Fun Peniel Church Spring Retreat at Songjeong Beach Near Haeundae!

ARRIVING AT SONGJEONG BEACH

Peniel Church had a spring retreat In the midst of Lunar New Year holiday, and took foreigners to a beach-front pension at Songjeong Beach. Russel and I traveled from Yeongdo-gu to Haeundae-gu to join the rest for the overnight retreat. 

The commute was long but, amazingly, the weather cooperated. We got lost on the way to the pension and ended up trekking up and down the beach before finally finding the Tom N Toms coffee shop landmark. When we arrived, the skies were blue, people dotted the beach, and seagulls danced, flying above heads and hands that reached out to feed them. I was heading straight for the pension house when Russel veered right towards the beach. 

Russel: We're already here, so we might as well enjoy this!

I considered the high heeled boots I was wearing and the backpack I was carrying before taking a few ginger steps to follow his form weaving among crowds. I could just shake off the sand from my shoes later. And...this would only take a few minutes.

Russel picked up a few pieces of snacks from the sand that children had thrown haphazardly in the air. 

It was so cold, especially with the strong winds, but Russel (with his thin jacket) still decided to frolic on the beach first before meeting everyone

Footsteps. So many people trampled over these grounds. This evidence will just be washed away soon...

The seagulls were so numerous. Some of them looked like they were going to dive right for my face!

The pension turned out to be on the end where I'm standing from. However, Russel and I walked all the way (15 minutes away) over to that other "end" of the beach you see here before noticing that the number of hotels/motels/pensions were diminishing. We doubled back (another 15-minute walk), and were pretty hungry and tired by the time we met up with folks

Even though Songjeong Beach had a lot of people today, it is still nothing compared to the size at Haeundae Beach. Therefore, Songjeong has a much more pleasant and relaxed atmosphere than its neighbor 15 minutes away

ARRIVING AT THE PENSION

The pension was on the 5th and 6th floor of this building. Russel took the steps and I, once again, reluctantly followed - neither of us realizing there was a very convenient elevator located right at the entrance. The set of stairs was narrow and winding, so I became not a little nauseated just making my way up!

At long last, we finally arrived. The group of folks from Peniel were in various positions of repose. Some simply sitting against a stack of pillows and blankets, others sitting next to each other quietly tinkering with their phones (later, I would find out that they were actually playing Scrabble); still others were snacking and a few were beginning to prepare our dinner.

Ate Blessy took charge of our meals during the retreat. Thank you, Ate!

The Scrabble competitors. Behind them, a beautiful sun was slowly setting, casting a warm, orange glow all over this room

Aaand dinner was served, and just in time, too, as more guests arrived!

After dinner, we took a walk as a group. The people most vocal about taking a walk were the ones who, apparently, were not even planning on joining the walk. Haha. I mostly walked and talked with Monica, asking her questions like, "If you could establish any business, what would it be and why?" as lights from business establishments twinkled on the other side of the street 

PLAYING AN HOURS-LONG GAME OF "MAFIA"

After our refreshing walk, we played a long, super fun, and extremely hilarious game of "Mafia"! I didn't know how to play this game until my friends at Peniel explained it to me during our last retreat. It turns out this game is super exciting! 

But not so much if you get the cards for the lowly "townspeople," which were basically the only cards I managed to draw. That's pretty incredible, especially considering the fact that we played over 15 games, lasting from about 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. That's more or less 6 hours of Mafia! 

Nanay caught in a lie! And then another lie!

I love this series of photos. I took them while watching Ate Blessy prepare the next day's meals and making coffee for folks. This laughing fest occurred while the group was playing a card game called "BS." We called it a more appropriate name, of course, and the object is to get rid of all of your cards while going in consecutive order. Due to the nature of the game, you will most likely have to lie about the card you're putting down in order to get rid of your cards. This game was Russel's version, which, I think, involves more crazy lying, and which he defends as being more interesting and fun. 

No words...

