Birthday Dinner

I told Michael yesterday (Sat) that at about 5:00 that we had to go downstairs because one of my friends was bringing some apartment items to us. I told him that she was then going to drop me off at Lotte Mart for shopping and that he could go ahead and fix himself some dinner. (He had been at the park riding his bike for several hours and was home only because I called him.) But: surprise! It's the Jangs, and we are going out for birthday dinner. Michael likes bulgogi so they picked an area of town that has a few restaurants that specialize in it. (I can't figure out how/why an entire area of town has a food speciality.) They brought a cake, so I told them we could come back to the apartment because I had ice cream too. We told them last year I surprised him too with about 25 people at a Mexican restaurant.

I had done a little shopping while he was biking. At the grocery store, I asked for candles (I looked up the word in my dictionary) and also wrote it down. I had to show the writing, and the woman said, "Oh, ____." I thought, "That's what I said!" I had to go the bakery part of the store. They only had little packages with candles that they give with a purchased cake. I had my money out, but he said "no." I experience that sort of kindness regularly.

The interesting thing about the Jangs bringing a cake is that they also had candles. But they knew that in Korea a tall candle represents 10 years and must have requested certain candles when they bought the cake. So Keun Yung had me put the tall one with one short one. They sang Happy Birthday with clapping - first in English and then in Korean. I told them Michael has had the song in Spanish and Samoan too. We took some good pictures. Once when we were with the Jangs, I bought us some oversized eye glasses so we could have a Christmas picture taken with them. Justin said, "Get your glasses out," so we did. (Lots of Korean teenagers and college students where these glasses for fashion.)

They have an apartment reserved at a new building by the river, and Michael is quite interested to see the view from the 27th floor. They would have taken us last night, but I said we could wait until a future date. They told Michael that he could live with them when I have to go back to the States.

And a funny thing is that today at lunch with the Bakers, they told him the same thing!! Hmmm - no one is offering to keep me!! The cake that Prof. Lee brought us was still in the fridge. It had indivually wrapped and decorated pieces, so I had Michael choose one. We took the rest to church, where during fellowship time it was a big hit.

It is a beautiful Sunday here, so Michael has taken off for the park on his bike. He wanted some bike gloves, so I paid for them for his birthday. Yesterday on his own he went to the bike shop and bought them. So now, he said, he has a red bike, blue shoes, and green gloves. He is liking all the color ... sort of Korean style!

Please continue to pray for my parents and my mom's health. I am not getting many details, but her progress doens't seem to moving along. It's hard to be here and not to have visited her since she got sick (like I would have from Alabama). Pray that they will want Jesus Christ to enter their circumstances. Love to all as you start back to work and school this week.