the heart. John ends 1 John, a letter to Ephesus, by saying, “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.” Idols can be anything. They usually aren’t the statues most people envision. They can be your spouse, television, money, etc. Idols are things and things are temporary. Idols, even though they may not be a living thing, affect the heart first then seek the approval of the mind. We first desire something in our heart, lusting after it like a dog panting for water in the summer heat, then our heart whispers to our brain, “Hey, I want that.” So, we start believing in false teachings. We become false teachers.

If you think I am overstepping my bounds in saying that by allowing ourselves to willfully worship idols turns us into a person who believes in false teachings and even turns us into false teachers ourselves, check out 1 John 3:9-10. “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” We are being called to repent of our sins. This means to pray for forgiveness AND turn away from the sin. If we don’t turn away from the sin and continue to wallow in it, we become useless. It can even be questioned if we were ever true, understanding believers of faith and belief in the one, true God in the first place. We are, in those verses, called to love. God is love and he lives in us. To worship idols instead of him restricts God’s love and renders us a dammed up pool of poisonous, stagnant water. We become “children of the devil”.

We must remember, as John says, we are “born of God”. He gives us a new birth, I life baptized through his waters of love. If we are not born of God, we begin to let things slip. To say things like, “If I don’t do it, so it doesn’t affect me” or support leaders and individuals who are in full, willful support of immoral, sinful things does not show being “born of God”. It does not show love. How does that not show love? Don’t I have to be friends with people in order to witness to them?

We have been given a definition of what an idol is in 1 John 2:15-17: “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

It is not of God, nor should be in one “born of God” to support abortion, homosexuality, debauchery, drunkeness, course talk, lustful lifestyles, etc. Also, it is not of God to support someone else who supports such things. So, to put yourself into a situation when you enter into someone else’s life and are around them when they do such things and then say that you do it so you can witness to them is complete and utterly false and wrong. It’s backwards. Being a good witness would mean showing them love through challenging them (which I will show soon) and inviting them into your life. As Jesus knocks and we chose to let him into our lives, they to much answer to the knocking. You can’t barge into their room and think you can change them. That is pride and a whole different topic completely.

We are called to live as Christ. Christ showed love by cutting to the core of things. He used what I will call “tough love”. He challenged those who came to him.

17As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

18″Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 19You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.’”

20″Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

21Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

22At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. —Mark 10:17-22

The man is like any other man. There is something he has not given up to the Lord. He has made money his idol, but his idol could be replaced with any other idol. It doesn’t really matter what the idol is. What matters is that “Jesus looked at him and loved him.” Jesus’s love is not the love we think of, which is worldly love like teenagers and lovers saying, “I love you.” Jesus shows the best kind of love by bringing the man closer to him. Therefore, as witnesses and servants of Christ, we too should show love by bringing people closer to God. Jesus knew the heart of this man. As men, we can’t exactly see the heart of man like Jesus did, but we can see a picture of a man’s heart through his actions and discernment given to us through the Word and prayer.

We are like apples. Jesus cuts to the core of us and replaces the core with his perfect love, which is salvation. A new life in Him and Him in us.

To go back to false teachings and/or teachers themselves, a point that can be made of 1 John 3:9-10 is that we have the power to say no to sin AND then say yes to something that is better in God. God is eternal, not temporary like the idols of the heart that temp us and will die before us or rot away. This reflects the cycle of repentance. We are to say no AND then turn around and say yes to the Lord’s ways.

If we imitate Christ, then the world will hate us. John 15:18-27 says:

18″If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me hates my Father as well. 24If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

26″When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. 27And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

But, we are called to be witnesses and examples. How can we do this to a world that hates us?

First, James 4:4 says: “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”

Being a friend to the world means to do what it does. To act like it does. To say it’s ok for them to act that way. To even say that it’s not ok, but that you can’t do anything about it. Naturally, as John states, the world will hate us. It is darkness that does not want to be in the light that God is shining through us. But, it sees our example and some will want to learn more of why we have true happiness and how we show true love.

