Update: time with friends and new church experience

   So you may be wondering what I have been doing the past few days. I have been spending time with friends. Yongbom is at a Theology conference here. Diana and I went to meet him on Monday lunchtime and met with some of his colleagues who are lecturing in Univeristies in America and Korea. It was interesting meeting up with them and talking about the quite different world of academia. Highlights also include some more normal experiences, which are a little different in Korea, including getting my haircut (I've not done that through translation before), and going clothes shopping (the styles are quite different in Korea).

  Yesterday my hosts wanted to show me another quite different experience. They wanted my friends and I to be prayed for by a Korean pastor who is known for having a particular spiritual gift in prayer ministry. This pastor holds courses to train pastors and other people in this area. So we went into the church and we took our shoes off. I could hear people shouting, and coughing. It is quite disorientating going into a place where you are not sure what is going on. In two separate rooms there were people being prayed for in a manner I've not come across before. One person was laid on the floor, and four people were surrounding them. One person was at their feet, holding their feet, one at their head, also holding their head, and then two either side of their body. One of the people were gently hitting their chest, and side of their body, and all them were shouting this one word. The person laid down was coughing. We sat and watched. I then turned to my host to ask what it was they were doing, I had never seen anything like this before. She said they were casting a demon out of the person, who was trapped inside the person, and they were shouting 'get out'. They then prayed over the person after this. What I found very strange was these people were Christian's, a few it seemed had come because they were sick, but mostly they were people who wanted to learn about prayer ministry. I was told by my host that these people had to have a demon cast out of them before they could do prayer ministry. The idea of Christian's having demons is a whole new theology that I have not come across before.

   After this finished, there was a service, and then lunch. After lunch we were invited to meet the Pastor who was a very gentle and humble person. Unfortunately he didn't speak English so parts of the conversation was translated. Anyway, my hosts asked if we would like to be prayed over by  the Pastor to receive a blessing; and I thought, well, you can't have enough prayer. So the pastor laid hands on me and prayed for me. My friend Yongbom translated the prayer for me. He prayed for God's blessing on my ministry, that it would be fruitful, that God would annoint me with many gifts, and revival will come to the church. I felt more peaceful afterwards. He also prayed over my friends as well. A quite different experience, but I am thankful for his prayers for me.