US Missionaries in Korea: A Lasting Lifestyle - Episode 2

Jacob Stroll and Cameron McDonald discuss their personal experiences traveling in South Korea. They talk about visiting the DMZ, where they found it less tense than expected. They also visited various areas of the DMZ, including an observatory and a tunnel. They discuss the influence of Westerners on Korean Christianity and the impact of regime type on missionary work. They mention the importance of South Korean missionaries in helping the country recover after the war. They also briefly mention their visit to the city of Wonju. Hello, I'm Jacob Stroll, I will be your host for this second installment of U.S. Missionaries in Korea, A Lasting Lifestyle, along with my co-host. Hello, my name is Cameron McDonald, and today, instead of talking about U.S. Missionaries in particular, we're going to take a different route in this episode. We are instead talking about our personal experiences traveling around the country of South Korea. Now, the first 12 days we were in the country, we spent largely in and around the city of Seoul, but after that, on the 13th day, we traveled to the DMZ, the day 16 we went to Gunsan to look at more churches, Jeonju the very next day, and Busan the next day, as we traveled around the southern coast of the country before heading back to Seoul for our final three days before departure. So, the first of those places, the DMZ, was quite a unique experience, wouldn't you say so, Jake? Oh, absolutely, Cameron. Now, why do you think so? Tell us some of your personal stories that you remember from that day. Well, I know that people like to say that the fear and tension is palpable when you're there, but it certainly was commercialized and westernized enough to where it did not feel that way, despite it probably should have felt that way, despite, I should say, the fact that it probably should have felt that way. It didn't. I can tell you that the most tense part of the experience was when soldiers stepped onto the bus that we were on and checked to make sure that we were all supposed to be there, and another reason why this was tense is because there was a language barrier and we had to be spoken about through an interpreter to these soldiers, and I didn't know whether or not we would be allowed through, but once we were through, I think that was where everything kind of became less and less awkward or fearful. We were driven to a town, I believe, called Imjingak, which is right where the outside, the outer layer, I guess, the outer shell of the DMZ is, and we were able to spend some time walking around, getting food, kind of just feeling ourselves out in the area, getting familiar with the strangeness of it all, being that close, and then we started to venture out into different areas of the DMZ. Cam, do you have any...? So I have a question for you. So it didn't feel like a demilitarized zone between two warring countries? No, it didn't. It felt like a war between a commercialized US-almost power and a group of farmers. If that doesn't seem offensive, I'm not trying to come across as offensive, but North Korea is seemingly, at least from my perspective, heavily outmatched by South Korea, despite us hearing about nuclearization and a bunch of other stuff that is scary, certainly. The South Korean side of things seemed a lot more under control. There were a lot more soldiers, there was a lot more equipment, there was a lot more barricades, a lot more of a distance between our side and theirs. I can certainly vouch for that. There was even an amusement park on the South Korean side of the border, and I remember quite a few of our group members going to a Dunkin' Donuts. After that, there was a river where we had to take a gondola over a river, and I thought that that would be even closer to North Korea, which it was, but it still was quite a distance away. We went to an American camp that used to exist during the Korean War that was turned into a museum. But even during the war, it was housing a bowling alley and just a relaxing recreation center for the American soldiers. So it was all a bit more relaxed than history books ever told me, at least. Yes, certainly. Cam's right about the gondola ride and the fact that even though it should have slightly been more tense, it was not. I believe that might have been the river Imjin that we crossed over. But when we got to the other side of this, again, I mean, this is going to sound like beating a dead horse, but really we thought it would be a lot more terrifying than it was. So we were taken to an observatory and then to a closer outpost, and both of those, you could see North Korea from, we could see the flag at the propaganda city, we could see people riding bikes, and then we went to a tunnel called, I believe, the Third Tunnel, and we got to see North Korean territory like a foot in front of us when we went to the end of that tunnel. And how was the path down that tunnel? It was claustrophobic, certainly. It was also, it was also oxygen depriving and steep. And very steep. About a 45 degree angle? Yeah. There was, there was not, with the amount of people in there, with how enclosed the space was, and with how far away it was from any source of fresh air, catching one's breath was difficult. And people in our group certainly succumbed to that pressure. They were not able to make it up, or we needed to walk with them to make sure that they could make it up. But it was a rewarding experience. I mean, we got to see North Korean territory like a, like I said, a foot in front of us. That was incredible. Yeah. And we even, at one point, there was quite a lot of elevation change, and so there was a lot of walking up and down hills, and at one point at the top of one of the hills we got to overlook the river, and the trees in between, there were fences that said, do not cross the fence, there might be bombs on the other side. But there was also an outpost that Jake talked about, and we sent some mail. We put it in a little mailbox, and supposedly it's going to take a year to get to its destination. Yeah. Some of those destinations don't exist anymore, so. Yeah. They change over time. They