The laughter lasted an extraordinarily long time! I didn't know what happened, but I was compelled to laugh along with them

At 9 p.m., I grew hungry and ate another serving of sopas. At 2:30 a.m., hours after Nanay had gone to bed and was attempting to sleep right next to our huge, noisy group, we had another midnight snack of sopas before finally retiring for the night. 

The men (all 3 of them) had a smaller, separate room, while the women (about 8-9?) stayed in the big room and laid out blankets to sleep on. Thankfully, the floors were heated!

I went to bed satisfied at having maxed out my laughter quota of the week. It was good. I'm a fan of retreats without "programs" or itineraries. This community-building was all organic, and it felt right. 

HOW TO GET TO SONGJEONG BEACH: 
Take Line Number 2 and get off at Haeundae Station (Exit 7).
Take bus no. 100, 100-1, 139, 142 and get off at Songjeong Beach!

A Few Sundays in the Life of a Filipino Pastor Serving in South Korea

In honor of October being Pastor Appreciation Month, I'm posting a video to celebrate Russel, one of the many amazing pastors who have now graced my life! But, before that, here are a few things we have learned from Russel as a pastor, as a family member, as a brother, and as a friend.

A FEW THINGS WE HAVE LEARNED FROM RUSSEL

He has been always encouraging me in every way. I was very shy to share the Gospel in front of many people but, because of him, I dared to stand in front of many people. Even though he is older than me and more mature than I am but we always talk like friends. When he shares the Word of God, I enjoy his preaching very much. People call him pastor, preacher but I always call him brother. He has never excused about that. Spiritually, mentally always he is mentoring me as a leader, as a pastor, as a brother, moreover as a best friend. This is very short word to describe about him. You are an amazing person ever I met. Love you brother, Russel. - Amit

Pastor Ruzz is a one of a kind person. He is seldom to find. Pastor Ruzz, I wanna say thank you for being such a great spiritual adviser. You have taught me how to be brave in facing life's hardship. You have taught me that God is so big that we have to be hopeful when situations seem to be hopeless. Thank you for always keeping me and my family in your prayers. I also pray for your journey. - Amy

Jesus said, "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you." And because of this He wants us to follow God's commands and to remain in His love...By surrendering everything to God and giving all of our faith to Him we, as children of God, will surely acquire a true and complete Joy in Christ. This made me realize how blessed my family and I are being loved and taken care of by God unconditionally! - Badeth 

Whatever you do work for it with all your heart as working for the Lord, and Jesus is Lord we are His slaves. These are the passages that struck me most through Pastor Russel sermon - Blessy 

I was totally blown away by the words and sermons every Sunday. By faith I received them in Jesus' name. God be the Glory...My life has been changed and is now emerging in what God spoke to me through you, Pastor Russel. Thank you. Your prophetic words are light for my path; the words help me to keep my focus on the Father. I thank God for speaking through you. It gives me courage to keep pressing into God and not to look to the left and right, but to have a singleness of heart. That is, to please the Father. God bless you and the ministry. I pray every need is met and every desire is fulfilled in Jesus' name. God is good! - Sheila

Dear Russel Jeondosanim! You are truly GOD's person! Your kindness and faith will be remembered. Whenever I hear your sermon, I can feel how much you put your time, sweat, and prayer as well. Thank you for being here for us at Ttanggeut Church. Best regards - Connie

I will always remember the day we had lunch at Febias. You shared your dreams and desires to us. I was so excited for you! I thanked God for bringing you close to Him. I can sense that God has great plans for your life. I hope that your love for God will continue to grow even through difficult times. Be faithful even in small things. May you experience the joy of loving and serving others. I praise God for your obedience and perseverance. Hope you can visit us soon. Please allow us to give you some financial help. Love, Tita Ellie

Russel has touched the lives of many people within our neighborhood even at his young age. He has shared the gospel to almost everyone of them. Even in our province, he would go even to the barracks of the army to proclaim the good news. He is a man of faith, and a generous giver, willing to make sacrifices for others. - Paul