Second, we should let God’s love flow out of us. That does not mean to ride the fence. To give people our vote that vote against God, may it be in politics or in life itself. By speaking out against sin, we are showing love. It is not condemnation to those who believe and is hot coals on top of the heads of those who live deprived, debaucherous lives. If we live like Christ, we too will have “tough love”, not accepting the sinful will of man to become a snare in our own lives. Not letting things our deprived hearts desire to also become accepted by our minds. Idols will give our desires approval, but the greatest approval (entrance into Heaven) comes from God.

So, when John says in 1 John 4:7, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God”, we know that we are like a well to be drawn from because of the outpouring of God’s never-ending love. “We love because he first loved us,” 1 John 4:19 says.

We can be in the world, but not of it as the Word of God says. This is love. It is actually hatred to put yourself into the shoes of the world and walk in them. It is evil and of the devil.

There is absolutely no grey area. None whatsoever. There is righteously pure and there is sin. No fence exists. The only things that exist are God’s mercy and grace, which were shown through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and bestowed on those who accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and sin (which is the work of the devil). To fall into the worship of the idols of the heart is to go on sinning, which is the work of the children of the devil.

Therefore, I am completely weary and tired of those who surround me and are lukewarm in their faith or show no signs of a pulse in their faith walk. Those who attend church on a weekly basis, but continually hang out and spend most of their time with unbelievers. Not only that, but they speak like the unbelievers when they are with them and much more prone to do what the non-believers are doing than to stand up for their faith (if they have any at all, that is). Those that continually come up with excuses and must apologize continually. That try to make you feel like you are wrong when you know that God is on your side and what you have done or said is completely Biblical. To show any conviction around these people means to have fingers pointed at you and called judgmental. To begin to discover that when you spend time with them, you too start to have things you must apologize for and repent of. Those who say to me that they don’t believe that things like abortion, homosexuality, debauchery, faith in the government, etc. yet vote for people and with argue with you in trying to justify their vote for politicians who stand for nothing Godly. It makes absolutely no sense and I pray for intervention, a change of heart, and a swift kick to the seat of the pants by the Spirit to light a fire under their butts and change their mind and heart sets.

We are either for or against God. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” No one can look at that and truly say to themselves, “Meh, that’s cool. I am going to do whatever I want. I’m still going to worship this idol (insert sin here) and still believe in God.” That isn’t true belief and not how it works.

Mind you, we have all fallen short of the glory of God and that is why Jesus died for our sins on the cross.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee. — Excerpt from the hymn Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing

We are constrained only by our own shortcomings in sin. We can do anything through Christ. He is the lifeblood that flows through our heart. Jesus is love. He alone can overcome our idols as we put our faith in Him.

Psalm 36:8
They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. (We are to delight in God, who is love.)

Proverbs 20:5 Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water; but a man of understanding will draw it out. (And hopefully let others hear of this understanding and let them drink also of the deep water.)

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (Holy Spirit)

Everyone is dehydrated. Everyone is thirsty for the Lord, even if they don’t know it.

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God? — Psalm 42:1-2

7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me. —Psalm 42:7

We should consistently fill ourselves with the love of the Lord and let it flow out of us like a waterfall, as it sweeps over us. This is love.

God’s love is forever. Idols can’t deliver. That is why Jesus is my idol. It is through the purification of his love, which is grace and mercy through my faith, that I find my happiness.

I pray that God blesses you as he has blessed me (as of late, mostly through trials and tribulation).

PRAISE HIM!

