The Korean kindness and hospitality continue to amaze me. Yesterday (Saturday) we were at our school finishing up some orientation stuff and we'd mentioned that we'd like to find a church to attend. One of our co-workers knew someone who may have some information for us and gave him a call. Our co-worker's friend recommended a church to us and said that he would even come and pick us up at our apartment. We were happy to accept his offer as our knowledge of Gumi City is fairly limited at this point.
When we arrived at the church today we were greeted by many smiling faces, curious probably about how in the world we'd ended up in their neck of the woods. The children laughed at the Caucasian faces of the newcomers, giggling at how different we seemed to them.
The church service was in Korean, but even in spite of the vast linguistic divide I was surprised at how much we could understand, we could still read the music and hum along, though the words were as foregin to us as kimchee is to an American. We even recognized most of the hymns that were sung. To my mind it brought many warm memories of sitting in a church pew in Iowa, the main difference being the language.
An English translation of the Sunday bulletin was made yesterday when they'd heard that two Americans were attending the service. They also had a Korean/English Bible and hymnal available for us to use. An announcement was added to the bulletin to "Welcome Mr. Seth and his wife."
Though we can barely speak a lick of Korean it was apparant that we were very welcome. After the service the children and adults gathered around us, asking us where we were from, how long we were going to be in Gumi, etc. The children peered at us laughing and shyly testing out the few English phrases that they knew.
Then we all had lunch. All Korean of course; we're both still adjusting to eating some type of seaweed at nearly every meal though Seth is seeming to adapt faster than I am (who's surprised).
Afterward Mr. Kim said that he would pick us up every Sunday for church if we'd liked. We were greatly humbled by his generosity. All of these events have got me thinking...

What if...
rather than just expecting people to show up at the doors of our churches, we came outside and got them, no matter where they lived or what neighborhood they called their home? Would we pick them up every Sunday? Even if it required us to drive separately from our families? Would we offer to take them other places if needed, throughout the week?

What if...
someone came to church on Sunday who could only speak Japanese, Arabic, or Spanish. Would we have a bulletin ready for them?

What if...
they felt more comfortable wearing rags than suits? To which would we be quicker- invite them in or comment to our neighbor about their chosen apparel?

What if...
we gave them our cell numbers and showed that we were more interested in them than on getting them to church on Sunday. Would we offer to take them places, if needed, throughout the week too? What would this show about our relationship with Christ? He dwelt among them, not above them, not away from them, but with them (and us).

What if...