New Year's at Koje Island

NEW YEAR'S AT KOJE ISLAND

On December 31st, our school director Im Jae Ho and his wife Mrs. Kim, gave us a wonderful tour of Koje Island, which is about 2 hours away by car. You can drive onto the island over a fairly long bridge.

Koje Do (Island) is quite large and very beautiful with rugged coastlines and some attractive, sandy beaches............gotta go there in the summer! We took a ferry boat over to a smaller Island that the Koreans call, "Money Island." This is probably because the man who owns it spent so much money developing it! Nearly every square inch of the Island is garden! He is the only man in Korean history to have purchased an Island, and this he did about thirty years ago. In that time he has made the place a virtual paradise, and millions of people go to see it, and of course, for a fee. So now he is recouping lots of money for his investment.............Money Island seems to be paying off!

We spent New Years Eve having a fabulous Korean feast.............then went to the "Norreh Bong" which is a private singing room like Karaoke, only it is just your own group. There are many rooms, and you can hear others singing their lungs out and generally having a good time. This activity is very popular in Korea and Norreh Bong singing is often heard on the radio.............some of it very good and others..........well........heh heh!

Next morning, New Year's Day, we got up at about 6:30 and hiked to the top of a mountain with a couple of hundred others to watch the sunrise, which is an Oriental tradition. They all shout when the sun is finally seen. I yelled, "HELLO SUN!!" In english, and got a few laughs out of that effort.

It was beautiful to see the sun rise on a new year that will bring only God knows what, but in spite of the events of 2001, we know that He has everything under His control, and the universe is "unfolding as it should."

Our trust is in Him alone.