The Experience of Isaac (Part 2) - My First Year in Chile

Picking up from where we left of from last time, I was on board on a plane headed halfway across the globe. Chile was a country I never, ever dreamt of going. All I knew about it was that it was a geographically skinny country on the west side of South America. I knew nothing of the culture, the language, the people, etc...

At that time, I was only seven. I was still a bit clueless at that age, and I just thought this is what life was. On the other hand, it must have been really hard for the rest of my family. My dad, of course, was being sent away for reasons mentioned in previous blogs. I truly appreciate the fact that my dad stuck with the truth he saw in the Bible, rather than conforming to what other pastors in their concepts thought was right or wrong. Mom always took me to cool places in Korea. Growing up, I remember going to a bunch of museums and afterschool programs that involved raising caterpillars, legos, math classes, etc.. She was always looking for ways to allow my sister and I to have the best educational experiences. Well, going to Chile meant forsaking her aspirations as a educational mother. The language and the culture in Chile, I must say, it's totally upside down than from that in Korea (maybe the opposite hemispheres account to that). My sister, who is four years older than I am, left Korea in the middle of elementary school. I believe she must have had it harder than I had, because I entered Chile with a blank slate. Her, on the other hand, had to basically give up everything she learned in Korea.

First time I set foot in Chile I was fascinated. The street lights were very different from those we found in Korea, and there were these roads called one-way roads that allowed cars to travel only in one direction. That puzzled me for months. I always wondered how the cars would reach a certain destination. We moved into an apartment called the "Monte Carlo's." They were nice 2 bedroom apartments that had a swimming pool across the street.

I still remember my first meal in Chile. In Santiago, they would bake fresh bread every day. It was a kind of round loaf that was a bit hard to chew on. Dad, on our first few days or so, brought a whole bag of them home. Now, I really don't know what made him do that. I'm guessing he probably didn't know that bread was baked every day in Chile... Neither did I know. Anyhow, I have to account my love for strawberry jam to that bag of bread. Even if life was as hard as those loaves, there was something sweet you can spread to get you through it.

In the Southern Hemisphere, it's summer when it's winter in the Northern Hemisphere, and vice versa. So I got to enjoy going to the swimming pool every sunny day.. till school started.

My sister and I were enrolled in one of the few public schools in Chile. In fact, most of the schools in Chile were private with some Catholic affiliations. They required students to wear uniforms in school, if which I remember correctly, they were pretty stylish. You had a tan overcoat, charcoal slacks, a white shirt and a red tie, if I remember correctly.

Anyhow, I remember going to school without having any idea what was going on. I remember going to school and being introduced to the first graders in school. I swear that I was kind of in this weird state where I heard noises here and there but had no clue what they meant. It was pretty darn confusing. We had a spelling quiz the next day though, and I remember studying so hard for that quiz. I don't know what motivated me, but I just felt the need to prove myself out there. Well, hard work did pay off as I was the only kid in the class who got a perfect score. I still remember my teacher being so proud of me and congratulating me in front of the whole class. In Chile, 7 was the highest score you can get in an assignment, and there was this joke that went around that there were some Korean parents who were very disappointed because their child was receiving 7s only (thinking that 10 was the highest score). Anyhow, I was proud of my 7s.

Well, many things happened that year in escuela. I made many friends and began to be the top student in my school. I remember how my mom would pack me this cereal + yogurt combo pack for me to take to school, and how it would always spill on to my coat when I opened it because of the difference in pressure. I remember how I had my first ankle sprain as I was walking back from the restroom back to class. I walked it off and eventually it felt better, which I think caused me to think that walking it off would make every ankle sprain better. I remember how I was first introduced to basketball in P.E., and how we tried to make a shot in that once-impossibly-tall rim. I remember how we had this end of the year performance where we danced a Chilean traditional dance, and how onlookers were awestruck that a korean kid was dancing so well. (Okay, I don't mean to boast or anything, but it was a really simple dance..). I remember my best friend Thomas, we would always hang out together and how I went to his birthday party. I don't remember too much of the party, except that my parents came to pick me up pretty late. When they finally arrived at Thomas' place, they had a little chat with whom I originally thought were Thomas' parents. Well, I found out that they were his grandparents, and that Thomas didn't have a mom and a dad. I was still too young to understand life at that time, but I remember my heart was very sorrowful that night.

