나섬사람들 이야기

So far, I have only stayed at the Naseom Church for one month, but in this short time, I gained much experience and new insights into the Christian community as well as its work and mission.
In the following, I will talk about three themes: a Sunday in the Naseom Church, the Mongol school, and the camp in “Yang Pyeong.”
I will start with a typical Sunday in the church. It is important to note, however, that there is not typical Sunday at the Naesom.
Sundays usually started with a Korean service. Unfortunately, many times I did not quite understand the pastor due to the communication divide. I was impressed, however, by the strong passion and believe of “NAIS” that does not need a language to be communicated. 
After the Korean worship I discovered many kinds of services. It was fascinating to attend different culture worships and to realize the distinction and similarity between the cultures. Especially the ways in which they show their feelings when they sing, pray, and worship, made a lasting impression on me. 
In addition, I like the common lunch, where Koreans come in contact with Mongolians and Chinese, or talk with Iranian people. Such a multicultural meeting on Sunday’s was always special to me. 
More than just the weekends with their highlight on Sunday, I enjoy the time during the week when I work at a Mongol school. 
I think the “Naseom Mongol School” is an excellent idea and is a chance for the Mongolian students to find a way inside the culture and society. Furthermore, the kind teachers and clerical workers of Naseom support and help the immigrants in lot of ways which is an important service for a peaceful and harmonic life together. I am thankful for the opportunity to support the staff in their mission and work together with immigrants. 
Working as a teacher is not easy for me since I am not a native speaker of Korean myself. At the same time, I gather first experiences in teaching in English. What an opportunity: I can improve my skills in two languages. This is very exciting as the students, too, are very interested in English. 
I really hope that the students learned something from me and had a good time with me because I enjoyed the time and I learned a lot about immigrant students and much about my own personality.
In addition, my language course helps me to talk with the friendly people at the center and my time as student is also a very good and informative.
In Germany, many people think negatively of immigrant workers and many are preoccupied in their believe that immigrants are uneducated and come only to Germany to get money or to work illegally. In the past, I sometimes thought so, too: Why are they here? Or, why don't they work in their own country where they can speak their native language and don’t have to adapt to a new culture?
I have now realized that immigrants often are more than just workers to a community and that many of them have had strong incentives to leave their home cultures. Immigrants enrich the cultures that they make their new homes. I have met so many intelligent and kind hearted immigrants and have been told so many touching life stories that I am certain to have lost many of my previous prejudices. Working with immigrants in Korea has shown me how difficult and stressful it is to learn a new language and to live in a new culture. I have the deepest respect for people who have the courage to leave their home culture to start a new live. 
Another disparity between Germany and South Korea is the kind of worship and the manner to pray. In Yang Pjeong, I had the chance to experience the Korean way and I learned a lot about Korean church and their belief in God. For me, it was new to pray loud and to show one’s own emotion. In Germany people pray in silently and go inside with their feelings and emotions. When I go back to Germany, I will talk with many people about the Korean church and their strong and passionate feelings and emotions.  
Also, the intensive living experience with Iranian and Turkish and the numerous conversations I had with them gave me an insight into the converted life and the subsequent challanges.

All in all, the time in the Naseom Church has been a beautiful and eventful experience for me and I am thankful to join your community. 
The fact that so many different cultures come together at Naseom provides many challenges. The kind of worship that is celebrated here, I think, is a good way to bridge cultural gaps. In their celebration of God, cultural differences such as different languages are bridged in an amazing manner. 
I came to South Korea to discover your korean culture and history, your religion, and faith in God. I came to learn about a nation and its manners. During the time at the Naseom community, I not only discover Korea but I discovered “Asia” and its cultures. I made friends from so many different countries whom I will always remember.  
I can truly say that my stay at Naseom has been a wonderful and enriching time!
So I will follow the motto: “Unity in diversity” for a peaceful world.
Joachim Wondrak
Seoul, the 9th February, 2011