Sufjan Stevens songs on NPR

Here are some links to Sufjan Stevens songs. When you hit the link, the songs will be right there.

The Lord God Bird is a song that is not on any albums.

John Wayne Gacy Jr. is about a serial murderer in Illinois. This is from Stevens's album Illinois.

Casimir Pulaski Day is about a girl dying of bone cancer. It is a beautiful song, also from Illinois.

Adlai Stevenson is from a CD of outtakes that will be released in July.

I'm just listening to this one for the first time. It has a long title so I won't write it. It turns into "All creatures of Our God and King" at the end.

Chicago is from the Illinois album. Great song!

Dress looks nice on you and Sisters are from Seven Swans, an album which I haven't heard.

Detroit lift up your weary head is from the album Michigan.

Romulus is about Romulus, Michigan and Sufjan's grandmother. It's also a great song. It's sad like Casimir Pulaski Day.

Updates

Last weekend was our anniversary and most of you already know what we did on that day, but I'll say it again. We had planned on going on a day-long date after the morning service at the church, so I went to the morning choir practice and sang in the choir for the morning service... Scott did not show up for the morning service. It turns out that I forgot to turn the alarm back on before I left for choir practice and so, Scott slept right through the service. Anyway, he met me after the afternoon choir practice and after lunch, we travelled to Yeouido Park by subway. At Yeouido park we rented a bicycle built for two for an hour. That was really cool, we rode all along the river side and it is a good anniversary activity because it requires a bit of team work and cooridination. After that we rented a swan-shaped paddle boat and went out on to the river, that was also fun. When we finished that, we walked through the park, viewing the various attractions such as the barefoot rock garden and the statue of King Sejong. Then we exited the park and went out for dinner at a restaurant called 'Seven Springs', it is on the twentieth floor of a building in Yeouido. The food was great. So, all in all we had a great anniversary.

My birthday was the next day and I had to work from 9:30am to 9:00pm! So, it wasn't all that fun. However, Scott cheered me up when he secretly bought an icecream cake during his break and delivered it with his students to my last class of the day at 8:00pm. I had just begun writing sentences on the board for copying when the lights went out and I turned around to see the students and Scott with the cake and candles singing 'Happy Birthday'. Our classes combined to share the cake... my class was glad to get out of writing the sentences. It was a nice suprise (Thanks Scott).

Since then, the week has been fairly uneventful. I've been improving my swimming.. For the past month, due to sore knees I replaced two of my running days with swimming at the pool here. So on Wednesdays and Fridays I swim for about 30 - 40 minutes (depending on the crowds). I'm not a good swimmer but I have been getting better. My classes on those days end at 8:00pm and swimming starts at 8:30 for the public, so I go downstairs to the observation room and watch the swimming lessons, then I try to copy the lessons with myself when I swim at 8:30, so I think that I've been improving a bit.

Yesterday was Katie's 3rd birthday back home, they were at Robert and Carolyn's house for the event. I called but she didn't seem too interested in talking about her birthday... anyway... "Happy Birthday Kate!" We love you and we miss you! My family is away this weekend. They've all rented some cottages on PEI and are spending the weekend together... everyone, all of the original nine and their spouses and children, except for Scott and I because we're here in Korea.. so that's kind of a bummer. But I hope everyone has fun.

Next week on Wednesday June 28th, it's Beth El's birthday (Scott's brother Stephen's wife), so in case we don't blog again before then... "Happy Birthday Beth El!", we'll probably call and say it again, but there's an early one.

Well, so long everyone, this is getting pretty long and I have some work to do... I have to go on a run, then get groceries, then prepare a picnic, Scott and I are going on one today.

For our Dads...

This is a Father's Day post to say Happy Father's Day to our Dads whom we miss so much and who have done so much for us throughout the years and continue to do so much for us now. I have so many memories of my Dad from as far back as I can remember, I remember playing baseball in the backyard, winning all of the arm wrestles I had against him.. Even though he was much bigger (figure that one out... Someone wasn't really trying), bedtime cereal snacks and morning porridge, teaching me my times-tables and pushing me to do my best at everything I tried. I probably have thousands and thousands of memories, but I took a few of my favourites and put them into a poem for you Dad (bear in mind that I don't write poetry often.. That's Karilyn's forte, but you can find my attempt down below. Happy Father's Day Daddy... We love you!

