The Seoul Stumbler

The church I go to is the biggest church in the world. Yoido Full Gospel Church. However, I don't go to their main services, I go to their English service.  It is completely different from their main services.  I went to their main services a few times and to be honest I didn't care for it.  They had translating headphones but they didn't work half the time, and the service was very old fashioned.

I decided to give the English service a chance though, and actually loved it! It was very contemporary and they played songs I was familiar with. It was like our college age worship back home, lots of loud music and dancing. 

There still are differences because it's a whole different culture though. When I first started going to churches in Korea, I thought I had just found weird churches, but it was the culture that was different.  For example, people pray out loud here.  I was shocked when I first saw it, I thought they were speaking in tongues or something, but no, they were simply praying, just outloud and all at once! It's so strange to me, but they told me that they pray outloud not so that other people can hear (which its hard to anyway with so many people talking) but so that you hear yourself pray.  So you speak it and hear it at the same time. 

Secondly, there are female preachers here.  Now I know this is a big no no in the US, and I believe I was told in the US that women are only suppose to teach other women.  I honestly don't know very much about that subject, but as I am a women it's okay for me to listen to it at least, right? The main preacher is a man, but one of the sub preachers is named Karen.  She has been an incredible mentor to me! Our first day at the church she spotted us and engaged us in a conversation and seemed so interested in us. Since then, we realized we lived in the same neighborhood! So we now go out to eat and chat every now and then.  She also texts me every now and then to see how things are going. She's been a tremendous help and great friend.