I Have Love

by Tim Young
12/2/09
Inspired by Psalm 103

I sat along the fire
I’m so lost
I suffer alone

I search for the stars
But darkness is all I see
You, my friend, are the sin that binds me

I do not have to suffer alone
I have Love

The moon counts the days
And the sun knows when to sleep
As I pray my soul to keep

Compassionate and gracious
Slow to anger, abounding in love
A light within blackness
A sign from above

I do not have to suffer alone
For I have Love

I Have Love
by Tim Young
12/2/09
Inspired by Psalm 103

I sat along the fire
I’m so lost
I suffer alone

I search for the stars
But darkness is all I see
You, my friend, are the sin that binds me

I do not have to suffer alone
I have Love

The moon counts the days
And the sun knows when to sleep
As I pray my soul to keep

Compassionate and gracious
Slow to anger, abounding in love
A light within blackness
A sign from above

I do not have to suffer alone
For I have Love

Up until tonight’s prime-time speech by President Obama, I thought it would be wise to familiarize myself about Afghanistan and what the war means to Americans and the Middle East. I barely knew anything about Afghanistan or the war there, as it is something that has not been covered in the media and continually overshadowed by news about celebrities, party crashers, and during the Bush Administration, the war in Iraq.

I discovered the following:

1) Afghanistan has the 3rd highest birth-rate in the world.

2) Afghanistan is a very poor country, considered to be a 3rd-world country comparable to Niger (also in the top three birth rates).

3) It’s economy is almost solely based on the sales of opiates, grown by the Taliban and Al-Quaeda. The terrorists make heroin and then use the money to fund their terrorist plots. They will give just enough money to the civilians to appease them and keep them working, often bribing people to join their cause.

4) It has been estimated by Army Generals and military leaders that in order to keep Afghanistan in check, there would need to be a consistent force of 400,000 troops in Afghanistan.

5) Afghanistan borders the western area of Pakistan, which is very mountainous and believed the hiding place of Usama Bin Laden and also where the majority of the terrorist cells are trained.

6) It has been said by military and economic analysts that Afghanistan is nothing like Iraq because it’s society is not based on oil production, is extremely poor, and has a booming number of hungry people who have easily swayed opinions of the world. Whereas in Iraq where much of the fighting was centralized in specific areas, Afghanistan is like a military version of “whack-a-mole” in which the terrorist militants continually move around.

7) There are many tribes in Afghanistan that are splintered, each with their own vendettas. This is also something that is different between Iraq and Afghanistan.

With that all said, the reason that Obama’s Generals continually call for more troops is because Afghanistan is nothing like Iraq in its landscape, agenda, tribal qualms, border with Pakistan, economy, etc. In fact, there have never been enough troops in Afghanistan to truly “surge” and defeat the terrorists. 30,000 more troops is comparable to a spit in the bucket, as the number of troops that is estimated to be needed to truly win the war is 400,000 and by the middle of 2010 will be 100,000, a fourth of the number.

Thus, President Obama plans to train the Afghani people and have a very large police force to fight the terrorist groups. However, as many military personal and even Obama himself would admit, the biggest problem right now is Pakistan and convincing the government there to step up their game, stomp out any and all corruption, and kill the terrorists that have hunkered down in the western Pakistan mountains.

Here is where I will interject my opinion, as with all the information above is factual things that I discovered simply through searching Google and reading articles about the make-up of Afghanistan and commentary about the country…

First of all, it took 92 days for Obama to try and appease everyone. No one can say now that Obama is a moderate thinker. He appointed McChrystal as his General saying in the first half of the year that he would listen to his military leaders. Yet, when McChrystal told Obama what he needed to win the war, Obama floundered like a fish out of water. He took 92 days to “think” when what he was doing was playing politics and trying to appease his liberal base, who will always be against any troops being sent anywhere in the world, no matter what. Obama cut the number of troops and then has the gall to think NATO forces will help out and send up to 10,000 more troops. When has NATO (Europe) ever helped in the Middle East?

By the way, General McCrystal asked for 60,000 troops and a MINIMUM of 40,000 troops. So, Obama is in fact cutting the number of troops asked for in half and is still a 1/4 below the minimum.

