안녕하세요 from Korea!

We've been in Korea over a week now, staying with my cousin John, who is teaching English in a town called Waegwan, just one train stop from Gumi and Daegu in the Gyeongsang province. We haven't traveled around the country much but we have enjoyed quite the array of Korean dishes in our short time here: bibimbap, gimbap, mandu, many kinds of gimchi, dak-galbi, so-galbi, samgyepsal, patbingsu, hunje ori, a few barbecues, and many, many milk shakes (not necessarily Korean).

bibimbap
(mixture of shoots, leaves, and vegetables on a bed of rice,
topped with egg and spicy pepper sauce)

gimbap
(egg, pickled radish, and ham wrapped in
rice and then wrapped in seaweed)

patbingsu
(fruit, cream, shaved ice, and red bean paste)

samgyeopsal
(samgyeopsal is strips of fatty pork belly)

one of many kinds of gimchi 

one of a few barbecues

mandu (dumplings)

hunje ori (smoked duck)

me and John enjoyed our smoked duck!

Doug is rockin' a typical visor, often seen worn by middle-aged Korean women 

This man reminded me of our friend, Ban-san, Korean missionary at ARI!

We hopped on a train to Gumi one day and attempted to climb Guemosan, the mountain there. We didn't make it but about half-way up due to heat, exhaustion, and laziness. But we did see a beautiful temple, waterfall, and a cave (and a bird hotel!)

So different from temples we saw in Japan, so much paint and pattern!

Doug and the birds

At the weekend we ventured about an hour and a half away with some of John's friends to a river. We barbecued, swam, and took a few turns on the natural water-slide!

Now it is Monday and we are completely worn out from all the sleep and free time. Like seriously. It's been a hoot and a half living without a care for a week and eating out at least once a day (if not twice or thrice if you include milkshake/ice cream missions). But we are definitely ready for some home-cooked meals (made by moms!). I supposed we started our journey home last Sunday, but tomorrow is really the day, we are going home! We will fly from Daegu to Seoul early in the morning, then catch a flight from Seoul to DFW in the evening, and land in home sweet home, LIT by 7:25pm the same day!

We're waiting one more week to spill our guts to you about our big plans coming up. So hold on to your  hollyhocks!

For now, here's what's up:

Central Arkansas for the week ahead, we're visiting St. Michael's, Little Rock this coming Sunday. We won't do any official reporting there until later, but come hug our necks anyway!

Our Kim sister is off to college so we're helping to move her in to UCA this Sunday, we may go stomp the grounds a bit, admire the great attention to detail that UCA grounds keepers work so hard to maintain! Then we're off to Heber Springs for the week. We'll be swimming, sun-burning, and eating Knight parents' organic tomatoes and okra!

Next Sunday, August 25 will be our official welcome back at St. Peter's, Conway. We will be presenting about our past year during the Christian Ed hour (9:50-10:45am) and enjoying a potluck lunch after the 11:00am service.

We would like to make it to more churches over the next couple of months to talk about what this year has meant for us and for our community as a whole, if you are interested in having us come to your church, please comment, message, or email us!

As I mentioned before, we're preparing to share our next step with all of you, so stayed tuned for an update next week!!

Your Knights in Asia,

Doug and Jenny