Father'’s Day Memories

When I think of you Dad,
It'’s hard not to recall
My memories of you,
From when I was small.

I was always trying
To be tough like the boys.
A kitchen boxing lesson
Would fill me with joy.

In outside work,
I was in the way
But you let me help,
You didn'’t send me to play.

I wanted to help
I didn'’t want to go inside,
Because I knew
The end brought a wheelbarrow ride.

Dinner time
Was filled with glee
As it was always a good joke
To hide your tea.

Later on,
We would style your hair
And though it looked silly,
You didn'’t seem to care.

After devotions,
I often pretended to sleep
Knowing I'd be carried
If I didn'’t make a peep.

At night there was a value tale
Of right and wrong
Or if I was lucky
Maybe a Wilf Carter song.

I closed my eyes
You shut off the light
And kissing me
You said "“good-night...
..my little cherubim"

-For my Dad (A.K.A. Ian Allen MacDonald), from Deborah

Now Scott will contribute some of his memories of his Dad (A.K.A. Kenneth Millar Montgomery) and he will post one of his famous original compositions for him on the music link.

I have plenty of memories, but I always remember things in snatches and I can probably best express them with a colon: watching the news with your stomach as a pillow; waking us up early to take us to McDonald's; showing you that I had memorized my times tables on my little toy; taking me to computer camp; taking me to hockey games; you giving me my first trouncing at chess; making a maze in the snow with the snowblower; you taking me on the court with my bicycle, telling me to turn the wheel in the same direction that I was falling; driving us in the tractors; playing scrabble. The list wouldn't end if I didn't cut it off.

To both of our Fathers.. thank you for loving us but being strong for us when we needed it. Thanks for the snacks and for the whacks that kept us healthy in more ways than one. We love you very much!

David and Goliath

Richard B. Hays, in his book Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul argues that Paul's interpretation of the Old Testament is ecclesiocentric, that is, it talks about the Church. Therefore, many stories in the Old Testament are for the edification of the Church. One example that Hays gives is the way that Paul uses the story of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar as an allegory about the people of God (see Gal 4:22-31). I want to apply the eccliocentric method to the story of David and Goliath, which I think might help us to understand the destiny of the Church. It might point to a postmillenial eschatology, which is the belief that the Church will be triumphant on earth, that it will win people and nations for Christ and will have a large cultural impact, that the earth will be filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord as the oceans are full of water. After this happens, Jesus will return again.

In this story, Goliath the giant is the champion of the Philistines and he challenges the champion of the Israelites to a duel. If Goliath wins, the Israelites must serve the Philistines, and vice versa. The Israelites are all terrified and none of them will fight. Then David comes and says, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?" (1 Sam 17:26b) After a bit of trouble in the Israelite camp, David goes out with no armor against Goliath, looking quite weak and tiny compared to the giant. Yet wit his unexpected weapon, a sling and some stones, he slays Goliath and then cuts of his head with his own sword, whereupon the Israelites storm the Philistines and kill them all.

In this story David is a type of Christ, and the great enemy is Satan and death. Just as David defeated Goliath, so Christ has defeated Satan. He has cast him out of this earth (John 12:31ff; 14:30ff). We also know that Christ has defeated all enemies, for the last enemy to be defeated is death (1 Cor 15:26), which Christ has already defeated in the resurrection. Once Christ defeated the great enemy, then there was only a "mopping up"[1] victory to do, and now Christ's army, the Church, will conquer its enemies. In the New Testament, however, we fight a different battle and so our weapons are different: "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete" (2 Cor 10:4-6). Christ will be praised from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Ewwwwwww!

So, I killed my first cockroach... it was so incredibly gross! I was at the school, teaching an evening class of middle school girls; heading to the tape player to rewind the song we were about to listen to I noticed the cockroach walking toward my foot. Naturally, I screamed... and for those of you who know me well, did my "I'm scared of big bugs dance" (it's not really a dance, just a jumping up and down reaction to seeing it). The middle school girls all started screaming as well and standing on their chairs as we tried to decide who would kill the disgusting intruder. One of the girls had more courage than the rest of us and she kicked it across the room to the door, it flipped over on its back and so couldn't go anywhere.. so we left it upside down by the door for the rest of class. However, at the end of class I had to leave the room and so I took all of the courage I could muster, put the chair leg on top of the cockroach and pushed down. It made the biggest, most disgusting crunching sound I have ever heard come out of an insect.... oh.. and by the way, it took three tries to finally kill it! Over here these bugs are a part of life, but I have never seen one back home in my whole life and so I hope to soon return to that life and never see one again.

