Jennifer_Cultural Immersion Project

This morning I went to the Tallahassee Korean United Methodist Church for my Cultural Immersion Project. I heard about this church through my tutoring partner Youyoung. Apparently a friend of hers goes to this church, but I ended up never finding her friend at the service! This church is actually an American church, but they have a specific service for Koreans at 12:30pm on Sundays, which I found interesting. I decided to go to this church since I really like Korean culture, and I've always wanted to go to a Korean Church!

When I was driving to the church I was pretty nervous, because I was worried I would be the only non-Korean there. And my suspicions were correct! The congregation was entirely Asian. I came in around 12:25pm, and they were still rehearsing for worship. The video link I attached below shows their practice session right before church started. I actually recognized the song they were singing, as it is a famous Christian hymn, but they were singing it in Korean! There was a pianist, a young girl playing violin, a singer, and a guitarist, all of whom were Korean. The inside of the church looked like your pretty average church building with pews and stained glass, but instead of typical white people there were only Koreans! I saw that everyone was holding a pamphlet that was in Korean, so I searched for who was handing them out. I met a kind old Korean man who could understand a little bit of what I was saying, and asked him for a pamphlet. While it was mostly all in Korean, the pamphlet did state the order of events in Korean and English.

After I found the pamphlet, I sat back down in one of the seats in the back. A man came up and said something, and everyone bowed their heads. I noticed it said "Prayer of Confession", so I figured we were all praying. The only word I understood during his prayer was "Kamsahamnida", which means thank you in Korean. I figured they were thanking God. Afterwards, they moved onto "Praise" aka singing and playing music for worship. The music was very interesting. I recognized all the songs as hymns I knew, but they were all translated in Korean! I sang along in English, but sometimes I would try to figure out how the song sounded in Korean and attempt to sing in Korean. During each time of worship, they showed the lyrics to the songs on a PowerPoint, and I have included a picture of one of the songs. I tried to read the music and sing along, but I had no idea how to pronounce any of the Korean symbols!

While that was happening, a very nice old Korean lady came up very closely right next to me, said hello, and talked about the church a little. She asked if I knew any Korean and why I was here. I replied that a friend of a friend attends this church, and I wanted to go and try it. She was very friendly and hospitable, and talked about how small the church was (there weren't a lot of members) but that it was very nice. She thanked me for coming and proceeded to go back to her seat.

Next everyone recited the "Apostle's Creed" which I believe is specifically a Methodist creed. I had no idea what they were saying, but it showed the creed in Korean, so I just looked at it while everyone recited it. That was slightly awkward, but it didn't bother me. After that there was another prayer that the whole congregation participated in (again the only thing I understood was "Kamsahamnida"), and then announcements. The announcements were all listed on the back of the pamphlet, only in Korean. I noticed how organized the Korean church was compared to other churches. They do everything very efficiently and on schedule! The announcement was kind of long to sit through since it was all just the deacon listing off what was on the back of the pamphlet, and I couldn't understand either. There were also times when everyone was laughing, but I had no idea why, so I just laughed along to be polite. In fact, there was one time when the deacon motioned to a guy in the congregation, and he stood up and bowed to everyone, and everyone clapped. I'm guessing he did something nice for the church. Immediately after announcements there was the Fellowship (where everyone says hi to each other). Everyone said "Shalom" to each other as a greeting, which means "peace" in Hebrew and is said as a greeting. I understood that since Hebrew is the language the Old Testament was written in.

After that, they had an offering and collected money from the congregation. I didn't give any money, but I noticed there was an offering envelope inside my pamphlet and it was written in Korean and English! They also had a prayer over the offering, but I still had no idea what they were saying. Then they had another hymn which I sang along to in English.

