Prayer Mountain: a Personal Refreshing Retreat

     The book "Hallelujah Lady" provides a glimpse of the life of the lady who started Prayer Mountain.  In the book, she shared about church services, revivals, and Christmas time in NORTH Korea before there was, technically speaking, a North Korea, so the story goes back to well before the Korean War.  As I was reading it, I was amazed at how familiar the church services, revivals, hymns, gospel songs, and Christmas times seemed to be to me.  They were just like I had known them to be in the USA.    She became a nurse by training and fled North Korea after the war and, as it turned out, attended the same Bible College that David Cho did.  He married her daughter.  Together, she and David got the Full Gospel Church up and going.

     My walk with God, as I call it, has become more and more my own personal journey (not that it had never been that).  I was once what one could call a "big mouth for Jesus."  I was a bit cocky, judgmental, overbearing with people, short on wisdom and high on Bible thumping (while dealing with [and denying] the fact that I was homosexual trying to change by getting married and siring children).  Since my coming out during the late 1980's, I've studied more (Bible, Theology, Science, Philosophy, etc), reflected more, and (consequently) reformed and reformed some more doing my best to make good use of the best information I can find to keep my faith and reason as stable as I can. 

     It may have been nostalgia that fed my satisfaction when I went to Prayer Mountain.  Still, I was glad to have gone.  I came back wanting to study more, reflect more, and do more of what I can for what is right.  I went on November 6 and returned on the 7th of 2010.

     Yeodo Full Gospel Church owns, operates, and provides bus transportation to and from prayer mountain, which is located in Paju, which is next to the demilitarizes zone that separates North and South Korea.  So, to Yoido I went.

     I got to their bus stop in time to enjoy a bit of Yoido before the next bus was scheduled to depart.

      The bus ride took about an hour.  On the way, I could see barbed wire fences and military patrol towers along sides of bridges we crossed. The sky was cloudy.  It wasn't cold nor did it rain.  On the bus music and devotional CD's were played, and people were already praying while seated.

      On Prayer Mountain are motels and food services.  I paid 20,000 wons to stay in the motel room pictured here.

     What I did not know was that there was a loud (very loud) speaker  in the room.  I found that out the following morning when an announcement was made about morning prayer service.  LOL!  Talk about a wake up call!

      Pictured below are prayer chambers.

       
     Security personnel kept watch over everything.  The prayer chambers were safe, and could be reserved.  As I walked along the sidewalk outside of them, I could hear singing and praying.

      Prayer and fasting are practiced seriously by people here.  I've heard that some people fast for weeks, and that the food services has a chart of dietary recommendations following a period of fasting.

     Also, I've heard it said that people spend a lot of time praying about the North and South Korea divide.

     Corporate prayer services begin every two hours throughout the day.  Generally, people are praying round the clock here.

     This walkway covers a row of prayer chambers.  As I was seated on one of the benches, I began to hear in the distance singing coming from a older lady sitting a few benches away.  She was deeply engaged in her prayer time.  Her singing was soft, sweet, peaceful, and very soothing.  She was there singing for awhile.  It was beautiful to my ears.  

      There are meditation benches throughout the cemetery from bottom to top.  As I walked through it, I heard more soft singing and praying coming from every direction.

     There are several large chapel on the sight.  I attended a Saturday night prayer service and a Sunday morning worship service at the one pictured here.

     When I walked into the Saturday night prayer service,   lively singing filled the air.  People were seated (Korean style) on the floor (all shoes were removed and bagged [bags were provided] before entering).  Along with the singing, many many people of all ages were engaged in praying.  It was all in Korean, yet I felt right at home.

     The Sunday morning worship service was well attended.  I guess a thousand people were there.  Some sat on the floor in front.  Most sat on the pews.  The service followed the same format as Yoido Full Gospel Church.  Translation was not provided, but I sat and listened anyway.

     After the Sunday morning worship service, I ate lunch (cafeteria style) in the main cafeteria.

     Not long after I ate, I boarded a bus back to Yoido.