After I left home on August 1, the first city I arrived in was Almaty. In fact, I planned to use Almaty as a base to travel to and from other places, six times in total on this trip. From this city, I traveled to Delhi, India, on August 4, and returned to Almaty on August 9. I stayed at Yong S Kim's home for a couple of days before attending the Joseph Summit. On August 15, I traveled to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by land to attend the Dutch Nature board meeting. On August 17, I returned to Almaty by land again, and I stayed at a private condominium for a few nights before I left for Bilbao, Spain, to take a road trip with Kristin until August 31. Again, I returned to Almaty to begin the SfK BAM Field Trip with my colleagues. After the trip ended in Bishkek on September 11, I planned to travel by land again back to Almaty to fly to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for a few days. On September 15, I flew back to Almaty this time to fly to Incheon, Korea. On September 28, I planned to return to Almaty again to travel back home on September 29.
So, I will talk about Almaty more later, but I wanted to share a few stories about the largest city of Kazakhstan, the largest country in Central Asia. Almaty used to be the capital city of this nation. Almaty's original name of Alma-ata, means grandfather of apple. They believe the apple originated from this region, and there were some legends about the name of this city, but I will talk about it later. I walked on the city streets, and they were well paved and shaded.
It was not too difficult to find Korean business signs. Some were not open so I could not tell what they do, but others were open for business.
In my second visit, I stayed at Yong S Kim's place, but our planned BAM Field Trip members were going to stay at the Kim's house as well as Dong K Lee's house right next to the Kim's house. It was an amazing setup for us to use. These two couples were very pleasant to fellowship with and hospitable to me.
On Sunday, I went to worship at one of the Korean churches in Almaty, and it was shepherded by a Methodist pastor. The map in the back of the pulpit was showing the countries in South Asia and Central Asia. I was thinking that God was showing the need for the gospel in the region. I called the vertical corridor the Gospel Corridor in the region, from India to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. For lunch, we ate chicken-ginseng soup or Sam-Gye-Tang that people eat on the hot summer Bok-days.
I met with Mr. Tae S Park who used to serve in Uzbekistan and is serving now in Kazakhstan through business. We met separately again later and exchanged God's plans for business.
While I was traveling, the 16-week long SfK BMT 2025 began on August 9. I attended this first training session in Almaty.
As I was walking around, I found a Korean convenience store, called CU, at a small urban college. Inside, the largest section was filled with a variety of Korean ramyun, and there was a sizable place where people could cook and eat.
I also ran into a Korean restaurant together with a small Korean market, called Hanok. But the Almaty residents did not recognize this place, and guessed that it could be owned and operated by the former Goyo-ins.
At another place, I saw a monument with young children riding horses. This place was called the Republic Square, symbolizing the hope they have in children.
One of the eateries you should try in Almaty was Dodo Pizza, but I never had a chance to try it.
Here and there, I tried different eating places, and most of them were pretty good and satisfactory.
More to come on Almaty. - Jeffrey
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