Gospel In Jeju Island
Jeju
Island's air was polluted when the wind blew toward it from China but clean when its
direction
reversed. Kristin and I spent two weeks together, handing out her Gospel tracts that she
had translated into Korean, checking out the English services at the local churches,
and visiting the Teddy Bear Museum, which her child alters loved. I then moved
Kristin into an apartment on the southern shore of Jeju Island - as far
away from China as possible - where she could stay and breathe relatively clean air until I
finished the next semester in China, and then flew to China to teach it.
We had had no incident in Jeju Island when handing out Gospel tracts together, but when she - a young woman - handed them out by herself, some locals expressed displeasure. A man at a café threw the Gospel tract back in her face, began yelling at her, and had to be restrained by the café's manager. A middle-aged woman at a bus stop read the Gospel tract that Kristin handed her, said something to her in Korean, and then tried to hold down her arm to prevent her from handing out the Gospel tracts to other people waiting at the bus stop. Kristin said that she has never met people who hate the Gospel as much as those people in Jeju Island, and didn't want to stay there anymore. She said the air pollution also wasn't all that much better than in China because the wind blew in from China on most days, that she misses me and wants to be closer to me, and asked me to fly her back to China.
I had been looking at teaching opportunities in USA. A small Christian university in a very small town in the rural Midwest offered to fly me in from China for on-campus interviews after my semester in China ends. I mentioned this to Kristin, told her that we are out of options in Asia and that a tight-knit Christian community around a Christian university in a small town may be the supportive Christian environment that she needs. And if that school doesn't work out, we could still go and see if the churches or the deliverance ministries in America can help her. In any case, staying in Asia was no longer an option as her body simply does not tolerate the toxic air pollution that China spews out.
She said she will return to USA with me if I flew her back to China immediately, so I flew her to another Chinese city that is close to me, met her there, and put her in an Airbnb. The air pollution that blanketed China, including that city was horrendous for the three weeks that she stayed, so I made her stay inside the entire time, and commuted there on weekends to buy and bring groceries to her. The day after my semester ended, I picked her up and we flew to America.