August through September 8, 2008

Hello,
My name is Friedhelm Illian, and you are receiving this because you are considered a good friend of mine or my wife Susan, or both in many cases. It has also come to our attention, that you may not have received some or perhaps any of our recent journal entries. To be very honest, this whole journal writing thing is pretty new to me too! I have come to the conclusion at the age of 51, that life is finally getting so fast and exciting for us that we cannot keep up with just talking on the phone anymore. We have so many friends now, around the world, that we want to keep in touch with on a regular basis. You are one of them. We thank you for your friendship, and welcome you to read about our Adventure. It is only six weeks now since we have moved to Korea, but already we are very excited about being here and cannot wait to see what the future holds. In the summer we will be in the USA, so we will hopefully be able to see each one of you for a short time each year. Enjoy our adventure with us…

Journal Entry August 12, 2008 (one week in Korea)

Today we looked at several apartments and finally walked into one, and Sue said, "This is it!". I guess as long as she is happy, I am too. It is a really nice place. All brand new, with marble floors with in-floor radiant heat, and air conditioning throughout. The thermometer has been above 90 for the high more than below it. And when a shower cools things down to 86, it is humid over 90%! So we are adjusting to the time change and the weather. But we are eating well at the 5-star hotel. Once in a while we are venturing off-post and tasting the local cuisine. It is delicious!

The local Koreans attached to the American military are sometimes a challenge to deal with. For instance, we had to have them authorize our ID passes to move off and on post. They insisted we show them our marriage license! After 30 years together, we kind of take it for granted that we are married. The US government already verified that we were married and put our names on the Orders, but the local Katusa had their own rules, and did not bother to tell us about them before we packed our marriage license with other important papers in a box that has not arrived in Korea yet! Oh well, another adventure!

Met a lady named Mona. She is a member of the "remnant", their word for Christians who are still on earth. The scattered loyal to God faithful referenced in Isaiah 10. and 2 Kings. (check your bible). She is researching the "Church of God" congregations in Seoul for me. She thinks she may have found one of our Pastors in Seoul. She will bring him to our apartment for dinner when we get settled. I think she will be a great friend in the years to come. She is Presbyterian, but first and foremost a "member of the remnant". I kind of like that concept too!

Our apartment has four bedrooms, so we have lots of room if you ever want to visit. I would suggest you cut the trip in half with a week layover in Hawaii. But that should make it a wonderful trip.

Got my haircut today. Under $8! Great cut too by a beautiful Korean girl. Ah, life can be difficult sometimes! They give an automatic massage after the shampoo and cut. I just took the cut and was done in 10 minutes. (too embarrassed for the full treatment--have to work up my nerve for that).

Stay in touch my friends, the best is yet to come!


Journal Entry August 14, 2008
Glad to see you are still on line. We are now living in South Korea and loving it. I decided 14 years in one place was long enough, so I applied to teach overseas, thinking it might take a couple of years. Well, low and behold I got offered a position with the Department of Defense Dependents Schools right away. Let me tell you, this is not just another teaching job. This place is incredible! We are in a beautiful hotel, waiting for our beautiful apartment to be filled with our furniture...all paid for by this job. I thought I might have to take a cut in pay, but it is more than teaching back home. We are experiencing something we have never experienced before every day!
Today we went to a department store. The whole first floor was cameras! From $2000 to $200. The next floor was computers, the next televisions, and on it went. We found a movie theatre where you can watch the latest American movies (with Korean subtitles). Plus you can get two buckets of popcorn, drinks, candy and some pastry treats for $10!!! It was very cool, and they even let you purchase your ticket and select your seat, just like on an airplane!
In the grocery store they must have had 100 people handing out free samples of every meat, fish and pasta imaginable! Four little Korean girls walked up to me, and the bold one said "Hi" in English. I said "hi, how are you?" They all giggled like I had just tickled them, and the bold one responded with, "I am very fine, thank you!" Then they all laughed out loud like they couldn't believe their friend had actually spoken to me in English! I moved to another free sample vendor and they all came running and jumped in front of me to eat up the free samples! I just exclaimed, "Girls, what are you doing?". They giggled some more and proceeded to follow us around the store. Just another fun day in Seoul!

Journal Entry September 27, 2008

It has been a while since I sent out a Journal Entry. With school getting fully underway, we have been very busy. Susan with Vincent, her special education student, and me with teaching and cross-country. We sometimes are finding it difficult to get quality time together. We now have many new friends, and we love to spend time with them, but sometimes there just don't seem to be enough hours in the day! You know that feeling to, don't you?

This morning we hosted our first home cross-country meet. Naturally we won again. It is fun to see our young men and women constantly working hard in practice and then improving on their own best personal times! We beat our Korean International competition pretty easily, in fact we ran all the boys in one race and all the girls in another race, just so our JV kids could give our Varsity some competition. I handed out the popsicyle sticks with their place on them, and of the first 10, 8 or 9 of them were from our high school.

