In order to bring you up to date there are a few things you need to know. I'll try to summarize the main points.

1. While I was yet in Tacoma, I randomly emailed an English church in Seoul to see if they knew of a Korean family who wanted a homestay. I also explained my desire to work with prostitutes in Korea. The pastor emailed me back saying there was no homestay he knew but he'd keep an eye out. Then he casually mentioned that his church just started an outreach to prostitutes and told me that he had passed my email on to the leader of the ministry. Well, that started quite an interesting series of events. The ministry leader and I emailed back and forth for a while and I was shocked to find that she was not only interested but passionate about working with prostitutes in Korea. The ministry had only started a few months ago but they had big dreams for where they wanted it to go. Strangely enough, their vision for reaching the prostitutes in Seoul is exactly the same as mine. And all because of one random email.

2. A few weeks before I finally made it back to Korea I started receiving emails from a girl in Seoul who had heard that I was looking for a place to stay. She had an apartment but her roommate was moving out. She wondered if I was interested in moving in. At this point, I was pretty sure there was a homestay waiting for me in Seoul. A Korean friend of mine had a friend who wanted a foreigner to stay with them and teach their kids English a few hours a week. That sounded perfect. But a week or so before I was actually going to be leaving for my trip to Thailand I couldn’t get a hold of my friend. I started wondering if something was wrong.

To make a long story short, the homestay fell through. For some strange reason, my Korean friend thought I didn't want it--but it wasn't until I was already in Seoul that I found this out. I while I was still in Thailand, I hastily emailed an acquaintance-friend in Seoul and asked if I could spend a few nights at her house until I got the homestay situation sorted out. Since the homestay didn’t work my few days visit ended up being over a week (“um… I know I said it would only be a few days… but could I stay a bit longer. Seriously, it’s okay if you want me to leave….”).

I quickly called the girl with the apartment and asked if she still needed a roommate. She did, thank goodness. But how did she know I needed a place to live in Seoul? It all goes back to that random email to that random church. The pastor had told her I was looking for a place to live. And which random church is that? My Pohang friends will remember it. Onnuri at Yangjae. The church we went to with Charles that one time after we spent the night at John and Charles' house. It's a good church. I'm now involved in their ministry to prostitutes and their creative arts ministry. I’m meeting tons of people every week and making some good friends.

Almost the whole time I was in Tacoma I felt like I was spinning my wheels. I was trying hard and getting no where. I came to the realization that, for what ever reason, God did not think it was the right time for me to be successful in raising support or speaking at churches. What he did think it was the right time for was for me to get hooked into this church, this ministry and these friends.

There's no such thing as coincidence, right?