We did a presentation about our trip to Korea at our Kingdom Hall Saturday, 10/25/2014. It was a wonderful afternoon. We shared our favorite photos in a slideshow and shared stories. Afterwards we served coffee, tea, candy & other snacks - many of the goodies were gifts from our loving Korean friends. We toted it all the way home and every one who came was excited to enjoy Korean treats.
(THANK YOU, Angie, for sharing your photos!)
.. we have absolutely no time to check email or post pictures. Our wonderful new friends in Seoul kept us very busy from early morning until late at night. We'd come back to the hotel, take a shower, & fall fast asleep for an early start the next day. We are very tired but it is a Very Good Tired. And we wouldn't miss one minute for the world!
Our internet is limited now we are in Beijing - there are certain "restrictions". So we will post more photos to a photo sharing website when we get home. But for now here are a the highlights of our time in Korea...
In the past, Koreans lived in villages and enjoyed the rural life. This folk village is like a living history museum (think Colonial Williamsburg) and is four times the size of the original Disneyland. We only had one morning but it was really enjoyable and we saw an amazing performance.
The afternoon was spent at the Korea Branch office. They were hosting a LOT of delegates that day but things were very well organized. We enjoyed seeing all the departments involved in producing Korean, Korean Sign Language and Korean Braille literature, videos, and audio. That week they had just received a huge new assignment that we will let you know about later.
Each department put together entertaining displays describing the work they do.
Following the tour, they fed everyone lunch. The afternoon concluded with a wonderful concert under the trees with very talented singers and musicians. It was definitely a wonderful way to end our visit to Korea.
We truly hated to leave Korea. The brothers and sisters showed us so much love. We will definitely be back!
Over the top amazing! Stupendous! Our grateful hearts are overflowing with love! We just can't think of enough superlatives to describe this convention. The Korea hospitality committees really outdid themselves. Plus every brother and sister we met was warm and loving and so very generous.
We have been blessed to have gone to other international conventions and they were all amazing and the friends were very loving. But this one had something a little extra special. The foreign delegates were cared for so lovingly. We didn't have to worry about one little thing - even lunch was served to our seats each day (no matter where we were sitting in the stadium) & the trash was taken away when we were done. Every thing was incredibly well organized.
Most of all we were extremely impressed by the love shown us by the Korean friends. Very kind, very loving. The children were very sweet and polite. Our hearts were swelling from the love we were shown each day. Our Korean brothers and sisters are absolutely beautiful and it radiates from the inside out!
Some highlights:
~ The special release of the New World Translation in Korean at the end of the first session the first day. Korean is the 2nd language to receive the revised version of the NWT and everyone was so excited. On the stadium's field there were large "Bibles" each with covers featuring the language of the delegates. The English Bible had a gray cover; the rest black covers. After the Korean Bible was released, the black cover was removed revealing the new gray cover! Seeing the Korean friends receive their new Bibles really impressed on us what a great gift it is and how we are already taking it for granted.
~Brother Splane from world headquarters released the Korean Bible and then assisted in handing out copies in the elderly & infirm section during the break.
~Attendance: 54,000+. The Seoul convention was tied to six other locations in Korea making a total attendance of over 110,000.
~630 were baptized in Seoul. Three of the large Bibles on the field opened to reveal baptismal pools - very clever. Another 500 were baptized at the other six conventions.
~3500+ delegates, missionaries and special pioneers attended from the U.S., Canada, Finland, Poland, the Philippines, and many other countries of Asia. :)