Then came the main part of the service - the actual Sermon. In the pamphlet there was a scripture from the Bible that was in Korean, and also translated in English. The scripture was Revelation 1:8 "'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, 'who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.'" I guessed that the Sermon would be on the verse, since everyone read it together in Korean and then sat down. A young looking Korean came up to the stage after the prayer and started the Sermon. He was very charismatic in his speaking even thought I couldn't tell what he was saying, and he had a PowerPoint slide for each of his points. One of the slides I have attached in this blog. Most of his slides were words, but then there were a series of pictures. There was a little boy looking at the ocean, a picture of a bee looking at ants, a picture of some type of nuclear weapon, and a 3-dimensional man looking at a 2-dimensional world. Needless to say I was very confused. There were also temperature charts he showed. There was one slide that was in English I understood though, which was called "Pascal's Wager", which is the photo I attached to this blog. It basically explained why we need to believe in God. He also showed a picture of Van Gogh's painting "The Scream". He ended the sermon and everyone applauded. I had no idea what the whole sermon was about except that one slide in English. I have attached a small part of the sermon below:



After the sermon, there was one more song, and then everyone said the Lord's prayer. I knew the Lord's prayer in English (The one that goes "Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, etc.) so I said it in English while everyone else said it in Korean, which was pretty cool. Then the service ended and everyone started talking to each other. A Korean man I recognized as the person who read the announcements came up to me and greeted me in English quite fluently. He was apparently a deacon in the church, and he thanked me for coming and asked why I was here. I explained that I was doing an Immersion project for a class. He was very impressed that I was able to sit through the whole service even though I didn't speak any Korean. He then stated that they were having a lunch after the service and that I was invited to come, so I did!

I talked to some of the church members on the way over to the building and they stated that they usually eat traditional Korean food after the service. Unfortunately today they just had American food, so I didn't get to eat any Korean food. But the lunch was very pleasant, and they insisted I go first to eat since I was the guest. The food was sloppy joes, hotdogs, coleslaw, oranges, and baked beans, yum! I even got a spoon that said "Seoul 1988" with a cartoon tiger on it.The nice Korean man who gave me the pamphlet explained to me it was a spoon from the Olympics that took place in Seoul in 1988, and that the tiger was the mascot that year! I attached a picture of the food and people waiting in line for it.

While waiting for food, I met the man who delivered the sermon. I asked him if he was the Pastor, or head, of the church. He explained he was actually just a deacon and delivered the sermon because the pastor was in Tampa at the moment for some kind of function. I asked him if he worked in town and what he did. Turns out he's a graduate student at FSU studying Political Science and he's a deacon at the church for fun! He stated he was from South Korea, studied Undergrad in South Korea, and came here for Graduate school. His English was extremely good. He asked what my major was, why I was here, etc. and I answered. He then started to describe to me what the sermon was about. He explained the main message was about why people should believe in God. He explained the picture of the bee and ants was that ants have only one point of view - the line they are marching in, similar to humans. The bee, however, can see all angles and can see the ants, just like God can see all things. He also explained the picture where the 3-dimensional figure was looking at the 2-dimensional figure. He said that God is the 3-dimensional figure and that people are the 2-dimensional figure. While the 2-dimensional figure sees the 3-dimensional figure, he cannot comprehend it and can only explain what he saw, just like humans cannot comprehend God and we can only explain how we feel when we sense and hear God. I thought this was a very deep and logical argument, and I was very impressed. I learned that most everyone in the church was directly from South Korea.

All the people were extremely hospitable while I was eating. A lot of them would try to speak a little English to me and say hello, but it was apparent that the two deacons were the most fluent. From my perception of this church and the people I got to converse with, I can see that the Korean people are hospitable and kind. This group of Koreans in particular has a strong faith in Jesus Christ, and they show it through their kindness and hospitality. I can also see that the Koreans are very well-organized, as their pamphlet and order of events was very structured, and I could understand for the most part what was about to happen due to their pamphlet. I think this experience really deepened my understanding of other cultures, particularly Koreans. They invited me back to the church and even told me about a Sunday school teacher position that was open if I was interested. In all honesty, I wouldn't be surprised if I went back one Sunday morning! Although some parts were awkward due to me not speaking or reading Korean, as a Christian I could still feel the presence of God, and had I great time worshiping with them!

If you would like to learn more about the church, the main website is www.kumconline.org (You will see the Korean service listed at 12:30pm)