On top of all that, Obama on nation wide television projected that he will pull out the troops in July 2011. Hm, well terrorists, are you listening? Cause we just told you our plans! No President in history has done that and it’s pretty logical and obvious saying your going to pull out all the troops at a specific time actually helps the terrorists plan ahead. Right?

Not only that, all of the 30,000 troops will not be sent to Afghanistan completely until summer of 2010. Apparently, Obama is going to train 400,000 Afghani men to patrol the country and change the the government there, weed out the production of opiates, and convince the corrupt government in Pakistan to change it’s ways all within one calender year.

To call this is a “surge” is a joke. It’s more like a drip.

Obama has never and will never support our troops. Who would want to fight for a man who “commands” his men to fight but limits their ability to do so? And lastly, if you were a terrorist, wouldn’t you just hunker down in a hole until July 2011 and wait for American forces to leave, while slowly building up your army then explode with force in the second half of 2011 and beyond?

Not only has Obama failed us with his so-called stimulus plan, is trying to ram a socialist health care program down our throats that the majority of Americans don’t want, failed to realize there is a need for places like Gitmo, is actually trying the Sept. 11 terrorists in civil court (let’s hope all 12 jurors agree on the death penalty, at least) within view of Ground Zero, had over a half dozen tax cheats in his cabinet including one of them running the treasury department, and quadrupled the debt of America in 10 months, he is now pressing his liberal agenda upon the troops and not listening to Generals who have fought for this country for decades and actually have the experience on the ground to know what is needed to win.

One word: Joke.

Even the Sparrows

By Tim Young

11/28/09

Inspired by the book of James

I am a man who stares at mirrors

Only to turn and forget my own face

Even the sparrows find a place

To nest

So to send you away with nothing

But hopes for the best

Wouldn’t lift the weight off my chest

There is judgment on my tongue

Without mercy, I come undone

I build a foothold

For the devil to stand

If only I was a little

Self-controlled

If only I was a little

I am a man who stares at mirrors

Where I’d hope that everything would be

Just a little more clearer

But, I gave up on believing

And now, I can barely go on breathing

I am a man who stares at mirrors

And I turn and walk away

(If only I was a little)

And I turn and walk away

(If only I was a little)

And I turn and walk away

If only I was little

It’s just that’s how small I am!

A nothing!

An angry man!

And now I’m on my knees

Praying to dream dreams

Oh God, forgive me please

On February 13th, I will be returning home to the U.S., landing at O’Hare airport.  After a year spent in South Korea, I can say that I learned a lot and have met the challenges of living halfway around the globe.  I am looking forward to this date, not because I am running away from Korea, but because I have something lined up in my future that I am most excited about.

After a month or so of decompression time, visiting family and friends, and getting over jetlag, I will be moving to New Orleans to be a part of a homeland missions Master’s Workshop.  I will work hand in hand with Sovereign Grace Fellowship, living with other missionaries.  I have felt called for some time now to make servanthood of the Lord something I do all the time in the sense that I felt called to do missions work.

While in New Orleans, I will learn and/or do:

• Leadership Training – Instruction in servant leadership that teaches relational skills and behavioral mandates that emulate biblical manhood.
• Essential Bible Skills – Hermeneutical and exegetical training through one-on-one discipleship that will lay down a foundation for a lifetime of learning and headship. Our evening studies will include theological discussions and study as well as regular guest teachers from around the country who will share their years of experience and heart for Christ with our men.
• Lifestyle evangelism – Mentoring in living out an active witness as a way of life that has a missions heart at home and to all the nations.
• Hands-on skill development to be used for their families, churches, and home communities. Each student will receive basic apprenticeship knowledge of the basics: carpentry, drywall, electrical, HVAC, painting, plumbing, etc. Other skills and work will include fence building, flooring, masonry, concrete work, tree cutting, and other miscellaneous trades.

