Please Keep My Father-in-Law in Prayer

On Thursday, my wife Eunhee found out that one of her father's lungs had collapsed. This was due to him being a chain smoker. He lives in Yanji, China with her mom. My wife's sister, brother-in-law, and my wife, and I live in Seoul. Thursday was emotionally draining and physically exhausting for my wife. She talked to her mom, talked to her sister, and had to decide what to do.

Friday was even crazier. Her mom asked if she could go to Yanji right away since she didn't know how long her father would make it. He got hooked up to oxygen and they weren't sure if he would be able to survive without it. My wife's sister just had a baby 9 days ago and can't leave Korea right now. Her husband is helping to take care of her and the baby, but would have left for Yanji in case there's a funeral. My wife then bought a flight ticket to Yanji for Saturday, then took my passport and alien registration card to get myself a Chinese visa. I had a 10-year visa until my bag got stolen in Paris last year with my passport inside the bag. At that time the visa was about $150. Because of bad US/China relations, the visa doubled to about $300. A lot of money was spent by Eunhee just because of this emergency situation. When I got off from work at 3:00pm on Friday, we had to go back to the local government office and pick up a document since I had to be there in person to prove that I was a real person. Then we got some pictures done of myself for the visa, and a delivery guy came to our home to pick up my passport to get my visa processed. Thankfully things happen quickly in Korea. Friday was over, my wife had a headache, and she was emotionally spent.

On Saturday, Eunhee took a 2:30pm flight to Yanji which cost about $350. As mentioned earlier, it's been a costly emergency for us, but at least she can see her father. On top of that, she can see her mom and grandma while she's there.

I should be getting my visa on Wednesday or Thursday but by that time, it will be close to Lunar New Year, so tickets to Yanji might be impossible to get or extremely expensive. Therefore I will probably be alone in Seoul by myself indefinitely until Eunhee can help her mom with the decision making. Her mom will be spending about $1,000 a day to keep him in the hospital for a week. From that time, they will need to know if he's improving at all. Her mom cannot afford a lot and will most likely sell her home and get a smaller one just in case she needs more money to support her father financially.

At this point, Eunhee's father isn't doing too bad, but her mom isn't sure if he can survive without oxygen at this point. Please keep Eunhee, her father, her mother, and the rest of her family in prayer. It's only been 4 days, yet so much has happened during that time. Thank you for your prayers. They are greatly appreciated.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

The Most Overrated Area in Seoul: Seorae Maeul (Seorae French Village)

Photo Courtesy of english.visitseoul.net

I've tried going to Seoul's little French village called Seorae Maeul on three different occasions. I wasn't really impressed with it the first two times, so I thought I would try to go one more time. Once again I was disappointed.

Let me tell you why. First, it's a hassle to get to. Express Bus Terminal is a nightmare of a station especially if you're coming from Lines 3 or 9. Getting to Exit 5 from either if those lines will cause you to lose patience because you have to go through turnstiles, go down an escalator, to the Line 7 platform, and then finally find Exit 5. Then you go up one escalator and then go up a flight of stairs. I can't stand Express Bus Terminal Station and by the time you finally get out of Exit 5, you've wasted 10-15 minutes just after getting off of the train (unless you get off from the Line 7 side). Once you come out of Exit 5. You have to cross the street and then turn right and cross the street one more time. You will pass the Palace Hotel and then keep walking for another few minutes. Then you will turn left on the main road leading into Seorae Maeul, which is just before an elevated pedestrian bridge. Did I mention that getting there was a hassle? Well, believe me. You'll see it when you experience it for yourself.

Secondly, once you're there, you won't notice many things that will remind you of Paris or France. You'll see a Paris Croissant (which is actually a Korean franchise by the way with a French baker at this location apparently). I went to one French cafe called Gontran Cherrier because I saw 4 white people inside. They were indeed French, so I thought I would stay and pick out a couple of pastries. They were pretty good, but I went to a couple of French bakeries near Gangnam Station (Maman Gateau) and Nonhyun Station (Gateaux de Voyage) that had better pastries than this place. Other than that, I saw a Vietnamese place, Korean restaurants, Starbucks (an American), a steak restaurant, and some women's boutiques. You won't find any French restaurants as far as I could tell. I ended up eating at a Korean dumpling restaurant and got manduguk (dumpling soup), which was above average. It was W10,000, but I wouldn't go back to this area just for that. It was very good, but not amazing. The best restaurant in this area is Brooklyn Burger (which is excellent by the way), so that should tell you something right there since there's nothing French about it.