Russell once said, You know what Ate? I Am A Millionaire, and I think Everyone is!" Then he showed me bundles of receipts he purposely kept and said, "If we only learn how to count our blessings, we'll see how rich we are and how God provides!" - one fine morning conversation. He collected all the receipts he bought, from books to even small things like pen or toothbrush and etc. After that, I started to collect receipts, too...hahaha just to prove if I'm a millionaire, too! I also often borrowed that memory to illustrate a point in preaching - Esther 

Being with Russel for many years, it taught me the value of empowering my hands and equipping my life so I can have faithful service to the Lord. The value of taking actions and addressing people's needs as Jesus did while doing His ministry. And not only the spirituality of the people. It turned me into a doer from being a spectator of those people in need - Julie 

God does everything for His Glory. It shows me that God has a plan and His plan is for His own desires, desires which include me - Kerry

I feel so glad that I met this guy as my friend. Every time I visit the Christian Service, I really feel happy and blessed that I have the chance to know the word of God. I think often about people who influenced my life. One of those influences for me is Ruzzle. I want to thank you our Dear Pastor Ruzzle Ocampo for preaching the word of the Lord. Thank you for the times we've shared, especially during our bonding moments (when we have our devotion). We didn't do it often but I still remember when we did. I watched you interact with others, share the Gospel with us, and pray for us. God bless you always Pastor Ruzzle. More power to you and I'm so proud of you! - Marjherie

God is the center of all creation. Everything is created for His glory. God is including us to take part in the restoration of His original plan for His creation by placing every aspect of our lives under the Lordship of Christ. Pastor Ruzz's sermon helps me examine my life, my relationships, and my future plans. It serves as an encouragement to bring it under the lordship of Christ! - Mark 

Through my conversations with Russel, I am becoming more and more convinced that, despite everything I see to the contrary, the world is actually becoming a better and better place! This new perspective has shot through my pessimistic view of creation and humanity and has challenged me to recalibrate the way I think about and treat the material/natural world, as well as how intentionally and joyfully I live my life. Russel keeps reminding me that, as a Christian, I am not only to be a passive witness to this upward trajectory towards glorification, but an active agent helping bring about heaven on earth - Mimi

In my view, my nephew Ruzz had a rough childhood. But God got a hold of his life and has turned it into a trophy of His grace. I am so thankful to God for what He has already accomplished in his life and what He is still building him to be. God has a special work for him to do and I am praying that he finds it and pursues it passionately - Tito Abe

I remember the time we had a trip to Jeju Island and he challenged me to read verses in the Bible. And the passage that struck me most was Jeremiah 29:11. And so true, God has a perfect plan for everything. You just have to wait and be faithful for God's purpose is greater than your heart desired. I am so proud of this man (Russel) for he is such a really, really good friend of mine, and all of his advice and encouragement really changed me a lot. I do believe as if he has a magic tongue (not magic tricks, ha...:)) that whenever he speaks, it really touches and awakens people's hearts and minds. I'm so proud of you, Ruzz! God bless you always, and thank you! :D - Irene

God is your happiness. Do not depend on something or someone to make you happy. Those are some lines that I remember during his sermons that has struck me most - Xymon

The very thing that I have learned from Pastor Russel's sermon is all about knowing how big our God is. God is bigger and greater than what a human mind could imagine. No wonder he always mentions that everything we do and how we live our lives should bring glory to the King of kings. Moreover, I am always moved by the introduction of his sermon (something I think is almost constant) and that is to pray for our loved ones who haven't known Jesus Christ or haven't heard the Gospel. I am moved by his heart's desire to reach out to our loved ones through prayer so that they could experience as well the gift of Salvation that we believers are enjoying through the grace of our Lord Jesus. This invitation of Pastor Russel to pray for our unsaved families and friends is already a message indeed! :) - Joan 


Russel, I am sure you will be a powerful man of God who is using you by His hand. Your sermon always have touched our hearts. Please work hard for the Kingdom of heaven so that it will make Him pleased, cool wherever you are, whatever you do. I hope everything may go well with you by His favor. God bless you! - David 

FILIPINO PASTOR IN SOUTH KOREA

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this post! If I missed a message from you, please send it to me and I will include it here. I hope you enjoyed the video, especially since I hazarded my life on multiple occasions just to get these few clips (he is extremely camera shy)!