For more information about the internship, visit the website:  http://sghm.org/news/train/masters-workshop/

If you want to know more about Sovereign Grace and what they stand for, visit:  http://sghm.org/news/

I am super excited, so please keep me in your prayers as I am already readying myself to move there, even with 4 months to go.  There is a lot to prepare for financially and logistically.  Pray that the Lord leads the way for me and things work out smoothly.  Thank you.

Carpe Diem!
by Tim Young
11/19/09

I hope this song is relatable
But, maybe that’s debatable

I sometimes thing I’m a bigger man than you
But, that’s just crazy
That’s just wrong
Cause we’re all so incredibly small
And there isn’t anything between us
But a thin apartment wall

We’re all just men
Who’ll die in the end
So let’s get the best
Out of this life
I’ll give you two wishes
And I’ll take one
Let’s wrap this picture
And call this production done

Seize seize seizure
Shake shake shaken
Take take taken
Do it all again!

This is the day
There is one way
This is the day
Stand up and take it

Seize seize seizure
Shake shake shaken
Take take taken
This is the end!

I am trying to get this site to catch on with people.  Give it a try…

http://funnykidstories.wordpress.com/

Tim

To see photos of this part of the trip, go here:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2300384&id=30807922

After a four day stay in Shanghai, which was fun and very modern, I took a short connecting flight to Beijing.  Upon arriving, I was greeted by my tour guide for my stay in Beijing and my personal driver.  That’s right, I had a personal driver that drove me everywhere I wanted to go.  I felt like a pimp, with a capital P.  The driver drove me to the hotel where I was to meet up with Dan.

Dan was supposed to be picked up at a different airport, but instead had to take a $25 taxi ride because no one showed up to pick him up.  I had made him print outs of the itinerary for the week, which saved him from being completely lost because he was able to have the taxi driver call the hotel and get directions.  It was soon after arriving in Korea that I realized that taxis in China do not have GPS systems in them like taxis in Korea.  Thus, lots of pointing and hoping they understand what you mean.  I would always have printed addresses in Chinese and point them and then get about 15-20 word responses in Chinese that I nodded to and said, “Naaaaaaay” (yes in Korean) to in response as if that would help.  I digress.

Dan showed up an hour after I arrived.  He was pissed about the taxi ride, but was happy to be in Beijing. Our first day was free for us to do what we pleased, so before arrival, I spent countless hours looking up Beijing’s subway plans and locations of places to possibly visit.  We set off on foot to the subway to reach Behai Park.  This was day two of my regimen of Vaseline dry skin lotion protecting my inner thighs from more chaffing, so I was able to walk in a somewhat closer regular fashion far from the “I just crapped my pants” stance I had been in my 3^rd and 4^th days in Shanghai.

It was soon that Dan and I realized that the subway was on the other side of Temple of Heaven park.  So, we bought a ticket simply to walk through the park.  Beautiful trees and colored flags lined wide, brick walkways through the entire park.  The park itself was extremely well kept and clean.  Dan and I came across synchronized dancers, people practicing tai chi, and other still practicing other martial arts.  We skipped the sites inside of the park, because it was a part of our tour later in the week.

Once we made it onto the subway and to the stop that I was told by Google was the stop to arrive at Behai Park, we began walking…and walking…and walking.  We thought we were lost.  I stopped to ask a younger couple where we were, only to realize I just interrupted a break up.  The girl was bawling he eyes out and the guy looked like a deer in headlights.  Dan yukked it up about this as we pressed on towards the park.  The walk became too long, so Dan and I decided to start walking down some side streets, called hutongs.  Hutongs were built hundreds of years ago to allow people passage to wells to gather water.  Most are not wide enough for cars.

On this part of our adventure, we came across a church with actual white doves flying around the cross.  This blew our minds, as we both know that one cannot profess their faith in Christ in China, yet there sat a church.  We wondered how that possibly would work in China, but never found out.

