By Committee

I've heard that word a lot this week. The way these festivals work is they are run by a local committee. It seems like this week has been one non stop clash between the local committee and BGEA. I mean no disrespect to the local committee or to the local culture. This post really has nothing to do with this local committee, but more of the timing of coming across this little snippet which I found amusing.

I'm just getting to the end of the book and Erwin is talking about groups of different animals. You'll have to read the book to understand how it fits into the book.

I'll set the stage with this:
A group of whales = a pod
A group of cattle = a herd
A group of lions = a pride
A group of fish = a school
A group of flies = a swarm

By now I think you get the point. So I found this to be most interesting. Do you know what a group of buzzards is called?

yes, a committee. A group of buzzards waiting around to feast on leftover carnage is called a committee. Erwin points out "This explains so much of what's going on in churches -- a lot of committees waiting around to live off human carnage."

Hmm.... we'll just leave that there...

We are what we read

I know this is true for me. I tend to jump into whatever my current "project" is with both feet. I tend to get pretty excited about a new thought or idea that is part of what I may be working on. I think a lot of it comes from my lack of really being able to multi-task. Sure, I can be running multiple projects or jobs at one time, but I've discovered that its not really multitasking. I'm really only working on one thing at a time. I watch my wife read a magazine while watching tv and not miss a beat. If I try to do that, I either don't remember what I read or miss something funny that just happened. Thank goodness for digital cable and the ability to rewind!

So I packed 3 books with me for this trip to South Korea with the hopes I would be able to catch up on some self learning. I've actually started in all 3, sorry Rod, I know that is a no-no, but only to see how easy they were to get into. I read a little on the plane on the way over, and that was cool. Today I decided I would really try to make a dent in one of my books. I packed "The Barbarian Way", by Erwin McManus basically because it was the thinest book I had with me. I think that Erwin has some fresh thinking on some topics and the fact that he could be viewed as controversial is good for conversation. One thing jumped off the pages to me today.

pg 45 "God would never choose for us safety at the cost of significance. God created you so that your life would count, not so that you could count the days of your life".

Some other things that hit pretty close to home had to do with teaching our children. He asks the question "are you teaching your children about God or how to experience God in their life?" Makes you think, doesn't it?

So I read in between soundchecks and moved from the stage to our production office and back. There was quite a breeze today and it was much cooler. Toward the end of the afternoon just before the service started Paul came by and asked "What would you be doing if you weren't doing this? You seem to read a lot." I told him I was playing catch up on the reading and I really didn't know what I would be doing, other than something that helpes to bring change to peoples lives ...

Corn dogs and Sushi

Well we have broke our sting of having McDonalds every day for lunch while on international festivals. I thought we were sending out for some type of rice bowl. When the food showed up we had corn dogs & sushi. The dimsum we had was pretty good too. Sorry Joshua, there would have been to much bread on the corn dog for you.

And then the cat

I almost forgot about the cat that we had breakfast with. Yes, we walked into the coffee shop at the hotel for breakfast and found the hotel's cat.



Not really what I was expecting to see, but it did make for interesting conversation, especially when he jumped up and rested his front paws on the window.

Venue

I tried to take a series of picture to make a panoramic. I still need more practice, but here is what I came up with.
This was taken from the front of the stage.

Here is a view from my hotel room. I'm trying to figure out why the rooftops of some of the buildings are green. I guess they could be any color, most of the time they are white to reflect the sun and keep them cool. I see that the hotel has a putting green and some plants for decoration so it got me to thinking that maybe it is to help offset all the concrete and steel to make you think there is grass there. I'm going to try to find out why, I'll keep you posted.

Busan

My team packet had some very interesting information about Busan and the venue, The Busan Asiad Main Stadium.

* Busan was the host to the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 14th Asian Games.
* Busan has a population of 3.65 million
* Busan is ranked internationally as the 4th largest seaport, and the largest in Korea.
*2007 is the 100 year anniversary of the Pyongyang Revival. That is considered the bench mark of the start of the Christianity in Korea.
* Busan is one of only 2 cities never to be taken by North Korean Communists during the Korean war.
* Busan is home to the largest Asian film festival, the PIFF (Pusan International Film Festival)
* Busan is home to the only United Nations Cemetary.
* The average Christian population is 23%. But in Busan, only 7 - 10% of the population is considered Christian.
* 40% of the population of Busan is Buddhist. The average Buddhist population in Korea is about 20%.

More to come...

Tight Flight(s)

I'm not a stranger to traveling but yesterday was one of those days I actually thought "I might not make it". It all started in San Diego as I started my journey to Busan, South Korea. Our American Eagle flight was 20 minutes late in boarding. It was actually late arriving but they turn the little planes around pretty quick. We boarded at 10:40am. I got on the plane and fell a sleep. I woke up as we were coming on approach into LAX. The 2 people across the isle were talking about how close their international flights were. I looked at my watch and realized it was noon and we still weren't on the ground.

I checked my ticket to confirm that I had a 1pm departure. LAX international terminal can be brutal if you have to through security and I needed to get a seat assignment. It turns out that American Eagle buses you to your terminal so we got dropped off a few gates away from where we were departing. That was cool, except for the line of people at the counter trying to get on the flight and the fact that we were now 20 minutes from departure. One of the agents taking tickets decided to help me out and she entered my passport info and generated a seat assignment and I boarded the plane. Departure time came and went and we were delayed because they were still loading luggage. For this I am grateful.

We arrived in Tokyo some time later...11 or 12 hours later. As we were getting off the plane I saw one of the other crew members who was on the same flight. We followed the signs for international connections and went through another set of security down some steps and straight onto another plane. We had an hour from the time we landed until our scheduled departure to Busan. Again we waited until all the luggage was loaded, again, I'm grateful for that, and then we departed. 2 1/2 hours later we arrived in South Korea.

I was thinking on the plane, this is the first time that I have been to Asia. I think I have now stepped foot on every continent. I think that is pretty cool, just a piece of useless trivia.

I think this feels more foreign because its nearly impossible to make any sense out of the letters. Oh well, most of the signs have English subtitles. I'll post some pictures as soon as I can get them downloaded.