The Last Week of My Grant Year | Sunday: The Pastors in My Life in Busan

PENIEL INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY

10:00 a.m. | Yeonsan, Yeonje-Gu, Busan

Throughout my grant year, I have found great support from my faith communities here in Busan. I am grateful and count myself blessed for having gotten to know Korean folks, Filipino students and workers, and other foreigners in the area. The Filipino community at Holy Joy used to be a bit bigger, but now that community is only represented by Russel and me. 

Russel preaching at Peniel International Christian Community

PASTOR RUSSEL

By a curious turn of events, Russel now pastors a church in mainland Busan called Peniel, whose foreign members consist mostly of Filipino men and women. 

PASTOR DEO

Deo Vistar, the former pastor of this international Christian community is also Filipino - one who, as a matter of fact, graduated from the same seminary in the Philippines as Russel and who is now pursuing a PhD in New Zealand after having earned two Masters in Korea. 

I am so impressed and inspired by this man's life journey so far! (You can read his blog here). Pastor Deo speaks my native tongue, Visaya, and so was a figure who seemed very familiar to me from the start. There is nothing like hearing your native tongue - complete with its intonations and particular phrasings - to reach into your heart and draw you into a family that is at once a wide network and an intimate unit. There are others at Peniel who also speak Visaya, making this community of believers very attractive to me.

This is the church that Russel has, in a way, "inherited" from Pastor Deo. Not knowing how long I would be able to keep attending this church upon my return to Korea, I did my best to enjoy everyone's company on my last Sunday here before returning to the U.S. for a brief vacation.

This man has a wonderful, wonderful singing voice!

 HOLY JOY CENTER

2:00 p.m. | Yeongdo, Busan

After Peniel, we took the subway back to Nampo-dong, and then walked across the Yeongdo Bridge to Holy Joy Center in time for me to practice singing with the worship team. 

PASTOR GABRIEL

These days, the worship leader and main pastor of the English service is the same (and, might I add, busy) man, Pastor/Professor Gabriel from Kosin University. He is a vibrant character whose stories about his native South Africa and his experience of marrying a Korean woman (and, subsequently, her family) has kept me laughing and, at the same time, deep in thought regarding the way human beings interact with each other across cultures.

With the apparent flight of most of our Filipino church attendees (who made up the largest portion of foreigners in the English service), the church deacons cultivated new plans of drawing in foreigners from a different country, Cambodia.

Now, we have a growing community of Cambodians who attend our English service. The church provides them with English tutoring, and, because I'm an English teacher, has appointed me as their English instructor. Today, though, I team-taught with Russel as we used an online tool to help deliver our lesson on the alphabet and very basic words in English.

Our group of English learners. The others were in a different room learning Korean

Our students' names. Pronunciation was an issues so we had to have them spell their names out to us

A game we played on the board to gauge their spelling skills

Observing some hilariously misspelled words by their team members

Baby strapped to mom's back as she participates in the spelling activity

Hopefully baby is also learning some English, even subconsciously! 

After church, Russel and I walked back to Nampo and headed to our favorite Chinese restaurant, where we ordered the same two items on the menu: sea food fried rice and sea food soup (they had fancier names on the menu but, seriously, you couldn't be more to the point than this!).

Russel still on Pastor mode, sharing his ideas on eschatology, or end-time events.
Who needs dessert when you can talk about an optimistic view of the end of the world?!

He wanted me to bring a few small gifts back to my family from him, which was really thoughtful.
These are some of the coloring books he picked up for Emily!

Without a doubt, my experience here in South Korea would not be the same without this man who, from the moment I stepped into Holy Joy, took my hand and led me to the various communities he was already a part of or was just establishing. I don't know what the next year will bring, but I want you to know how grateful I am for your care and company during my first year in Korea. Thank you, Pastor Russel! (Feels strange addressing you as that, but you truly do have a pastor's heart).