The Experience of Isaac (Part 1)

There is a reason why the title is called the experience of Isaac -- It's not two different stories, but one story of two different people. In the bible, Isaac was Abraham's son who enjoyed all the blessings that were brought through all the trouble Abraham went through. I feel like that's been my experience. Anyhow, enjoy--

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This is where I come in the story. Or, I have already, but I haven't really talked about it yet. I was born in Seoul, Korea, May 5th, 1991. May 5th in the States is Cinco de Mayo. May 5th in Korea is National Children's Day. So every birthday I used to go to the National Children's Park. Anyhow, I never really had much of a memory till I was like 5 years old. But here's what my parents tell me --

I was born as a pretty healthy baby. They say that my first few months as a baby was pretty good. It wasn't much later when I began to have problems. I had digestion problems in my stomach, and I wasn't able to get any food into my system. I was taken to the hospital but they couldn't figure out what was wrong with me. They said I didn't have much of a chance.

It was somewhere around this time that my dad started to have his spiritual turn (one described in the previous blog) as well. That plus my health caused him to really seek God in a genuine way. I don't mean to recall this next part as a way to boast myself in any way, but I do have a real appreciation for it. Let me recount it first -- When it was coming close to the point that I was not able to make it, my parents began to pray even more desperately. Eventually, they had no choice but to offer my life to the Lord, consecrating my future just as Hannah promised God to offer Samuel to serve Him. Anyhow, I don't say this to puff myself up in anyway; rather, I have to acknowledge my parent's faithfulness to what I am now in the present. Without such a consecration made by my parents, I don't think I would be the person I am now.

Not too long after, my health began to recover dramatically. I remember my mom saying that my grandma brought some boiled 무 (mu). I don't know what it's called in English, but it's a kind of a white radish that koreans use to make kimchi. Anyhow, maybe that's why I love bone soup with mu so much. Haha. Let's get back to the topic. That supposedly really help me get my digestion back... but you know how Koreans say that every vegetable is good for something..

I remember always feeling a little weak growing up. There are many memorable events during my childhood in Korea. But let me just tell you a few of the interesting stories I have. For the majority of the time, I lived in the Guk-Hwa apartments which was in a part of Seoul called Mun-Rae Dong. In front of the apartments there was a brick wall, of which over it, was my bus stop. I remember how my mom always used to lift me up over the brick wall so that I would catch my bus on time. I went around various kindergatens, which listing them will probably bore you. In one of them, I got in a fight with one of my classmates for something I can't remember.. it was either over a girl or for a toy. Anyhow, I remember we were in fighting stance and right then and there this thought came into mind that I should do a cartwheel, and on the way up, I would kick him on the face. So I did it and successfully kicked my classmate on the face. He started crying and immediately the teacher came over. He didn't hit me, but I felt so bad when my teacher rebuked me of what I had done wrong that I started crying as well. Anyhow, after we finished crying we became really close friends.. Haha.. Hmm.. what else is an interesting thing that happened to me in Korea? I remember one winter day I was coming back home in the bus and it had snowed. Some snow had fallen inside the open windows on the bus and one very small piece landed right on my finger. As it started melting and getting smaller by the warmth of my finger, I remembering seeing a perfect snowflake within a fraction of a second. Its six legs were very clear to my eyes. Oh, and in this one time, a friend of mine who used to live in the same apartment got some fart bombs from the store. We were fooling around in the parking lot looking where we should plant it. We decided to throw it into a curb that had some plants. As soon as he threw it and we began to ran, we didn't see this car that was coming right at us. I was running behind my friend, and my friend barely missed the car, but got his foot rolled over by the tire of the car. Now that I think about it, that's pretty hilarious. It was that same friend that took me to another friend's house where we stayed hours playing video games. I came home that afternoon later than usual and found my mom fuming with anger. She was very upset that I had not told her where I was and for being home very late. That was my first memory of getting punished by my mom.

Well, I can go on and on with snippets of stories here and there. But let's forward to December 25th of 1997. I was seven at the time, so I was pretty well aware of my surroundings. I remember it was Sunday right after service, my mom, sister and I were walking back home. There was no sign of snow anywhere and the sky was bright and sunny. It was that day that I came to the conclusion that Santa did not exist, because his reindeers were no where to be found in such a sunny day. Umm.. that has nothing to do with what I was about to write, but I thought it was pretty darn interesting. Anyhow, it was that same day that we boarded the plane to Chile...

Part 2

The Experience of Abraham (Part 4)

Continuing from Part 3...

Well, I'm still alive, so that must mean that all that prayer and fasting must have compelled the Lord to move His hand of mercy upon me. During this time, my dad met a group of believers called the Bereans, who were very devout Christians in studying the Word. My dad admits he got a lot of light through their diligent studying and endeavoring to see the Word. Soon after, he somehow got connected with the head pastor of Sung-Rak Baptist, who asked him to join him there. And that's where my memory begins.

But my story isn't very interesting there yet. All I remember doing is climbing walls to not miss my school bus, solving those korean math worksheets, growing a caterpillar which I ended up killing by feeding the wrong kind of lettuce, cartwheel-kicking (yes, I kicked him as I was doing a cartwheel, I got him on the face too!) a classmate of mine because we got in a fight, being really embarrassed to run shirtless during a soccer practice and somehow believing that Santa Claus did not exist, because on December 25th of 1997 -- the day we left Korea to go to Chile -- it did not snow.

Slow down! How did Chile get into the picture? (And for those who don't know what Chile is, it is a country in South America).

As my dad began to pastor the Baptist church in Korea, he was mainly in charge of taking care of college students. Somehow, through his deep study in the word, he came to realize this matter concerning deification (organic salvation). For those who do not know what organic salvation is, it is the "will be saved in His life" (Rom. 5:10) and "shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13) salvation that the Bible speaks of. This is different from a sinner's initial salvation where he is saved from eternal perdition. This is an organic (meaning, by and through the divine life) salvation that goes on after our initial salvation, where we grow in our spiritual zoe-life. This is how a child of God (Rom. 8:16) becomes a full-grown man (Eph. 4:13) by partaking of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). The reason why I mention Romans 5:10 and 10:13 is that you can see that the verb saved is in the future sense. Paul was speaking to the Romans, who were already believers in Christ. Was he telling them to be saved again? Surely he must have been referring to this matter of organic salvation where a believer is further saved to become mature in Christ. To be concise, God became a man so that man can become God in life, nature but not in the Godhead.

Anyhow, I don't know if those were the same verses that my dad saw, but I just wanted to provide biblical proof regarding this. This was also what the original church figures saw as well (Athenasius and others).

So after seeing this revelation, there was no U-turn for my dad. He began to preach concerning this to the ones he was taking care of. And soon enough, word spread and some of the other pastors heard about this and were infuriated regarding this. (Okay, you may think that I'm biased because this is what my dad saw, but until you can prove that God did not become man so that man may become God in life and nature with the Bible, I will stand faithful regarding this vision I personally saw as well).

There was inner turmoil going around the congregation. As other pastors began to hear regarding this word, they began to label is heresy and my dad was being told to repent of his heretical teachings. Faithful to the Bible, my dad did not. However, this became such a serious problem among the pastors, that something had to be done. Pretty soon afterwards, my dad was asked to come to a meeting of pastors... except it wasn't too much of a meeting. In that "meeting" all the pastors including the head pastor of the congregation sat around in a circle around my dad, questioning him, telling him to dismiss what he taught, calling him a heretic, etc.. The head pastor believed my dad was correct, but being political about the whole situation, he didn't readily stand up for my dad. Opportunely or unopportunely (you decide), some Korean Christians from halfway around the globe had been requesting some one to lead their congregation in a country by the name of Chile. The head pastor took this opportunity to sort of protect my dad, but also take care of this angry mess in Seoul. So basically, my dad was euphemistically excommunicated to be sent away to Chile...

I think I wrote a lot for a day..