Baking

And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my which bodyis given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Luke 22:19

Since the chaplain has been planning a special communion service, we decided that we wanted to use something besides the chapel's styrofoam wafers for the elements. I went to Yongsan searching for something that would be appropriate to use as unleavened bread, but the one day I traveled down there was the day the commissary was closed for inventory or something. Grrrrrr........

I should not get too growly, because it turned out for the best. I did a little research, discovered whole wheat flour at our little commissary (THAT was a miracle!), and decided to bake the communion bread myself. I found a recipe that made 8 small "loaves," and although I have not tasted it, even if it tastes like styrofoam, it sure looks better!

Sleepless in Dongducheon

After the Manchu Mile, we managed to squeeze in about 3 1/2 hours of sleep before we had to be up and going again. The annual Volunteer Luncheon was held today and we had been invited. 2-9 was named the Volunteer Battalion of the Quarter, and I received the 2006 Volunteer of the Year award.

After the luncheon, we took a bus back to Camp Casey and took a LONG nap! After the nap we headed out to the Food Court to watch the Manchus limp around after last night's march. You can always pick out the 2-9 guys the day after the Manchu Mile!

It's Just a Mile.....

....but what a long mile it is!

Last night 2-9 walked the Manchu Mile again. Here is the 2-9 Unit Ministry Team all smiles before they stepped off.

The Manchus marched and I chased them around - of course I walked portions of the route backwards, so I could meet all the companies and pass out snacks, peppermints and take pictures. I managed to condense my walking into about 8 miles, but the soldiers had to walk 25.

Even after 8 hours, the UMT was still smiling - but this time it was the finish line and a new belt buckle to smile about. Here is a link to the 150+ pictures from the evening.

Soyo-san!

Now therefore give me this mountain.......Joshua 14:12

After seven months, we finally hiked on one of the trails at Soyo-san.

Don't let the stairs fool you, we were just beginning to climb down, and this was the easy part. I do not think any of us knew what we were getting into, but it was fun. Three long grueling hours of fun. It took 2 1/2 hours to climb up the mountain, and 1/2 hour to descend. Not because descending was easy, but rather it was just straight down. After the stairs, the trail really got steep. There were just large ropes in place over the rocks and we just grabbed a rope and hung on while we tried to stay on our feet. We already have plans to go back and do it again.

We are not sure exactly WHICH trail we followed, because when we finally came to a map, the trail we hiked was not on it. We took pictures of the signs, and I will eventually get them translated, knowing a little bit about the trail is always a good thing. There is a temple on Soyo-san, and that is where our trail ended. Here we are near the temple at one of the waterfalls coming off the mountain.

Since it looks like Carolina and I are still going on the Grand Canyon birthday trip this fall, I'd better get used to this climbing business. ;)

Peeps!

I had to bemoaned my sad situation here in Korea to Bonita. I recently read over 600 million Peeps had been sold for Easter, and I had not contributed to the demise of a single one!

Well, Peeps must hatch later on this side of the world, because after Easter, several shelves of 50% off Peeps showed up.

For the past several years, scientists had been tampering with nature and I had to search through chicks in a host of unnatural colors. Then I saw it! I spied "Sugar Free" Peeps. Without even considering the ramifications of this new phenomenon, I grabbed a box.

As I was about to consume this long awaited treat, I noticed something odd. If you will look closely, you will see that this oversized Peep has NO EYES! Unfortunately, that is just half the sad story. This genetically engineered Peep, like his two sugar free brethren did have eyes - they were in the back of his head!!!

Once this box is finished off, it will only be 100% certified organic, free range Peeps for me.

(Nita, can you bring them with you when you come?)

Girls Will Be Girls

What happens when you let the girls take the camera for a bit? About 39 pictures of two girls, and all are along the lines of:
Only 6 of which involved others being allowed into the picture with them. They did manage to get a picture of SOMEONE actually involved in a little English, so the evening's "English Lesson" was not a complete loss.
I had printed out about 12 sheets of photos (72 pictures) from their bowling party and should have waited a little later on in the evening before pulling those out. That's okay, we learned words like scissors, cut, pictures and their new favorite: "Can I have another one."

Moksa-nim

Pastors in Korea are treated a bit differently. Koreans have a very high regard and respect for the office of a pastor and it shows - whether someone is a Christian or not. If anyone ever asks enough questions to figure out Cary is a chaplain, everything changes. Koreans that attend church, not only have a high regard for the office, they really love their pastor. Mira said that by caring for their pastors, the pastors are better able to care for the congregation without any worries of their own.

Let me introduce Mira. There are several Koreans attending our chapel, and Mira is one of them. When she puts her foot down, she means business -- today she put her foot down. Mira told the chaplain she wanted to buy her husband a new suit, but her husband could not have a new suit until her pastor had a new suit. The chaplain could either go to the store and pick out a suit, or she would buy one too big and he could get it altered. As you can see from the picture, he picked out a suit.

He knew she meant it, because this is the same woman that tried to repay Cary for something one day. When he would not take the money, she just folded it, laid it on the side of the road, put a rock on top of it, got on the bus and left. LOL She won, because the chaplain was not going to leave it laying there for the next soldier that walked by. (I ended up with it, and the money has been placed in the Changam Diaper Drive Fund.)

Easter Sunday

There was a combined Protestant service for Easter, and it was held at the Casey Theater. The praise teams from each chapel played, and here is the West Casey group. Both the girls are singing with the group now. (Look closely, and you can see a peek of Erin's black and white striped socks.......only our Erin.)After the singing and other chapel things, Cary brought the message:Here is the chaplain with his "well-worn-but-nothing-a-little-100-mile-an-hour-tape-can't-fix" Bible. For the non military among us, 100 mile an hour tape is the Army equivalent to duct tape. Hmmm...you might be an ARMY redneck if.....

After a long lunch, he headed to the field for a service there. Now that March is over, guys are back out there training once again.

Easter Pics

Here we are Easter Sunday. Although I eschew the "Easter Outfit" and all the shopping it entails, I did spring for an Easter scarf during a past trip to Insa-dong. Meghan ended up with turtle spoons and turtle chopsticks rather than a dress, and then there is Erin. I guess it is all in how you look at it - but if you take one look at that outfit, you will see that while we did not decorate eggs this year, we did decorate ERIN!

Here are a couple more pics being printed out for the great grandmothers:

Erin the Scholar

Here is Erin Dawn hard at work on her US Government mid-term project. She and Meghan are in the same class, and since they are sisters, the instructor said they could do their project together. Their study and preparation skills are as different as they are, so while the end result was an A+, they have been told to not let that happen again.

Erin has a favorite street vendor delicacy (a perfect respite from the stresses of college classes), and she finally introduced us to her discovery. It is just fried chicken on a stick, but it was really, really good chicken. Besides, she is not exactly adventurous in her eating, so do not ever expect pictures of HER (or her Pop) eating silkworms or other such Korean treats.

Arise & Shine!

Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD

is risen upon thee. Isaiah 60:1

We have finished up Camp Casey's first ever revival, and it is amazing to see how things really came together for it. Our chapel's Praise Team played every night. While they had the volume, but they were not the only ones singing. Isaiah says, the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing.....and they did. Those mountains that surround the Camp moved the sound to areas the speakers could not reach alone. They could be heard from one corner of Camp Casey to the other. Isaiah also says the trees will clap their hands, and while it was too dark to see it, I do not know how they kept from it. ;)

Since it was an outdoor event, the weather played a big part. It rained everyday, but by setting up time, the rains had cleared out. Of course, windy and chilly weather settled into its place, but that was tolerable with big coats and mittens. A bigger concern was the Yellow Dust, which blows in every year from Mongolia and can present a health hazard. It has not been an issue at all this season, but this weekend we set yearlong records for the dust count. If it had not rained, we would not have been able to have the event outside. While we were praying for the rain to stop, it had a job to do and did it quite well.

The attendance averaged about 120 plus strays. The strays are the ones that just walked up and joined us when they heard it. We had planned for it to be outdoors and there were alot of speakers all for the express purpose of catching these strays as they were making their weekend trek off post. I guess I should clarify a little bit. Strays are the ones that actually walked up an joined the crowd. There were the ones that I called candleflies - the ones drawn to us, but stayed right at the edge of the circle of light we had. There were also the couch potatoes - behind and to the left of the stage are barracks, and every night, soldiers in these barracks would open their doors during the service. Eight accepted Christ, and other decisions were made, including one soldier that used to help out quite a bit but had wandered away. He is back now.

The retired pastor that takes care of the Korean soldier service each week, Pastor Lee, attended every night. He prayed two of the nights when we closed, and I think they could hear him all the way to Seoul. We could not understand everything he was saying, but it did not matter. Korean has always sounded sing songy to me, but he really did it right. It was 1 part Baptist preacher (an old timey fired up type, not a delicate type) and 1 part wrestling announcer and a smidgen of that Korean song sound. Revelations 8:4 says the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. If we believe that, then Heaven's smoke detectors went off a couple of times last weekend. What a weekend.

The Tourist Within...

....is trying to get out. Traveling around the area has been abruptly halted by various and sundry volunteer duties.

• Chaplain's Website
• Calling and emailing all the 2-9 wives living in the US
• Calling the 2-9 wives living in Korea
  
• Preparing the latest issue of the Manchu Messenger
• Addressing a couple hundred envelopes for the latest issue of the Manchu Messenger
• Planning and Coordinating Meetings and Parties
• Steering Committee Meeting
• Company FRG Meetings
• Leadership Meeting
• Iron Spouse Meeting
• Scheduling Online Chats with the US Spouses
• Revival Errands
• Baby Showers
• Coordinating Volunteers
  

As you can see, there is nothing here to really "write home about" much less photograph and blog, but it does take a lot of time. I have over 400 volunteer hours in Korea, and 83 of them are in March. One day in my March calendar I wrote, "Nothing!!!" Needless to say, I did not travel that day. LOL

Bonita and Ever are coming the end of May, so that will be two weeks of keeping the Korean roads and rails hot. I am already planning that visit and even have a surprise in the works. Speaking of visitors and surprises, my mother called and asked if we had room for a couple of visitors. She and Audie had talked about it, and would come to Korea if there was still time to plan a trip. As she was speaking, my brain went into overdrive to work out the timing and what we would do when they got here.

"April fools," she said.