Lancaster and Philadelphia, PA (August 2023)

 After we left Beavercreek, OH, we drove to Lancaster, PA. We stopped over at the Amish Village. The Amish are a Christian sect that spun off from the Mennonites to be more conservative. They do not use the electricity and do not drive vehicles. Children's education stops at the 8th grade and there are hundreds of single room schools taught by an 8th grade teacher. They still ride a buggy led by a horse. There are 261,000 Amish population mainly in Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Lancaster PA is the center place of the Amish people with approximately 43,000 population. All children are allowed to decide if they want to remain Amish or to become "English" or non-Amish when they reach 16 years of age. We learned that 90% of them choose to stay Amish, thus doubling their population every 20 years. It was an amazing statistic. 

We checked in at Sonesta ES Suites Hotel in Malvern, PA. It was a suite hotel with a mini kitchen. Kristin has continued walking and stretching at a swimming pool. It was a good news that her hip pain has not gotten worse since we started our travel. We suspected that it was because she did not have to do the kitchen work.

In the evening, we met up with Pastor Steve Park and his wife Mona at a dim sum place in a nearby town. We had a wonderful time of reunion and shared views on life after active work life. 

The following day, we drove back to Lancaster PA to watch a Christian musical, namely Moses, at Sight and Sound. This is the second largest musical theater in the U.S. and its 2,000 seats are pretty much sold out at every show. It was my fifth production to watch at the same place. The previous ones I watched included Jonah, Psalms of David, Joseph, and Noah.

In the evening, we went to Daniel Kim's house for dinner in the City of Philadelphia. Daniel is a professor at Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. He attends Jubilee Presbyterian Church where Pastor Steve is shepherding. He has chosen to take part in developing and running English version of Entrepreneurship Module under SfK MB Academy's BMT. It was a great encouragement to serve together with someone like him.

We shall return to Philadelphia to leave our minivan TS Camper at Ji Bae's house before we leave for Sofia Bulgaria out of Newark International Airport after our visit to New Jersey. But, for now, we said good-bye to head to New Jersey. - Jeffrey