Church in Korea: Language barriers and Lutheran jokes

Hannah here. 

This post is slightly more topical and personal than usual. It is directly in response to something many people from home have asked us about: church. Where do we attend? What is it like? Is English spoken? These and other questions I will address here. At the insistence of Trevor (and he is making me food right now, so how can I refuse?), I hereby solemnly swear to keep my information provision at a maximum and my sarcasm and pictures of cute dogs and children at a minimum.

Okay. We attend two churches:

1.  Yang Yang Presbyterian Church 

This is the church we attend most Sundays, at it is located in our town. No English is spoken here. Most of the members speak little to no English. We are the only non-Koreans in the church, and, based on people's reactions to us the first couple weeks (as well as the minimal foreign population in the town), we may be the first non-Koreans ever to attend the church.

Each Sunday morning, the church shuttle picks us up at our apartment. Upon arrival, the pastor and various other church members greet us enthusiastically, bowing and smiling and grabbing our hands, as we pile out of the van along with various elderly church members.

One elderly man in the church was so excited to see us on our first Sunday that he showed up the following week with Korean-English hymnals for us -  a brilliant and kind gift. Each and every week his eyes wrinkle with merriment. "Long time, no see!" - his favorite English sentence - is often the first thing we hear each week, regardless of how long it has been since we have seen him. His tenderness knows no bounds.

The pastor is warm and friendly and smiles often. As far as we can tell, he speaks no English. Surprisingly enough, this means that the sermons are entirely in Korean. This is the most difficult part of the service for Trevor and me, as there is absolutely nothing we can do to understand. We generally spend this time reading the Bible or other devotional books.

Other parts of the service, however, have become more accessible to us through the assistance and gifts of those around us:

Hymns
By this point, we can read Hangul well enough to sing along. We can also follow along with the English, thanks to the kind man's gift.

Scripture readings
A friend of ours translates the scripture reference for us each week so that we can follow along in English as we hear it in Korean.

Prayers and Creed
We have side-by-side translations of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostle's Creed in our hymnals. We cannot read Hangul fast enough yet to keep up, so we follow along with the English in our heads. It is simply nice to know that we are all praying the same thing and to the same God regardless of what language is being used as the medium.

Psalms and other general liturgy
Again, side-by-side translations in our hymnals have been immeasurably helpful to us.

Following the service, we all eat a lunch of noodles and kimchi at the church. It amazes us each week how much other church members attempt to make conversation with us despite the somewhat daunting language barrier.

2. International Lutheran Church

Located in Seoul (a two-and-a-half hour trip for us one way), this church is a.) Lutheran and b.) in English. So, we attend about once a month for communion reasons and for we-understand-the-sermon reasons.

The presence of the English language, however, is not the only thing that reminds us of our Lutheran churches at home. The notable absence of front-pew-sitters and presence of post-service coffee make us feel even more at home. On our first Sunday there, Trevor and I noticed another remarkable difference between the two churches: In Yang Yang, nearly everyone is in pews 40 minutes before the service begins. In Seoul, however, in the oh-so-Lutheran spirit, even the bulletin distributors shuffle in 30 seconds before the service begins. "Wow, we really are at home," Trevor remarks, as I gape in awe at the English bulletin in my hands.

After church, instead eating kimchi on floor mats, we scuttle over to Taco Bell and gorge ourselves in true American fashion before catching a bus home.

These are our Korean churches, and we are thankful for them both.