I did go to one nice cafe in Seorae Maeul last year that was really good, but I couldn't find it, which is my third objection to this place. There seem to be good places here, but they're hidden and unless you know some Koreans or can follow Naver blogs, you'll have a hard time finding them. And if you do find it once, chances are that you may not find it again. It's pretty ironic since this area is very small. It's about a quarter of the size of the Garosugil area near Sinsa Station.

Finally, my last objection is how much traffic this place gets. The main road has sidewalks, but once you venture off onto the smaller streets, there aren't any sidewalks and you have to be careful and let cars pass very often. It's rather annoying and very tiresome.

Here's a video that depicts the main road of Seorae Maeul. You'll notice there's a 7-11, a T-World (Korean cell phone store), and Korean street food restaurant, a store for glasses, lots of cars, etc. You get the point. There's nothing that tells you "You must visit this place!" Actually, you really don't even need to bother. You can find French restaurants and cafes all over Seoul that are much more accessible and much better than the ones in this area.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy

Sermon: "Whose Likeness?" by Pastor Eddie Chun (January 6, 2019)

Mark 12:13-17

The Herodians (a liberal group and supporter of Rome) and the Pharisees (a conservative group) had always been enemies but they became strange bedfellows because they disliked someone more than they disliked each other (Jesus- verse 14). They flattered Jesus at first. They use some truth to lay the foundation for their trap against Jesus. They do this by asking a question about taxes.

If Jesus says you must pay taxes, they would upset the people because they especially hated this poll tax (a privilege for living in Rome). You had to pay a denarius (one day's pay for the whole year). This tax started in 6 A.D. There was a revolt by Julius of Galilee after the tax went into effect. And they hated the tax because Rome was on their land. The Jews weren't happy about it to say the least. Also the denarius was completely blasphemous. The titles "Son of God" and "high priest" were changed on the coin and used to lift up a Roman leader. The bottom line is that if Jesus says "yes", he supports Rome. If Jesus says you don't have to pay taxes, then he becomes an enemy of Rome.

Jesus saw straight through them. He asks "Why are you testing me?" He says "Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." Jesus lays a foundation of being a Christian and politics together. Jesus asked, "Whose likeness (image) is on this coin?" Notice that Jesus didn't use the word "pay". He said "render" (to pay back what is owed) to Caesar what is his. But he also said "and render to God what is God's."

What are things that we need to render to God? Ourselves. Humanity belongs to God because we are made in His image (Genesis 1:26). Jesus said to give back what belongs to Him. Maybe you might think that it's oppressive (give everything to God) or you might think this is glorious (all of your concerns are on Him).

To the Pharisees, this is crushing because they want to destroy Jesus. A rebellious and sinful heart says "My life belongs to me. Jesus shouldn't control me." This kind of heart will kill Jesus and reject Him. If you kill the Son, you will be destroyed.

But there's a second option. You can give Jesus what he deserves. Why is this glorious? We are nasty. God is owed and a perfect image bearer, but it's impossible since we all deserve death. Yet only through Jesus can we live a perfect, righteous life.

Colossians 1 tells us that all fullness was pleased to dwell in Jesus. Jesus came to live the life we were supposed to live but Jesus died the death we should have had. Jesus died so we can render to God what is rendered to Him. We become adopted into God's family. Our likeness is Jesus. Once we put our faith in Jesus, we are one with Him. His totally blameless life becomes our life.

When Jesus was seated at the right hand of God, we belong there too if we put our faith in Jesus. Sometimes we feel like failures, but God doesn't see us that way. He sees us the way He sees his Son. Yet we don't look like Jesus in the flesh, so we doubt.

John 8:36- "If the Son sets you free, you WILL be free indeed."

If you render him what is His, trust Him, and love him, you'll get true freedom in Christ. Render to God whatever is God's because you can do that now.

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy