Kyoungma in Korea!

Hello or "Ann young ha se yo!" from Korea. I send greetings to the RTCA family from Dr. Torres, Brother Pat Day and myself.

How or where should I get started...um.

There is so much to tell and to share great news from the RTCA mission team. Kyoungma is the Korean word for Horse Racing. (I will share more Korean to English words at the bottom of this report) On Saturday the 26th of May we spent an incredible day at the Seoul Race Park. A combination of a family theme park complete with horse and buggy rides, childrens playpark and gardens highlighted with gorgeous waterfalls, modern airport terminal and shopping mall.

The Seoul Race Park was originally built for the 1988 Seoul Olympics Equestrian Games and in 1989 was given over as a full horse racing park that holds over 50,000 people easily and is under the management of the Korean Racing Authority (KRA) that also overseas operations at the other two tracks in Pusan and Jeju Island.

On this day, with full press coverage, we met with the President of the KRA and got a full facilities tour and a VIP lunch hosted by the KRA Director of Racing- at a nearby theme park. During this time, due to the fame of Brother Pat Day we handed out hundreds of Pat Day Testimony Tracks, many of which Pat took the time to autograph and pose for pictures.

But the real joy of the day came our faithful servant of the Lord, Brother Kim, guided us through the backstretch facilites where we visited with vets at the equine hospital, trainers and spent time talking to jockies who came to meet Pat and this allowed one on one time for Pat to share about the Lord.

In the early evening we attended the "Junma Church" which is located in the race track backstretch and it means "The Great Horse Church". It is a large room dedicated to the chapel and has pews that can seat up to 80 or so people, a sound system, keyboard and a podium in front of a large cross on the wall.

The church has been in this location for the last 6 years but the race track has had services under the faithful guidance of Pastor Shin Giwhan for 24 years! The racing events are held year round but only on Saturdays and Sundays. Paster Giwhan is pastor of another church but has been leading services at the Race Track on Saturday evening.

On this evening we met with the pastor before the service and talked about the ministry partnership opportunities that the Lord was presenting to all of us. We were soon worshipping with 40 or so regular members of the race track church that came to hear Pat Day give his testimony.

Following the his testimony and the message from the pastor it was a joy to take pictures of all the race track workers that wanted to pose with Pat and to thank him for speaking that night.

The church was so kind and gracious to host a dinner for all of us down in the racing cafeteria where we again enjoyed fellowship and a typical and delicious Korean meal that included Kim Chi, Rice, and a unique beef stew cooked on portable grills in the skillet along with squid and fish that you could again place in lettuce and eat with your hands.

It has been interesting to watch the progress Dr. Torres has made with operating his chop sticks! Pat and I told him it is amazing what hunger will do to get one used to eating with chop sticks!

I will be bringing you up to date with the incredible day that we had at church the next day at one of the largest churches in Seoul and the fantastic job of preaching Dr. Torres did in one service and the great job Pat Day did at an afternoon service!

Here are some interesting Korean words for you to experience-

Horse- Mal or Ma
Horse Park- Kyoungmajang
Chaplain- Kyohoi
Jesus loves you- Jesu nim eun dangsin
Hello- Ann young ha se yo
Good bye- Ann young hee kye se yo
Thank you- Kamsa ham nida

The churches here are incredible and the Christians are a powerful and respected community with some 11,000,000 believers with more everyday and thousands every month!

Stay in prayer for us, for the favor God is granting to us, the doors He is opening and that we may be a blessing for the work of the Lord on the racetracks in Korea.

More soon!

Edward