Interrupted by the Cries of Suffering

Seoul, South Korea

On this mild afternoon here in the City which promotes itself as the "soul of Asia" I visited the Bongeun Temple, one of this nation's "most traditional Buddhist shrines." With that travel brochure intro I expected more history than animation but like much of the work of the Holy Spirit on this trip I was wrong.

Not only were the grounds full of visitors...they were worshippers too. Awkward and big among the crowd in the Daewoogjeon (Main Temple) it was hard for me to look inconspicuous since I wasn't doing the ritual bowing. In such situations you want to look respectful yet still gawk at the dazzling array of color and character among the deities. Actually in Buddhism that's not accurate since the "saints" are noted as respectful witnesses to your journey.

Korea is noted in this spirituality for the embrace of Jijang who had sworn to succeed to Buddha's wish to save all humankind, especially the ill, from pain and hardship. To that end there was a free medical checkup for the homeless and foreign workers going on in an adjacent building as well as a lunch program. The place was hopping; so much for Zen-like reverie.

Yesterday I visited with the new Bishop of Seoul who wasn't interested at all in my appeal for him to commit his priests to visit Episcopalians in the military. I was startled by his nonchalance. Instead he leaned forward and proposed that we join in the relief of Korean and American orphans in Vietnam. It touched both of us since these populations are ostracized--neither fully one nationality or another--and in desperate need of a relief center which is exactly what Bishop Kim was proposing we support in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Apparently this was to be part of a chain of surprises because the week before, on Saipan, again worried about clergy coverage, I found myself instead talking to Dr. Richard Broadstrum in a hallway in that island's hospital. He assured me that all the UNICEF vitamin A medicine our office had purchased for the Islands of Chuk had arrived. "Yeah, a big barrel of it sits under a desk at the clinic." He said.

The problem was distribution and seriously so because its absence contributes to an ugly strain of resistant TB as well as the post natal blindness in newborns which is why we supplied it in the first place. Chukese are now discriminated against as an "epidemiological moat" is created around them by the other island groups. But in less than 20 minutes we developed a plan for a $300 a month worker to distribute the little red pill (it costs less than 7 cents) in Wichap Village on Moen. Done. Two guys in a hall figuring out how to hear the cries of suffering some miles across the ocean.

We're so sure what our mission is and then God arranges for us to hear the real, insistent call. +gep