Pukhansan Mountain

On Tuesday it was Memorial Day in Korea so we had the day off. We decided to go to Pukhansan Mountain to see the fortress/castle and the wall (we never did end up seeing these things). It has been made into a national park and is quite large, so we ended up starting out on the wrong side of the park to see the wall and fortress. We did do some hiking of the large mountain though. We did not do the whole hike as it was very hot outside (30 degrees) and we did not come prepared with enough water. But we did have fun and had some adventure and took some beautiful pictures of the mountain.

"Adventure 1": Climbing down a steep and slippery rock, Scott almost falls but doesn't, however, he is seen by some Korean men who are quite shocked by his rather quick movement down the rock. The same men proceed to come up the rock to show me how to get down without killing myself... showing me ended up involving one of them holding my arms from above and another holding my feet from below... so I didn't do very well and it was all rather embarrassing, but they assured me "good job" when I was down.

"Adventure 2": Later on we were going down another rock face and my foot slipped on some loose pebbles. I fell and hit my tail bone on a rock ledge, then turned my body and continued sliding/rolling down the rock, grabbing frantically for any tree branches or shrubbery to stop myself. In case you're wondering, yes I did manage to stop myself and did not roll right off of the mountain as I originally feared I would. It supplied us with much laughter after I was finished groaning and supplied me with a rather painful bruise on my tail bone, another on the left side of my hip, another on my shoulder, another on my leg, a few on my ribs and some scrapes on my arm, stomach and rib cage area. I was and still am incredibly sore as well. But at least I didn't fall off of the mountain or break any bones.

If you are interested, pictures of this latest adventure are posted on our pictures of Korea link.

Deborah showcases her talent

We've posted a couple new songs over on our songs page, both of which feature Deborah on the violin.

A beautiful bride and a walk in the park

Yesterday we went to Cooper and Namju's wedding (a couple from the International English Worship). It was a beautiful ceremony combining elements of the Western ceremony and the Korean ceremony (Cooper is American, Namju is Korean). All of the officiating was done in both english and korean, Cooper read his vows in Korean (which is amazing... he doesn't speak or read Korean, he just practiced a lot) and Namju did her vows in english (she definitely had the advantage since she speaks both). The parents came in as a processional at the beginning and sat in chairs at the front.. the mothers bowed to eachother. After the exchanging of the rings there was a ceremonial bow to the parents, they first bowed to Namju's parents, then to Cooper's (Cooper did a full bow... right on to the floor). So, it was really beautiful and interesting. Namju was an extremely beautiful bride, she wore an amazing dress with a really long train. After the wedding they had the traditional korean wedding buffet (when you sign the register the person at the table gives you a ticket and you present it at the door of the dining hall, then enjoy an enormous buffet feast). Koreans certainly know how do put on a wedding feast... I have never seen so much food at a wedding. Cooper and Namju changed clothes into the traditional Korean Hanboks for the reception. Then after the reception there was a post reception reception (for toasts and so on.... more food). It was quite an amazing wedding.. I consumed about enough food for three days, but it was a beautiful day (outdoors as well, as it was 30 degrees and sunny). I took quite a few pictures, they are on the page already if you would like to take a look.

After the second reception at about 5:30pm, we went to a park and walked around for awhile, it was really nice.. those pictures are there as well... enjoy.

Yay!

This is just a short note to let everyone concerned know that we have our plane tickets booked now. We had to upgrade our tickets to get on the flight, but now we're on it! So we will leave Korea 8:55pm Sunday August 27th, get to Toronto 8:50pm Sunday August 27th, then we have to spend the night in Toronto and our flight to Halifax leaves at 7:05am Monday August 28th and arrives in Halifax at 10:10am Monday August 28th! So, three more months and we'll see you then!