A PLACE TO BEHOLD

My wife crashed after the weekend visitors left, grateful and exhausted. As a flaming introvert who needs space and alone time, she was a trooper, leaning on her strength training regimen, and a gracious hostess who provided safety and warmth to all visitors over the weekend. Though we are not even halfway settled, we have been on a roll, hosting and meeting people from Singapore to the US and Korea back to back to back.

Practically speaking, our friends brought their own bedding, sheets, and blankets, along with towels. As the anchor community for us in Korea, they also came with gifts and blessings. Some brought three different kinds of homemade Kimchi, seasonal fruits (persimmons, mandarin oranges, sweet potatoes, etc.), and gorgeous houseplants. As our place sits on the top of the hill, overlooking the small valley below, with a stream running through it, we are surrounded by layers of mountains and trees as far as the eye can see. Even then, as a reminder, it does our souls good to see and touch the greens right inside our home. We knew they would be bringing the houseplants. So, we asked them to name the houseplants they were bringing. Their names are “Daily, Here, and Now.” I have never been a plant guy, so I am on a steep learning curve to know how to take good care of them.

Our new house is a pure, generous gift from God, provided through the gracious hands of a young Korean couple. I first met the wife of this couple when she was single, over ten years ago, during my annual speaking and meeting trips to Korea. She attended my seminars over the years and sincerely absorbed the messages I shared. She even came to my speaking engagement the night before her wedding with her future husband. We kept in touch sporadically after their marriage. Then COVID hit. After hearing from God that God might be calling us to Korea—and specifically to Yangpyeong—we narrowed our search to settling down there. In spring 2021, we found an Airbnb, fell in love with the area, and invited them to visit us in Yangpyeong. After listening to how God has been leading us, they tentatively and humbly, while tearing up, asked if they could provide us with housing in Yangpyeong. They had been looking for a second home in Yangpyeong for years, and upon hearing our vision, they told us they then knew why.

Since then, they both quit their corporate jobs, realizing their souls were not thriving, and they have shifted into an e-commerce business. They are much happier and more content. Over the past five years, knowing that their work situation had changed, I have asked them twice to reconsider their generous offer to provide us with a home in Yangpyeong. Both times, they responded with firmer convictions and told us how strongly they felt God was guiding them. As we were having lunch today, they shared how awe-inspiring this whole journey meant for them. Their vision, as shared with ours, has always been that our home be a haven and healing space for pilgrims on the road. Here we are today, counting our blessings and pinching ourselves to wake from the blissful numbness of this unfolding story.

Unintentionally, we have been on a roll naming things. Our new house is called “A Place to Behold,” thanks to our friends from the US. Now we have named three houseplants. When we bought our used hybrid 4-wheel drive SUV, our Singaporean friends called it “Shadowfax,” after Gandalf’s horse. And so far, Shadowfax has lived up to its fame and name. Tomorrow, we will return the car we've used for years during every visit to Korea back to our good friends. Their son named their car Gugu because it reminded him of a small pigeon, especially because of its color and size. Gugu has served us well, and now we’re moving on to Shadowfax.

If fear and doubt were the dominant emotions soon after we landed in Korea, now gratitude and hope have replaced them as my main emotions. As I sit with all feelings without judgment, inner narration, or over-dissecting, at the heart of gratitude and hope lies the multiple communities we belong to. Fear and doubt were fundamentally associated with being alone, isolated, and irrelevant. After all, we left the US ministry context we knew for more than 35 years. Gratitude and hope are directly and undeniably associated with multiple communities we belong to and find life in. The friends back in the US represent our faithful “senders,” willing and ready to send us and release us for the service in Asia. The friends and current and future derivatives of relationships from Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia (as well as other Asian countries) represent our service focus and aspirations. The friends in Korea continue to be our anchor community, welcoming and receiving us to take root in Korea. And who knows what God has in store for us, now that I, as a river merged with the vast ocean…