After about a full hour of walking around, Dan stopping for food (as he never stops being hungry), walking around aimlessly on hutongs, we finally discovered Behai Park.  Behai Park has a large lake and a White Pagoda.  A pagoda is a tower where Buddhists worship.  It usually represents earth and different levels of heaven.

The day was partly cloudy, but the smog was terrible.  It made it seem like a dreary, overcast day.  This didn’t allow for the greatest pictures, but Dan and I still quite enjoyed ourselves.  We walked around the lake and climbed the hill to get to the White Pagoda.  In the hill were caves.  Dan fell down during part of our hike to the caves.  It wasn’t even funny at first, because he fell down so quickly and hard.  He bruised his leg pretty bad and limped the rest of the day.  We laughed it off later, but it would have totally sucked if he twisted his ankle and couldn’t walk the rest of the trip.

The pagoda itself was spectacular.  On top of the hill, you could see much of Beijing and everything was so ornate.  The rooftops of palaces could be seen all around and the view of the lake was gorgeous.  In fact, while standing next to the pagoda, one could see the entire Forbidden City from above, with all of the roofs painted gold.

I was most excited to walk to the other side of the park to see the Nine-Dragon screen that was made in 1756 and consisted of 9 large dragons on both sides of the screen and 635 total dragons.  Each of the main dragons was made of different colored stones.  Nothing at this site had been refurbished and was completely original.  Seeing a wall of 635 dragons made out of different colored marble, representing different emperors ruling the world was spectacular.

After leaving the park, Dan and I ate bullfrog with greens, onion, and bok choi.  It was covered in a delectable brown sauce and stands as one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten.  It was just before arriving at the restaurant to eat this delicious meal that I spotted the fuzziest, whitest dog I have ever seen and while not paying attention to where I was walking, stubbed my toe and tore half the nail off of my right big toe.  I could do nothing but clench my teeth and say, “MOTHER!”

At night, Dan and I wanted to waste no time, so I decided we should check out one of the night markets.  In Beijing, many of the markets are located around the Forbidden City.  It is here that Dan and I ate scorpion, snake, starfish, and drank delicious Chinese beer.  The scorpion was delicious.  I would have bought seconds if it didn’t cost $15.  It tasted like French fries.  The snake was uber spicy.  It made me sweat like a stuck pig and cry happy tears.  To eat the starfish, you had to break open the shell and eat the insides.  It tasted like fish, but was softer, like a sponge.

From there, Dan and I decided to walk to Tiananmen Square, where the 60^th Anniversary of Communism was still taking place.  Each of China’s provinces and people’s was represented.  There were thousands of people, huge lights, and tv screens the size of a football field.  The light was nearly blinding.  There were many boats representing the provinces decorated with bright colors and lights.  They each had meaning lost to Dan and I.  Also, there were pillars with paintings of people on them to represent each kind of people in the Republic of China.

After a walk through Tiananmen Square, Dan and I were exhausted.  We were so excited, but knew we needed to get sleep, as we had to wake up the next day at 7 to eat breakfast and begin our tour of the Great Wall.  Thus concluded a mighty first day in Beijing.

I will continue on with this blog when it is pertinent, but as time marches on in South Korea, I have found less and less to write about.  I will soon post a blog about my first day in Beijing, but everything else here has been the same ol’, same ol’.

So, I decided to start a new blog.  I will be posting stories written by my students on this new blog.  Check it out at:

http://funnykidstories.wordpress.com/

Hope you like it-

Tim

To see pictures of my trip, visit:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2304898&id=30807922

After rescheduling three times because people cancelled on me, I finally made it to the DMZ, or the De-Militarized Zone.  The DMZ is a 4km cushion between North and South Korea, separated by barbed wire, live mines, anti-tank technology, huge fences, sniper towers, etc.  In 1953, an armistice that still exists was put into place.  Since that time, North Korea has tried to assassinate multiple leaders and has succeeded in bombing government officials, dug tunnels from North Korea towards Seoul, been successful in infiltrating the government with spies, etc.  It’s an extreme situation for sure and the DMZ felt like standing in calm just before a storm.

The first area I visited was called JSA, or the Joint Security Area.  In this area, there are buildings from both the North and the South.  There are many U.S. soldiers there, but in recent years, the number of U.S. soldiers has decreased and stands at 5% of the soldiers guarding the DMZ, while ROK (Republic of Korea, or South Korean) soldiers make up the other 95% of the soldiers.  It is here that meetings are held between world powers to discuss things that each Korea wants.  Many European countries also have soldiers stationed here also.

On a side note:  I had an interesting meeting with a girl on the bus.  The tour guide asked where I was from and I said, “Near Rockford, Illinois.”  The girl in front of me, who I think was named Bethany, was from Rockford!  She went to Jefferson High School.  After graduating, she went to Trinity College and was roommates with a girl that graduated with my brother, Caleb, in 2003 named Danielle Barker who also just happened to date a guy, Ted Rupnow, who I grew up going to church with since I was a toddler.  I was like, “Woah, this world is small!”

The first stop in the JSA was in a room used to show us a video that contained a brief history of the DMZ and have us sign a declaration and receive visitor U.N. badges.  In the declaration, we were told things like not to make any sort of contact with those on the North Korea side, not to speak to them nor do anything such as even point in their direction.  If we were caught doing so, we were instantly yelled at and warned not to do it again.

After the briefing, I witnessed what Sports Illustrated magazine called the most dangerous golf course in the world, which was surrounded by live mine fields on three sides.  This was interesting, but only done in passing on the bus.  It was soon after this, we could not take pictures again.  In fact, I was not allowed to take pictures about 80% of the tour due to government restrictions.

The group was taken an area of the JSA where the North and South Koreas literally met.  It was there that there were blue buildings (South Korean) and gray buildings (North Korean).  They stood next to each other and directly across from each other stood two buildings of the same height that were built to be used for visitors from either country, but North Korea won’t let anyone use them because they are afraid of their citizens defecting to South Korea (who wouldn’t want to get out of there, right?).

I was able to see the ROK soldiers in action, guarding the buildings.  They stood halfway behind the buildings in case of an attack and constantly watched the North Korean side.  I witnessed about fifteen North Korean soldiers, who we were told were probably finishing up their ten years of military service because they were taking pictures with the South Korean buildings in the background, which we were told was unusual.  In the distance stood sniper towards, in which we were told contained at least two snipers who were watching us at all times.  Directly across from us about 100 yards away, stood a man with binoculars watching us.  About every minute, he would walk over to a small, opened window and report was he was seeing.

We were allowed to enter one of the blue buildings and told what it was used for throughout the year.  It was in the building called the Military Justice Committee Conference Building that I got to learn about the meetings held by officials from Europe, the UN, South Korea, and North Korean officials annually.  I was able to stand in North Korea (inside the building, as if I did that outside, I would have been shot or captured).  In the MJCCB building, there was a table with microphones that recorded everything 24-hours a day that stood directly on the border between the North and South.  Two ROK soldiers stood guard in the room, one of them guarding the door to the North Korean side.  We were told not to step behind them and an older woman did not listen.  Instantly, the guard side stepped in front of her and blocked her with his arm, scaring the crap out of her.  It’s funny how people suck at listening to directions.

It was in this building, we learned that the North Koreans were troublemakers and always doing stupid things.  For instance, there were small, silk flags hanging in this meeting room and one time, two North Korean guards used them to blow their nose.  Since then, the flags have been covered with a glass frame.  In the gray building next door, which the North Koreans call the “Recreation Room”, there is no recreation equipment at all.  Instead, when official business is being held in the blue building 5 feet away, North Koreans will enter the “Recreation Room” and do crude things to try and distract the meetings being held next door.

It was most definitely eerie being so close to North Koreans and standing in what is considered North Korea.  I would not want to even joke about defecting or being captured.  North Korea is crazy.