do. But regardless of that fact, we finally got to a point inside of a larger building where we could look out on one side and see the North Korean side of the DMZ, and look out on the other and see the South Korean side. And when I tell you it was a foggy day, I was not, I would not be exaggerating. It was very difficult to see anything in North Korea. But we did, through binoculars, see their flags waving in the air. Yes. I think it was called the Dora Observatory that we were at. There was a giant room that almost looked like a movie theater, but instead of a big screen there was just a giant glass, convex glass shell that was enclosing this, almost like if you went to a planetarium, it's kind of what it would look like, but with glass. It was very interesting, so you could look out and see the North Korean side of things. I think the most important thing that that experience brought us was, it was a tangible outgrowth of our learning with regards to Korean missionaries in Pyongyang, and with regards to North Korean survivors that had come over that we had learned about in the NKDB. That's absolutely right, Jake, and it was genuinely a wonderful experience. Is there anything else that sort of wraps up the entire experience for you, that you can say you learned the most about, or that stood out the most to you from the trip? I think that Korean Christianity remains less touched or influenced by Westerners than the DMZ itself does, and that was an interesting concept to me. The idea that Koreans put their own spin on Christianity, that they put their own spin on Christian traditions, and that they infuse their culture within the practices of Christianity was violently different than what the United States had almost imposed on them in the Korean War. The DMZ, at least from the South Korean side, felt almost like I was in the United States. When I walked into Korean churches, they did not feel like they were American churches. There were aspects of them that were heavily influenced by Korean culture. So that's an interesting aside. A final point to make about the DMZ that does relate back to the topic of choice, Pyongyang, actually the capital of North Korea, was one of the most prominent centers for U.S. missionaries to attend, or to live, until the country became divided, and then they were forced out of the country, or they were threatened in one way or another. So it's very interesting to see just how much of an influence regime type does have in missionary work as well. Yeah, any kind of nationalism or severe isolationism is going to hamper your ability to promote yourself, or project your soft power, and to allow other people in, except others, soft power implements in their culture, but most importantly, actually have the ability to recover from certain issues. South Korean missionaries were vital in helping the country heal after the war, and helping to come to terms with the divide, and helping to rebuild schools, and churches, and other places of worship and community. North Korea lost, at least to our knowledge, lost all of that ability. And they also lost many, many dozens of thousands of manuscripts, and papers, and pieces of knowledge that would have been destroyed in Pyongyang, either during the war or afterwards by the regime. Yeah, so quite the history there. And for us, even though we said it wasn't as tense as we expected, it still was quite a tense day. And so on our way back home to our hostel in Seoul, we decided to stop at a Korean spa, which was again a unique experience that we'll cover more in Podcast Episode 3, the final installment of our portion of the series. But now, we're going to move into our next day, day 14 of our trip, where we visited our sister city, Roanoke's sister city, of Wonju. So Jake, what do you remember about Wonju itself? It was certainly one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. I liked the bridge part of it, but I know that when we first arrived, it was pretty hectic. We were kind of rushing everywhere, and we certainly did rush from one event to the next. But we got to experience quite a bit of the city in a very short amount of time. When you say bridge part, what are you talking about? So we had a, I guess, a liaison or like a... not a liaison, somebody who walked with us. So it was a guide? A chaperone. Yeah, I thought of that. Do you think it was a chaperone? Sure, it was a chaperone. It was like a formal mayoral chaperone that would kind of tour us around the city. And one of the places they took us to was this massive suspension bridge. And it was... there were blue cords and giant metal infrastructure. It was quite neat. And it spanned this gorge with this industrial looking plant underneath it on the left side of it when you first start. And it was beautiful. It just was nerve-wracking a bit because it was swaying and blowing in the wind. Good thing. You know, I'd rather have a bridge sway in the wind than break because of it. And it has no flexibility. But some people in our group did not like that at all. No, it was... it might be rude of me to say, but it was a bit funny to watch them struggle. But they succeeded. They challenged themselves and they overcame their mental adversity and they conquered that suspension bridge. They crossed to the other side, regardless of how much time it took them. They did succeed. And you had to hold their hand, yeah. Well, they did need a handheld, but don't we all, every now and then. And not only was it a suspension bridge between two sides of a giant gorge, we also had to hike up a mountain to get to it. And not only that, there were also additional suspension bridges across the way between a different set of mountaintops. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time, so we didn't get to actually explore as much as some of us would have liked, yes. But that was the end of our trip to Wanju. Our day largely started with going to the mayor's office and speaking directly with him, which was a unique experience in and of itself. Do you remember the setup of his office? Do you remember where the table was located, where we all sat, where the flags were, the wall? There was a waiting room. It was quite sterile, not something I would have expected a mayor's office to have. It almost looked like a school office, like a principal's office. But then we were ushered into this massive room that had a huge map on the far wall. And then to the right was seemingly where the mayor's desk was. And on the left, there was this very, very large open table where, if you can imagine the picture, I believe it was Reuters that posted this originally, of Emmanuel Macron meeting across the table from Putin. That's what it looked like. Just this huge table, conference table, with many different chairs there. And some of them were leather. I remember I sat on the very far side, I think at the head of the table on the other side of the table there. And we were given tea. I believe it had orange in it or something like that. And that was a wonderful experience. We felt like we were very welcomed and almost the center of attention. It was quite awesome. And the only disappointing part, which is very understandable, is that the mayor solely spoke Korean. And our only available translator was our teacher, Dr. Hsu, who the entire trip did a wonderful job at translating what anybody was saying to us. It was just this meeting I distinctly remember there were no translations given to us because I believe she was respecting him and his time so she wouldn't tell us in English what information was being shared between the two. So I know that they had a wonderful conversation, but she only told us the information that was shared after the meeting had already finished. So the students and Dr. Leeson were sitting, smiling and nodding while they spoke, which was still a wonderful experience. And they were incredibly kind to us through and through. I remember after leaving the office, they gave us many gifts, really nice wooden spoons and chopsticks. They did, yes. Which was incredible. I mean, it was very high quality. Yeah, and to the mayor and anybody else who was there when we were there, if you see a gift bag in the bathroom, it's because I accidentally left it there. And I was rushing out of the building to catch up with my group and I accidentally left it by the trash can. That was not meant to be disrespectful in any way. I was trying to see more of your beautiful city in the time that we had, so I'm sorry about that. And at the time we were visiting, you had beautiful clothing set up in the main foyer alongside a gigantic aquarium that had just gorgeous fish. So you know, along with the leftover bag, we really did appreciate everything that we saw. Yeah, I can tell you that representing a city, basically a standalone city with 315,000 people in it, that's a huge honor, but also it was quite nerve wracking to be there and realize that we were the sole representatives of that entire group of people and anything that we did would blow back against not only us, but the entire city. We have a city in Roanoke named Wanju Street, or sorry, we have a street in Roanoke named Wanju Street. We have a lot of ties to the city of Wanju, and so few of us yet get to experience actually being in Wanju. And so this was the first time in years that they had had anyone from Roanoke visit. And that's, you know, one out of, or I should say six-ish, six to eight out of 315,000 people over the course of now multiple years. That was a burden, but it was also a privilege. Yes, and we had a wonderful lunch as well with some representatives who were attempting to again close that divide between us and actually send some individuals from Wanju, some students to Roanoke in the upcoming years, which would be a wonderful program if it does end up getting enacted because I think that they would enjoy this city, maybe not as much as we enjoyed Wanju, because to us Wanju is just a phenomenal otherworldly place with how beautiful that topography is and that natural scenery is just stunning, and the people and the food, it's all something out of a history book for us, it's just extraordinary. So thank you to those who are in Wanju, we greatly appreciate it if you are listening. If not, everyone else, we are greatly appreciative to those in Wanju. Of course, yeah. So, those are just two days that we spent out of the 21 in Korea, and this will wrap up our thoughts for Episode 2 of the podcast series. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Dina, Jake? I mean, I'd say this, if we're going back to the topic of Korean Christianity, it is heavily shaped by the landform, the land formations, the way that people divide themselves, the infrastructure that people build, all of that shapes how Christianity and any religion is able to be transferred or transmitted between different cultures and people, and this was no different. Wanju showed a vibrant Christian culture, we met Christians there, I met Christians on the train ride there, there were Christians that were also part of the NKDB, and they also informed us that there were many Christians that came over from North Korea that were attracted to South Korea because they couldn't practice their religion. It is a very interesting and complex entanglement of different ideas and of different ways of viewing the world and what people should or should not be doing. That's what I got. Absolutely. And if you did miss out on Podcast 1, the reason behind this sister city connection between Wanju and Roanoke is because of missionary work as well. Dr. Bob Roth was a missionary, a medical missionary, that was from the Roanoke area, who traveled to Wanju after the war in order to be a plastic surgeon for those that needed facial reconstruction in case they were affected quite physically by the war in any way, shape, or form. So, quite a lucky connection we have there off of something a bit tragic, but I think both sides are grateful for it and appreciate it to this day. And this year, actually 2024, marks the 60th year of that connection. So again, celebrations are in order. And we thank you for listening to Podcast 2. Of course, thank you. And we hope to see you soon in Podcast 3, the final of our part in the podcast titled U.S. Missionaries in Korea, A Lasting Lifestyle. All right. Thank you.