We decided to try to find a German Restaurant in Seoul for dinner. Sooner or later, I am going to take my students out to eat at a German Restaurant. So we found one called the Bärlin Restaurant, located in the beautiful Somerset Palace Hotel. It would also be our first ride on the subway to get there. From our apartment, we walked about 15-20 minutes up and down a good sized hill to get to the subway. It was an interesting walk, and we say many shops for the first time on the way. The subway was everything they advertise over here. It was clean, inexpensive, very efficient and safe. We paid only 1,000 KRW (about 85 cents) each to ride the subway from Seoul station to Anguk. We only had to change trains once. The traffic was pretty heavy, but there were places to reach up and hold on for the ride. It was a very smooth ride, but the subway moves so quickly there are jerks, especially at the start and finish of the ride. People were not pushy or overly stressed. They just moved around quickly and went from place to place. Several people stared at our friend's little girl, (she has blonde curly hair, and she always gets lots of attention from the Korean women for it), but nothing unusual. One very old and poor looking man did try to hold the little girl's arm, but he let go when he saw she was not interested in getting a "new grandpa". I think Uncle Friedhelm is quickly growing into that role! Once we got to the Anguk station and stepped off the subway, we still had to go for quite a walk. Altogether, I would say riding the subway ended up being about a mile and a half walk too!

When we got to the Hotel Restaurant, it was worth the effort! It was a very large, and beautifully furnished modern German looking restaurant. The wait staff was polite and friendly, but none of them could speak German. Nevertheless, the Jägerschnitzel, although it was pork instead of veal, was very good. The cucumber salad and pommes frites, (French fries), were also good. And the Kaiserschmarren for dessert was divine! The bill was not so heavenly, but it was a very special two hour dinner for us all, and we enjoyed the company of three teachers from the school. Coming home was a trip! I mean literally! There were no lights along the sidewalks and much of the way we had to walk was torn up. I was really afraid I would stumble over something or someone and hurt my back or something. So I suggested we just take a Taxi home. Very good suggestion! Hailing a cab was easy. You just hold out your outstretch arm and hold your hand face down. Once aboard, the cab driver took us on a very direct route home, and we made it back in less than half the time it would have taken with the subway. And the cab fare??? Only 540 KRW, (less than $4) and there were four of us in the cab!!!

Riding in the cab we got to see how lovely this city is at night! It really is a beautiful and bustling place. The lights, the traffic, and the very beautiful and interesting people, scurrying everywhere and really looking like a safe and happy bunch, just makes me wonder why God has so richly blessed us to be allowed to live and work here in Korea! God really is good, and this is a wonderful place. Colonel Jang told us at the Wednesday night Bible Study, that God wants us all to be fishers of men. Then he looked right at me, and said, right Pastor Illian? Don't you know it has been a long time, since I was so excited about going to church on Sunday morning, as I am this Saturday night in Seoul?

Take care, and have a wonderful day!

Journal Entry September 29, 2008

Whew! Our furniture and household goods from Vassar Michigan have arrived! It took six Korean men to unload all three trucks and "squeeze" everything we own into our four bedroom apartment in Seoul. It was spacious and huge when we did not have any furniture. But now it is crowded and very overwhelming. Many things are still in boxes, especially the books and paperwork. We asked them to open all the boxes, but we had to coax one of the men to stay behind and cut open boxes. The rest all left when they felt the job was done. Susan and I will have many evenings opening boxes and finding a place for this or that. Wall-hangings and pictures and knick-knacks, all the things that make a house into a home will still have to be done. Susan and I are already looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, hoping to catch a break from all the unpacking! Yes, and we are just getting started!

"A Moving Encounter"

One brief encounter with the English-speaking mover made the whole experience worth it to me. I have, as some of you know, quite a collection of books from teaching, and ministry, and just plain historical interest. While I was unpacking a box, I came across an old Bible in pretty good condition. I sensed the Lord telling me to give this Bible to the mover who was working by my side. For a moment I thought this might seem a bit cheesy, after all, if the Lord wanted me to give him a Bible, I could afford to give him a brand new one. But again I sensed the Holy Spirit urge me to give him the Bible. So I handed it to him and said, "Look, it is an old Bible in English. You know enough English to read it, don't you?" He answered, "oh yes, and it is very nice." As he started to hand it back to me, I told him to look in the front at the year it was published. It read 1895. It was in remarkably good condition. His eyes opened very widely, as he slowly handed it to me. Again, I felt the urging of God's spirit to give him the Bible to keep. So I handed it right back again, and this time I told him, "you are a Christian?", yes he replied, "then this is for you...God has blessed me with many books, and this one I am supposed to give to you as a gift. Will you read it?" He looked at me incredulously and then he did something I cannot imagine anyone in America doing. He clutched that Bible and brought it to his face and kissed it three times, and held it tightly over his heart! It was all I could do to keep from weeping, as I just barely got out the words, "You're welcome!"

Every day in Seoul just makes us more convinced, that we are here for a reason that goes way beyond "just having a job!" May you also find true happiness today in everything you do, as you listen for HIS voice too!


Friedhelm & Susan Illian
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us; to him be all glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen"