Farewell
Our final week in Chuncheon included a number of “farewell” activities. Things were just beginning to open up and people felt more comfortable inviting us to join them.
One day Yoon Shik Lee invited us to visit his home. He and his family had lived in our house in Goshen in 2005-6 when we spent the year in Papua, Indonesia. He and his wife live about 45 minutes from Chuncheon in a lovely spot in the mountains only 12 miles from the DMZ. They are developing a retreat center – Abba Shalom Koinonia. We took a short walk in the woods/hill behind the house and then walked down to the river below their house. Beautiful and peaceful. They also own a thermotherapy center (which we visited) in the small town near them.
lunch 
Abba Shalom Koinonia 
Yoon Shik and us 
at river 
river 
walk through woods 
woods 
thermotherapy center 
hot therapy rooms at back
Songdo Cha, his wife and another couple (important in the beginnings of Anabaptists in Korea) from the Jesus Village Church invited us to a good Italian restaurant. We first met Songdo Cha when he was a visiting professor at Goshen College. Because of Covid, we had been able to visit the Jesus Village Church only once.
Songdo Cha on left
The Jesus Heart Church is located in the same space as our office. We had worshipped with them three Sundays and then they were closed because of Covid-19. They still had not opened when we left but some of them wanted to give us a farewell and to hear a little of our story. On our last Sunday afternoon a few first met in a French tea room where we had good black tea and delicious desserts (baked custard, cheesecake, and oranges). We then went back to the church where Boki (one of the church members) made a great meal of sushi. He is a trained chef and the meal was absolutely delicious.
tea room 
looking from the outside 
outside the tea room 
cheesecake, custard, oranges and tea 
making sushi 
members 
delicious food 
meeting 
Jesus Heart Church members
Our MCC staff had lunch together at SeongHan’s house one last time. This time they made Japanese Shabu-shabu which is a hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in broth and served with dipping sauces. It is always good to visit SeongHan’s house. In the mountains, peaceful, beautiful, and always something new. He had laid out a labyrinth since the last time we were there.
shabu-shabu 
SeongHan making coffee 
dog would not let us have coffee outside! 
labyrinth 
labyrinth 
gardens and mountains 
beautiful view
On our last day in Chuncheon we took our final walk along the lake and drove around the lake one last time. It is a beautiful area!
boardwalk 
lake 
bridge to island 
fountain in lake 
mountains 
flowers on bridge 
always flowers
