The Marines Have Landed

North and South Korea never signed a peace agreement and are still technically at war.  This necessitates a strong presence in this country by the US military to help keep the peace. We had heard there was a small U.S. Marine base near Pohang.  Our congregation at Handong International Congregation was delighted to have 3 Marines visit our service a couple of weeks ago from that base.  We had a chance to meet them and invite them over to our home for lunch after service this past Sunday.  Susan prepared her pot roast for the troops with homemade bread and salad.  It was exciting to hear over lunch their stories about the Marine Corps as they've traveled the world serving our country in hot spots such as Iraq and Afghanistan.  One's father was a pastor, another's was a Youth Camp Director and the third has been deeply involved in music ministry (part of well known Christian rock bands) before joining the Marines. (The last one found our church over the internet and started listening to the services with his wife even before coming to Korea.)  We all sat around a table enjoying the pot roast as they shared memories of home and God's goodness.  By the end of the afternoon we'd pretty much adopted all three into our family and look forward to helping them explore Korea.  One expressed that the Koreans made him feel more welcome than any of the dozens of other countries he had visited.  Listening to them share how they came to be deployed in Korea and comparing it to the circumstances that brought our family to this far off land caused all of to feel a very special sense of God's purpose being worked out in our lives.  Two of the men have a wife and children at their homes in North Carolina.  Susan and I sensed our time together helped soften their feelings of separation from their loved ones for just a a little while.  They told us stories of the difficulty of using snail mail to communicate with home before Skype and Magic Jack made it so easy to pick up a phone and call.  Now if one of the kids needs help finding a hammer, he can pick up the phone and make a local call to dad in Korea.  All us had a special sense of God's direction in these difficult times, His love for the Korean people and the special place of Handong University in helping to carry out the great commission in our generation.  I have a deeper appreciation for the sacrifice our military men and women make to serve our country in these far off lands.