4th of July / New friends from Binnerri Church

We celebrated Independence Day in a unique way. A group from Binnerri Church in Dallas came to our area to minister to Native American children and teens by doing a VBS and a youth camp. Binnerri's church members are mainly first and second generation Koreans and Korean Americans, so we obviously were excited to meet them! Some of the group attended our church on Sunday morning. It was a beautiful site to see everyone worshipping together. Afterward, our small church provided lunch for the whole team which was about 70 - 80 people! Every time I would think everyone had been served, another van would pull up, and more people would come in. DW was pretty much the center of attention at lunch. Everyone wanted to hold him, touch his hair, give him food, wipe his face, etc. They called him by his Korean name, DongWoo. I now know after listening to them pronounce it, the "W" is silent, so it's really like "Dong-oo" or "Tong-oo." DW is very shy, so he was scared at first, but he slowly warmed up to one of the women. She took him outside and walked around with him. Many of the Koreans expressed gratitude to us for caring for the orphans of S. Korea. One really sweet lady who didn't speak much English said, "Thank you for your confession...uh..I mean, compassion!" :)

In the evening, the team from Binnerri led a wonderful outdoor worship service with music and drama, and then our pastor spoke. During the service, DW was wandering around eating some Doritos. He has a bad habit of stuffing his mouth completely full. He did this with the chips, and almost choked. A very sweet and kind Korean woman held out her hand and DW spit the chips into her hand! I was so embarrassed and ran over and apologized. She was so sweet to say that it was no problem and that she was just glad DW was hanging out with her.





At the end of the service, one of the elders from Binnerri led a long prayer in Korean, and it was translated into English. He encouraged everyone to pray with someone they didn't know. We prayed with 2 different groups from the Binnerri team. It was so beautiful to hear Korean and English prayers being spoken simultaneously, with worship music in the background. The city's fireworks started shortly after that, which DW loved. During the fireworks, Tim and I had a wonderful conversation with a fatherly-like gentleman who explained to us more about Korean culture and history. He was so thankful for Americans for bringing Christianity to Korea. He kept telling us thank you, and we kept telling him thank you, because we are so grateful for what Korea has given us. What a moment we will never forget! We are so proud to be a Korean American family and we're excited about our new friends from Binnerri Church!

To my Dillon International forum friends: if you are in the Dallas area, you should make a point to visit Binnerri Church. They have a Korean service and an English service. They are so welcoming and would love to meet you!