Okay...
Okay...
Okay...
So ummm on Friday I headed to Nolla with Viola to celebrate the life in general and later on as Veera joined us, Veera's driver's license. How ever it took 40 minutes for our glögis to arrive to our table so I ended up drinking mine in an awful hurry since I was supposed to be at Vuosaari at 5PM. Well I made it just in time and ended up taking part and witnessing great performances and having great time in all. After the event me and Elina alongside with other
Finnish stars headed to our Korean teachers' and IYF's headquarters. After getting settled we were fed and given a welcoming sermon by Pastor Kim introducing the workshop in general.
On Saturday we woke up at 6AM. Yes
6AM on Saturday morning. Since all the girls slept in the Chapel room in basement we had to clear up the place before 6.30 because of the first sermon of the day (in video format) was shown at that time. Like most of the sermons the world of heart, the sin, righteousness and other religious themes were dealt in detail with various metaphors. After the first dose of salvation we headed upstairs for breakfast. After that all of us were assigned a chore around the house so on Saturday I had the honour to tidy up the chapel and on Sunday I washed the dishes with Soonhyeong. (11 Koreans 9 Finns and no dishwasher, it's a small miracle in itself.) Then we had the second sermon of the day with testimonies prepared by the Finnish participants. After the second 1-hour-long sermon we gather in to teams of 3-5 (depending how active the seniors felt) and talked about the sermon. The first few times ended up just being Heejong's own mini-sermons which were kinda supposed to be answers to my questions (and surprisingly I felt even more confused after he had preached). Then some moar foodz. I have to admit I nearly wept with joy being able to omnomnom Korean food on a daily basis after such a long time. After lunch on Saturday me, Maija and Younhwa headed to Kamppi to participate in scavenger hunt. This included running around central Helsinki carrying out the weirdest missions. Finding the platform for bus 165 and taking a picture with Twilight were the easiest. The most bothering ones were "Take a picture with a black guy at railway station" (oh Korea and your awkward race-issues) or "Do a funny make up with cosmetic sample at Sokos" which resulted in us hiding and running away from the baffled guards and staff. So I found myself doing this creepy stuff which I never would have done before and actually having fun and enjoying it. The rest of the evening consisted of more food, holy words and group conversations. This time Heejong turned out to be a creationist and I found myself listening to scientifically questionable theories about the origin of life. Even though the last five years of my biological studies were thrown to a trash bin I was more confused about the fact that he felt like the Bible and evolution theory clashed so harshly. According to my former thoughts the creation of life in Genesis advances some what in the same fashion as in modern evolution theory. He also explained how the restrictions and suffering of humans were placed in us so that we would feel the need to go God for forgiveness. And this clashed even harder with my former ethical principles. Even though I felt really happy with these people and lived in this illusion of big family I felt really awkward while going to sleep this time.
So came the Sunday morning which proceeded in the same fashion as Saturday. Only this time I had my turn for the testimony. The other testimonies had ranged from "I don't know what to say... But I'm really happy to be here" to epic story of my life-styled testimonies so I tried to fit somewhere in-between. I ended up talking about stuff in my childhood which I kinda have never told to anyone before. It was strange how I actually opened up on this level to people I had hardly known before Friday evening. And I guess I didn't really lie while telling that I felt some change in my thoughts after participating this workshop. The day continued with Bible Quiz and Sunday Service which included us six Finns singing acapella in Korean. Me singing in front of people. Da fuq I tell you. And for some absurd reason I
volunteered to hold another testimony. And once again I ended up babbling some stupid stuff about myself and my previous experiences with Christianity. After the Sunday Service we were supposed to have another Group Fellowship. Only this time Heejong came to me and said that Pastor Kim wanted to see me. I was basically crapping my pants while entering his study which served as our storage room during the workshop. So we ended up having some one-on-one bonding time in midst of people's underwear and cosmetics. He told me that Heejong had said that I had some doubt about my faith (no shit Sherlock) and that he wished to discuss it with me. Against my original expectations this session wasn't as agonizing as I thought it would be, I actually had this "aaaaah so that's how it should be"-experience. I'm not sure what happened but that was probably the first time in my life I felt something close to a religious experience. All I know I felt really happy after wards and managed to convince even Heejong. For the first time we talked about stuff outside the Bible during the group conversation. Then came dinner and we were given this "surprise task" to prepare a performance within an hour. We ended up ruthlessly making fun of Heejong's wish to marry a Finnish lady in order to avoid Korean army. In the end I got huge kicks out of this stupid play and I felt I hadn't enjoyed myself this much in a long while.
All in all I have no fucking idea what has happened. Of course I realize spending 48 hours with same people in the same building and having sermons three times a day is a great way to manipulate individual's opinions and thoughts. Even if in IYF they have loads of thoughts I had trouble to accept there actually were some principles I actually liked. And I know if I had a proper belief my life would feel a lot easier and less complicated. And the idea of such a strong and welcoming community really appeals to me having the family background I have.
And yes I am going to spend my New Year with these people, having another workshop, without alcohol and massive false lashes welcoming the doomed year of 2012 probably with a prayer.
Da fuq is going on here.
Just gonna post this now and go to bed. Maybe adding some pictures later on.