The rest of the day was quite disappointing for a few reasons.  One, we were not told until we got onto the bus that checkpoints 3 and 4 were closed for renovations and not to be reopened until December.  At checkpoint three, there is a bridge called “The Bridge of No Return”.  It was here that all the POWs from the North and South were given a chance to choose which side they would live in.  I had heard of this area before and most definitely looking forward to seeing it.  Secondly, at checkpoint two, we were supposed to be able to see 27km into North Korea, but the weather was the poorest since my arrival in Korea.  The rain and fog was so bad that I was only able to see about 15 feet in front of my face, if that.

We were told what we were missing out on, which makes me want to go back.  In the 27km area we were supposed to be able to see, North Korea built a 136-meter high flag pole, a propaganda town, and an industrial town.  In this area, there is also supposed to be a 26-meter high, golden statue of Kim Il-sung (the first leader of Communist North Korea and father of Kim Jong-il, current leader of North Korea) and a huge satellite radio jammer.

The propaganda town is literally a town of houses and buildings that North Korea built to show off their power to South Korea, but no one lives there.  It’s a ghost town.  In the town, North Korea used to post huge signs saying that Kim Il-sung is great and/or South Koreans should defect to North Korea because it’s a heavenly place.  An agreement was made some years ago that they would stop putting up such signs.

Behind the propaganda town is an industrial town.  Some years ago, North and South Korea agreed to build a town full of factories.  North Korea would use it to give jobs to some of their men and South Korea would build it.  Soon, South Korea realized the machines were being run on battery power because North Korea wouldn’t provide the electricity, so South Korea now provides the electricity to run the machines in the factories.  Ninety-percent of the money in North Korea is used on their military and because they have alienated themselves from the rest of the world, they can’t afford to have electricity in many areas.  Even in their capitol, electricity is not used after 7pm.

Next, I visited one of four discovered tunnels that North Korea was digging in order to attack South Korea.  It was said that South Korea believes there are probably at least 10 more of these tunnels that have yet to be discovered.  The tunnel that I visited was not discovered until 1990 and was discovered by accident by some farmers.  It went underground and continued for huge distances.  The ground itself was composed of 90% granite, but when North Korea learned they had been discovered, they painted the walls of the tunnel black and claimed they were mining coal and lost track of where they were digging.

If the tunnel was finished, North Korea could have used it to attack South Korea within an hour.  The tunnel itself was dug in such a way that the water inside would not go stagnant and led towards the city of Seoul.  It was discovered because some farmers heard weird noises, so the South Korean government bore holes in the ground and filled them with water.  Because of the back pressure in the tunnel, one of the holes filled with water shot the water out backwards like a geyser.  It was then that the South Korean government dug some more holes in that area and the water would disappear, thus they knew there was a tunnel underneath.

Going into the tunnel, I wore a yellow hard hat, which was much needed.  The tunnel at times was about half my height and I had to crouch down the entire time and bumped my head continually.  I was glad when I was able to stand up straight again.

Throughout the day, we were repeatedly told about the “Ax Murder Massacre”.  In the 1970s, the North and South were allowed to have checkpoints throughout the JSA on opposite sides of the border.  In one area, the North Koreans built three buildings around one South Korean building.  Next to the South Korean building was a huge tree that blocked the view of another South Korean building.  It was agreed that South Korea could trim the tree so they could protect their surrounded building, but when a South Korean General and his men went to trim the tree, the North Koreans attacked them… with axes.  They killed the General and one of his men by hacking them to death with axes.  I saw the pictures of this happening and it was crazy.

The last stop on our tour was a little museum with a video about the Korean War.  It was the same information we had learned or saw throughout the day.  I snapped a few more photos before leaving, then got on the bus.  I hope to go back on a clear day so I can see the 27km in North Korea and see the areas that are now being renovated.  It was still a worthwhile trip that was extremely eerie and eye-opening, as it showed me just how important my freedoms happen to be.